1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20; 2:1-10 on October 13th, 2024
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
Each Sunday here during worship, we go through the story of the Bible kind of a chunk at a time as one big narrative. We started the beginning with the Old Testament and go through the story of the Israelite people. Around Advent, we switched to the prophets and then one of the gospels at Christmas time continuing with that gospel through Easter. After that, we moved to Acts and Paul's letters. It is a lot to cover in a year so we end up skipping a fair amount, like we do today.
Last week, we were at Mount Sinai with the Golden Calf. Now, we have jumped over six books to arrive here at first Samuel. To summarize, all that has happened, after the incident of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32, Israel continued its journey to the Promised Land. God reestablished the covenant with them and they constructed the tabernacle, a portable sanctuary. In Leviticus, God gave detailed laws about worship and holiness. Numbers recounts Israelite's 40 years in the wilderness marked by rebellion and wandering in God's ongoing provision. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives a farewell speech reminding Israel of God's law and preparing them to intercain in. Moses dies and Joshua leads the people across the Jordan River. They conquer much of Canaan but a few enemies remain. The book of Judges then follows describing a turbulent period where Israel repeatedly falls into sin. It is oppressed by neighboring nations and is delivered by eccentric judges like Deborah and Gideon and Samson. As Judges' inns, Israel has no defined ruler and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. God still worked through it all in unexpected ways through unexpected people.
Today's story turns the page on all that craziness. As we step into first Samuel, we don't yet have any kings but Hannah plays an important role in getting us there. Hannah is a woman with no children. This seems to be a common theme through the Bible. Most notably we heard a few weeks ago about Abraham and Sarah to whom God promised many descendants. As many as the stars, they were childless well into their 90s. And God almost unexpectedly comes through.
In the first part of our story today, Hannah prays to God for a child. Not just prays but prays and cries and kind of makes a scene in the temple. She is not afraid to tell God exactly what she wants. God answers her prayer. You are probably aware that this is not always the case. There is no simple formula where if we want something bad enough and we pray for it, hard enough that God will give it. We know this all too well, especially when it comes to children and birth. Sometimes, despite our deepest prayer's life doesn't come the way we hope. And the same goes for other prayers, prayers for healing, for safety, for diverting hurricanes or a miracle that just doesn't come. It's hard when our prayers seem unanswered and we're left wondering why God didn't work in the way that we asked. I'm really thick books written about that topic. So I'm not going to solve that here.
But in this case, God does answer Hannah. A mother's prayer results in an unexpected beginning to kingship. She gives birth to Samuel, who is both Israel's last judge and first prophet. He holds a unique role in Israel's history, bridging the gap between the chaos of judges and the relative stability, but still with flaws of the monarchy. And Hannah's response to God answering her prayer is to pray again. And while she doesn't really say thank you to God in this prayer, she does something more. She talks about God's power to reverse situations, to turn things upside down in unexpected ways.
Hannah's song becomes the anthem for anyone who finds themselves in despair and hopelessness. She sings on behalf of the feeble, the hungry, the bear in the poor, the low, the needy. God raises up the poor from the dust. God lifts the needy from the ashy to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the lords and on them God has set the world. God reverses human situations of status, circumstances, and power.
And Hannah's prayer is similar to Mary's song in Luke. After Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel and told that she will be the one to bear the messiah, she responds by praising the God who lifts up and brings down, who sends the rich, sheway empty and fills those who are hungry. It is the same theme of unexpected reversal that we see in Hannah's prayer.
And I guess that's good news in theory. It sounds nice that sad people become happy and stuff like that. But what about the well fed? Becoming hungry. What about those who have worked extra hard in their lives and are sitting comfortably at the top? What about we who have been conditioned with a might, makes, right mentality that we prevail by strength and power? Do we like that trade off? I guess there's no. Here is how broken we are. We know that without God we are nothing. And yet, and yet we still somehow convince ourselves all the time that we are in control, that we can do it, that we are independent and we are strong by our own might, we will prevail.
But what Hannah reminds us of today is not by might does one prevail but by the power of God. And that power is seen in the unexpected. It is seen in doing the opposite of what the world does. God turns things upside down in unexpected ways. We see it in Hannah's prayer. We see it in Mary's song. We see it in Jesus' cross. For knocked by might does one prevail. God turns things upside down in unexpected ways.
To the world, the cross is the symbol of death and despair. Show a power over anyone who dared to step out of line. To the world, every time you looked at a cross, you saw fear and control and death. And what has more power than death? Well, God has more power than death. God turned the cross into a symbol of comfort and relationship and hope and life. It is power over anything that would take us away. And now every time we look at the cross, we see life and grace. That is the unexpected way of God.
God didn't come with power, with guns ablaze and bukuza money. God came in humility and a lowly prophet and served us to the least of these. And the world responded by saying, that is not how we do things around here. And took Jesus to the cross. It is its own place of ultimate power and might. But not by might does one prevail. God raised Jesus from death to life to show ultimate power, to show ultimate life, love and grace to a world that seems to have a lot of upside down ways.
And even when our prayers seem unanswered, we lift them to God because God answers in ways beyond what we can see. God may not always give us what we ask for, but God always does give life. In Hannah's case, her bareness turned to fruitfulness. In Mary's case, her lowliness became blessedness. God answers with hope, even in our hopelessness. God transforms despair into joy and ultimately through the cross, God answers us all with the promise of resurrection, life where there was once only death.
So by singing this prayer, we join a community of people throughout history who have seen despair only to be lifted by God. And now, as people of the resurrection, it is the prayer that we sing. It's the promise to which we cling, not by might does one prevail. We prevail because God turns things upside down. Barrenist of fullness, cross to empty tomb, death to life. Life for us all. Amen.