Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost Year B 2009

24 Pentecost B 09
November 15, 2009

1 Samuel 1:4-20
4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; 5 but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. 6 Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?" 9 After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the LORD. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly. 11 She made this vow: "O LORD of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head." 12 As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. 14 So Eli said to her, "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine." 15 But Hannah answered, "No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. 16 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time." 17 Then Eli answered, "Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him." 18 And she said, "Let your servant find favor in your sight." Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. 19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. 20 In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, "I have asked him of the LORD."

1 Samuel 2:1-10
1 Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory. 2 "There is no Holy One like the LORD, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 3 Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. 4 The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. 5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. 6 The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. 7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. 8 He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them he has set the world. 9 "He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail. 10 The LORD! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed."

Hebrews 10:11-25
11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God," 13 and since then has been waiting "until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet." 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds," 17 he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Mark 13:1-8
1 As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!" 2 Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down." 3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?" 5 Then Jesus began to say to them, "Beware that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.“

Approaching the Throne

There’s a lot of wars and rumors of wars going on today, friends. And I’m particularly susceptible to them, I can tell you. My wife calls me her little dark cloud. I hear about things, and I let them get to me. I worry and worry. And sometimes I wonder how it’s all going to turn out. I was worrying about the recession three years before it happened. I was worrying about worship attendance dropping three years before it happened. I was worrying about poor people in our county when the news-people were all saying the economy was fine. I’ve been worrying about the spiritual state of people in North America for the last seventeen years and I haven’t seen a great deal of reason to stop.

I worry about consumerism. Consumerism is an idol-worshipping religion, you know, a church so widespread and so, well, consuming, that most people don’t even know they belong to it. The god of consumerism is the consumer. Sometimes that’s me and sometimes that’s the other guy, but in the religion of consumerism everyone is a consumer, a member of the church of consumerism, and the only reason anyone produces anything, any good or service or work of art or anything, well, it’s just to make more money to spend on consuming things. Consumerism isn’t about having stuff, it’s about shopping for stuff. Consumerism isn’t about having things, it’s about consuming things, so it requires a constant resupply. Consumerism isn’t about making people happy. It’s about keeping people unhappy enough that they keep consuming.

Consumerism eats everything. It has eaten art, it has eaten philosophy, it has eaten politics, it has eaten ethics, and it’s well on the way to eating faith.

So I feel for old Hannah this morning, friends. There she is in a very troubled Israel. Enemies amassing all around them, lots of corruption among the priesthood of the various temples, and if that wasn’t enough, she’s barren.

I think about her wedding day to Elkanah, all the bridesmaids making bawdy jokes, the groomsmen kidding the groom, everyone asking them how soon they’ll have children. Off they go into their married life, and try and try and try, but no children, no pregnancy. I can imagine her friends giving her all kinds of advice. “Sleep with him when the moon is full. Sleep with him as often as possible. Drink this tea, eat this herb.” Nothing working. I think about the household. It was normal in those days for there to be other wives, and there’s that evil rival, that Penninah, oooh, she must have been hard to live with. She with all the kids, fertile as a rabbit, making snide comments all the time. Now you know that wasn’t a happy home.

Hannah, I know how you feel. I know what it is to look ridiculous, to dream of something you just can’t see happening, to feel worthless and impotent and unimportant.

It’s how I feel about the whole church on earth. I hear people listing all the reasons the Christian faith is exclusive and violent and narrow-minded and hypocritical. I see preachers on TV that make me wince in embarrassment for the Lord I love so much. I hear about the overall decline in religion throughout this country and the whole of the Western world.

What are we going to do, Hannah?

One of my professors from Union Seminary in New York was also the senior pastor at Riverside Church in Harlem. His name was James Forbes and he titled his sermon on this text “Hannah Rose.”

You can find those words in verse 9 of chapter one in the first book of Samuel. The whole verse reads:

“After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the LORD.”

What did Hannah do? “Hannah rose, and presented herself before the LORD.”

And when she knelt before the temple, Hannah wept bitterly. I know, Hannah, I know. I know very well what it is to weep bitterly. I lay in my bed at night and think about how lost I am, how lost God’s people are, how sick this insane world sometimes makes me, and I weep bitterly.

But okay, Hannah. Okay. You prayed to the Lord in your heart of hearts, so deep within yourself you didn’t even make a sound. Your lips moved as you prayed and old Eli, probably the last of the faithful priests of Israel, thought you were drunk. And after you prayed, old Eli came in agreement with your prayer, and off you went.

I remember a day not long after I began at Philippi when I still didn’t know many people and I was very unsure I really should be a pastor at all. This was just about four years ago. I remember that day getting a directory of the church members and going into the sanctuary and getting down on my knees in the aisle facing the cross and going through that directory one by one and praying for everyone in there and everyone else I could think of. It wasn’t long after that things started to change.

Nothing changed, but everything changed. That’s the way it was for you too, wasn’t it, Hannah? You went home, no more weeping, and joined in the eating and drinking. “And her countenance was sad no longer.”

Hmmm. Even before God did a thing, even before your prayers were answered, your countenance was sad no longer.

We have a Lord, Jesus Christ, who spent his earthly life directly confronting the deepest evil in the hearts of humankind. He sought it out, he flushed it out of hiding, and he waved it like a banner in the eyes of everyone. His life and teachings and healings and exorcisms, and above all his death and resurrection, are a living testament to us not only of our disconnection from God, the only real problem challenging us, but that God has indeed forgiven us for that disconnection, and invites us to rise and present ourselves before him.

A lot of Christians get the forgiveness part, and that feels good, I know. It’s the rising-and-presenting-ourselves-before-him part that’s hard to get. But “Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord.”

And Hebrews says, “let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”

There’s an old story about the church ladies who met for tea. Millie said to Palmyra, “We must pray for Patricia.” And Palmyra said, “Surely it’s not as bad as that?”

All too often, rising and presenting ourselves before the LORD, offering up everything we have and crying out to him for healing and transformation, is the sort of thing we do only after we’ve gone out and beaten up our rival with a baseball bat, burned down our husband’s house and filed a lawsuit against our obstetrician. Only after all those things don’t work, do we think, “Well, there’s nothing left to do but pray.”

But of course the things we turn to in order to make ourselves feel better might be a great deal more powerful than that. Great buildings, great nations, great corporations, great organizations are built on the desires of people to solve some problem, to address some wrong, to make all those scary things go away. We build great machines that can think faster than we can, that can do microsurgery at the cellular level, we train thousands of soldiers in the art of mass murder, we build multi-billion-dollar planes that can travel faster than sound and can vaporize whole cities. We build sanctuaries that soar into the sky and fill them with thousands of arm-waving believers. And never do we think, will this last? Can we really count on this?

I went to a lovely New Year’s Eve party, formal you know, catered you know, stately mansion on the water you know, beautiful people with sparkling glasses and sparkling diamonds, and I remember one woman saying with a sad kind of tone, “I wonder if the Romans partied like this.”

They’re gone, aren’t they? They with their undefeatable armies and their stately palaces, they with their chariots and mountains of wealth. Did they really think it was going to last? Did they really think what they had could be counted on in the long run?

Every day is the end of a world and the beginning of a new one. There will come a day when no church building stands on this spot, a day when it might very well be covered with salt water. There will come a day when our national monuments will be crumbling ruins, when our great machines rust under the ground, when our family names have been forgotten for generations. But God will still be there, and God’s word will still be there, and someone somewhere will be reading Jesus’ words, in some language none of us would recognize, “Do you see these great buildings?”

And someone somewhere will remember that Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord, and the prophet Samuel was his answer. And while they are remembering, will they remember the people that lived in the early twenty-first century in America? Certainly they won’t remember me or you, but maybe, just maybe they will remember us, the church, the people of God? Will they remember that we turned from the idols of our day and presented ourselves to the Lord, or will they list us with the ones that were led astray? Will they remember that we presented ourselves to the Lord, and will they remember how he answered us and turned the tide of history? Or will they remember that we never even asked?

Amen.