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"Hannah
in the House of Prayer"
I Samuel 1:1-17, Luke 1:46-55
Introduction
Have you ever noticed how songs can
have an emotional attachment for you? Maybe there is a certain song that
catches you because it is connected with falling in love, or harking
back to a happy time or an eventful time in your life. I was at a quiz
night recently amongst a lot of 30 to 40 somethings when a whole series
of songs from the seventies were played - many of them took me
straight back to my teenage years travelling the bus to and from school.
But there are also a group of songs from about 10 years later that evoke
a profound sadness in me whenever I hear them. When I stopped and
thought about it one time I realised they were from tapes that we played
regularly during a period of my life when I was trying to become
pregnant but couldn't. The whole of my life at that time was clouded by
an anxiety and frustration, and those feelings are brought back by
certain songs and linger even now. I would have found it hard then to
explain that longing deep inside, and would find it even harder now with
three children and hindsight!
In fact sometimes I feel like the
mother in a cartoon I once saw: she's in the office of a psychologist
who is saying: "Let's see, You spend fifty percent of your energy
on your job, fifty percent on your husband and fifty percent on your
children. I think I see your problem."
So life doesn't quite happen as we
plan it does it? I had planned my pregnancy perfectly to suit my
seminary program of study and semester breaks but instead it came nearly
three years later, out of the blue. Life has a way of reminding us of
our lack of control, our frailty. And it is interesting to find this
same human frailty and disappointment in our biblical stories too.
The
surprisingly humble beginnings of monarchy in Israel
In the Old Testament the beginning
of Samuel begins a new chapter in the life of Israel - it is setting
the scene for the advent of the monarchy and all that that entailed. So
it might surprise you to see how this great chapter of Israel's history
begins: with a story that speaks of despair and fragility. I guess I was
a bit tentative about sharing some of my own private, personal story
with you today. But that is exactly the sort of story we have in I
Samuel 1 - one woman's private struggle exposed in all its pain and
despair. Politics, armies and kingdoms are far removed as we meet a sad,
frustrated woman named Hannah. A woman who also weeps silently for a
longed for child who will not appear, even after years of trying. And
how much more painful it would have been for Hannah than for a 23 year
old studying in theological college - Hannah belonged to a world and
culture that tied her identity to childbearing, or even more
specifically to her ability to be the mother of a son. There were no
other career options. She was the laughingstock of her community: made
to accept the ridicule of her husband's other wife and forced by the
culture of the day to accept the responsibility of her childlessness and
the social disgrace of that status.
But the first note of hope that
enters this story is her husband Elkanah's speech to her. Given the
prevailing culture it is somewhat surprising to hear him affirming her
identity apart from childbearing. "Why is your heart sad?" he
says to her. "Am I not more to you than ten sons?" Since in
that culture nothing is more valuable than a son, and 10 sons 10 times
more valuable than that, Elkanah's words to Hannah tell her that he
loves her and she has value to him even if she cannot achieve
motherhood. This may well make him the first male feminist in the
bible(!) since feminism can be encapsulated in a word - the
affirmation of the personhood of women.
But at that point in the story she
is unable to answer him and unable to recognise her own value - her
longing is so deep that his words held no comfort.
This was a bereft family system: a
deeply needy wife, a gloating second wife and a husband helpless to
change the situation. Something needed to break into the story. And this
is what makes the next words so important. The turning point came when
Hannah acted herself - when Hannah rose and presented herself to the
Lord. She entered the temple and prayed - She brought her
concerns directly to God.
Hannah
in the House of Prayer
Now the Priest Eli was definitely
not a feminist. He was hardly even a man of understanding - I have a
book in my office entitled "Basic pastoral care and
counselling". It strikes me that Eli doesn't even have a basic
concern for this woman in his church. Where Elkanah recognised his wife
as a person in her own right, Eli doesn't even seem to expect a woman to
have a spiritual dimension. His only explanation for this distressed
woman at the altar was that she was under the influence of alcohol. This
is a classic case of prejudice - what Eli expected or didn't expect
coloured what he saw. One commentary put it this way: "difficult as
it is to grasp someone else's pain, it is easy to judge another's
behaviour."
But Hannah stood up for herself. She
spoke respectfully to Eli, but she made an important political and
social statement. In effect she asked for the empathy that we all should
use in our relationships with others - there is a common saying
"Do not criticise a person until you have walked a mile in their
shoes". And Eli to his credit accepted her explanation and affirmed
her prayer.
And before we judge Eli
too harshly we should recognise that perhaps he did have some excuse for
not expecting to see a woman in prayer: Because until that time there
had been no record of private prayer in the temple - the "house of
the Lord" was a place for animal sacrifice, for public liturgy
marked by high ritual and incense, for priests to stand in the place of
ordinary people. Any speech in the place of worship until that time had
been public, representative, communal. Hannah as an individual in prayer
speaking "in her heart" was acting audaciously for her time.
She had risen and entered the temple on her own - no sacrifice, no
priest to intercede, no liturgical convention: her deep need had caused
her to bring her own request to her God.
She offered a new way of worship
which has continued until this day. And in doing so she has become a
heroine of faith as significant as any other biblical hero. In her
actions she proclaimed the truth that the Lord of History who could
command armies and bring liberation to slaves was also available to
communicate with the still small voice. By pouring out her soul before
the Lord she was showing her faith that the one who led out warriors and
travelled in columns of fire and smoke was also the one waiting to hear
the voice of a single sorrowing woman. She proclaimed long before Jesus
did that the intention for the place of worship was that it be a house
of prayer for ALL peoples: great and humble, religious and
ordinary, men and women. And long before Jesus her action
challenged the hierarchy of the social and religious order. In fact in
Judaism she was the impetus for rabbis to determine whether sacrifice
should be replaced altogether with the "prayer of the heart".
And in the end Eli's word of
blessing, of peace, is the word she needs to hear. On the strength of it
she was able to return to her family to eat, to drink, and to interact
normally. After her time in the temple her depression had lifted. A new
element has entered the story. Because of her submission to God and the
benediction of the representative of God she is able to trust that all
things will work together for good. She has new hope for the future.
Divine
justice that reverses human expectation
Hannah's story becomes one of the
many biblical stories where divine action reverses human expectation.
She herself is changed in at least two ways:
Firstly,
Hannah the petitioner becomes Hannah the benefactor - a mother who is
prepared to give her child back to God. The Hebrew author gives this
part of the story a wonderful reciprocity in the choice of the words
used: Hannah will lend Samuel to God because God lent his
ear to her request and granted her petition.
And secondly,
Hannah the silent weeping woman becomes Hannah the exultant songwriter,
freed from her burden of despair and able to praise God out loud.
These changes are possible because
God hears her cry and remembers her need. For God to remember in the
biblical witness is to see human need and to act on it. Hannah's story,
then, is a microcosm of Israel's story - a people bowed down in
despair, calling on God to save, and then exultantly celebrating the
saving grace of Yahweh in prayer and song, in festival and worship.
Because of God Hannah and her people are given life and voice. And this
story at the beginning of the books of the Kings of Israel also serves
as a warning to the arrogance of the monarchy. God is the one who
closes wombs, who remembers, who answers prayers, who offers new hope. God
is the one who gives voice to the voiceless, and hope to the hopeless. God
is the one who enables kingdoms to rise and fall. God is the one
who is to be worshipped.
And so the story ends with Hannah
bursting into a prayer-song - a public prayer said aloud for the whole
community to hear, and in which the whole community can participate.
Private prayer spoken in the heart has its place, but celebration of
God's goodness in the public arena is also vital for the faith
community.
A
prayer-song for all ages
Hannah's prayer was taken up by
another woman misunderstood by men but blessed by God: earlier in
today's service we heard the words of the Magnificat of Mary of Nazareth
that were modelled on Hannah's prayer. The songs of both women proclaim
a vision of the world where divine justice reverses human expectation.
The arrogant are humbled and the mighty fall, but the weak are
strengthened, the hungry fed, the disempowered gain a place of honour.
One woman's pain and prayer has been
transformed into a song of hope for the whole world - a song that
announces God will fully hear the voice of the marginalised, and will
act to bring about justice. Through her song Hannah ties her personal
experience with the history of her people on the way to a messianic age
- a time which will be free from domination and violence. It seems
most appropriate that generations later Mary took up these words and
re-envisaged the world Hannah sang into being.
Today and in the next few weeks I
want to lift up some biblical women and be challenged by their stories
and their faith. We have seen today that Hannah's story is an important
one for us to read and remember because it affirms the personhood of
women as having value in God's eyes. It introduced the idea of prayer of
the heart - private and personal worship that has great validity in
the house of God. And it speaks of a God who hears the cries of our
hearts, and who reverses our expectations to bring new hope. It ends
with a vision of a new world where the humble are lifted up and given
new dignity. It leaps forward across the generations to the story of
Jesus: the one who came to show us God's face and character, who shared
all our sorrows and joys, and who offers life and the voice of dignity
to all people. May this story inspire us afresh today.
The Magnificat which echoes Hannah's
song has been one of the most inspirational for religious composers -
over a thousand different compositions have been penned and performed.
We are going to sing one version of it now - "Tell out my
soul".
Rev. Jeanette Mathews
29/09/02
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