Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-december-18
I Samuel 2:1b-10
Hannah’s Prayer
1Then Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
in the Lord my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.
2 “There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
3 “Do not keep talking so proudly
or let your mouth speak such arrogance,
for the Lord is a God who knows,
and by him deeds are weighed.
4 “The bows of the warriors are broken,
but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
5 Those who were full hire themselves out for food,
but those who were hungry are hungry no more.
She who was barren has borne seven children,
but she who has had many sons pines away.
6 “The Lord brings death and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave and raises up.
7 The Lord sends poverty and wealth;
he humbles and he exalts.
8 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes
and has them inherit a throne of honor.
“For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s;
on them he has set the world.
9 He will guard the feet of his faithful servants,
but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.
“It is not by strength that one prevails;
10 those who oppose the Lord will be broken.
The Most High will thunder from heaven;
the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
“He will give strength to his king
and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
OK, I know — it’s a week before Christmas. So why are we basing our Reflection on a reading from the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament? Aren’t we supposed to be thinking about the gospel stories on the birth of Jesus? Yes, but this passage, which is known as ‘Hannah’s Prayer,’ has a lot in common with one of the most commonly read passages for the season – a passage that will be the basis of tomorrow’s Reflection.
It’s the passage from the first chapter of Luke in which Mary interprets the meaning of the events that are unfolding around her — the coming birth of the child who has been announced to her by an Angel. That passage in Luke is traditionally known as “the Magnificat,” because it starts with that word in the Latin version of the Bible. But modern readers of the Bible are more likely to know it as “Mary’s Song.” In it, Mary prophesies that God is bringing salvation into the world and turning the established order upside down, casting down the wealthy and powerful and raising up the weak and the lowly. All of this, Mary says, will be accomplished through the child she will soon bear.
So why are we talking about a passage from first Samuel? It’s because today’s passage, ‘Hannah’s Prayer,’ shares a surprising number of themes with Mary’s Song, even though the two prophesies are about a thousand years apart.
Hannah was one of two wives of a man named Elkanah. The other wife had children, but Hannah had none. That was a source of great suffering for Hannah, especially since her husband’s other wife tormented her constantly about her lack of offspring – her “barren-ness.” Hannah prayed continually for a child, especially on the annual visits they made to the shrine at Shiloh, which was the most important shrine in the land.
Finally, Hannah’s prayers were granted, and she gave birth to a son who would grow up to be the prophet Samuel. In gratitude for the birth of this child, Hannah dedicated him to the service of the Lord, and took him to be raised at the shrine as a kind of boarding school. The passage that we’re reading and thinking about today is the prayer of Hannah as she brings Samuel to the shrine to begin his education and his career of religious service.
As we said, Hannah’s prayer shares many of the same themes with Mary’s Song. Both are joyful prayers of praise and thanks. Both acknowledge the strength and power of the living God. And both say that God is lifting up the weak and the poor and casting down the rich and the proud.
These parallels are interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, we tend to think that God somehow changed from a fierce and angry God of judgment in Old Testament times into a gentle and compassionate God in the New Testament. But the similarity between the words inspired in these two women a thousand years apart points to the fact that in spite of the way he was portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures, God’s character did not change during that period. The God who cared about lifting up the poor and the needy in Mary’s time was just as concerned about them in Hannah’s day.
(It’s important to remember that the accounts of brutal warfare in the historical books of the Old Testament were written hundreds of years after the events they describe. So those accounts need to be understood as theological interpretations by the Hebrews of their history. For instance, it seems highly questionable that the God who died for humankind ever ordered the Jews to kill every man, woman and child in a given town. But it’s not so surprising that the Jews might explain away atrocities committed by their armies in the past by claiming that ‘God told them to do it.’)
The prophet Samuel played a critical role in the history of God’s people. Samuel was born in a time of brutal chaos, when bands of armed criminals roamed the land, killing and stealing. Even the leading priests of the time were thugs, practicing extortion and sexually exploiting the women who served at the shrine at Shiloh. But Samuel would become the leading voice for God in a period when a stable society was established and the country embarked upon a new age of peace and prosperity.
It seems to me that Samuel could be regarded as a kind of forerunner of what Jesus would later do – coming into a chaotic world and operating as God’s agent in leading the establishment of a new world order. Samuel’s life and career, of course, were just a kind of a small-scale preview of what Jesus would do for the whole world. But it’s hard to ignore the parallels, especially when you compare the prophesies uttered a millennium apart by Hannah and Mary — two women reflecting on the birth of their extraordinary sons.
Jesus said he came to fulfill the law that defined his people. And they understood ‘the law’ to represent the whole history of their people’s relationship with God. So this passage points forward from a millennium in the past to the way Jesus would fulfill that relationship and lift it to a whole new level when he was born into history in first-century Palestine.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for your patient and consistent work in calling a people to yourself and shaping and teaching that people ever since. As the people of the new covenant established in Jesus, empower us to play a role in lifting up the poor and the lowly, feeding the hungry and defending the weak, just as you have done since the dawn of time. Amen.
Grace and peace,
Henry
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