Mothering God, continue to surprise us and breathe your spirit freshly upon us as your family, that renewed in faith, we may know your wisdom through this story in the Bible. Amen.
OT Reading: “Hannah Pours Out Her Heart to God & Hannah’s Prayer”
1 Samuel 1:4-20; 2:1-10 (NRSV)
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.”
Hannah’s Prayer
2 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.”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to all of us. Thanks be to God!
Sermon: “Celebrate with Hannah!” Rev. Kim Vidal
Today is Mother’s Day! It seems like such a small token to honour those who have nurtured us throughout our lives. There are lots of wonderful mothers: mothers in traditional families, mothers in special circumstances, single mothers, step mothers, pet mothers, religious mothers, mothers who open their homes and hearts to anyone needing a friend. Not every woman is a mother by standard definition - that a mother is a woman who gave birth to a child. But you can call someone your mother if she brings you up as if you were her child. Can someone be a mother without bearing a child? Absolutely! You might consider yourself a surrogate mother, a caregiver, an aunt, a sister or a single woman – you are a mother in your own rights and everyone here has a mother. Mothers deserve our honour today.
And here is a story of a mother. We meet her for the first time in the book of Samuel. She is a woman of prayer and of great faith. Her name is Hannah which means “grace”. Her husband’s name is Elkanah meaning the zeal of God. He is wealthy, well-known in the community, a man who knows his roots. There are some aspects of Hannah’s story that we don’t find easy to relate with. She was in a polygamous marriage and she was barren – for a certain period of time. In those days, polygamy was very much part of the culture. Elkanah had a second wife named Peninnah meaning “fertile” who bore him sons and daughters. Elkanah loved Hannah and he really didn't need children from her - anyway--he had plenty from Penninah. So he couldn't see what the big deal was . . . why it seemed that Hannah was so unhappy, all alone and sad . . . after all, she was his favourite! But the fact of the matter was: while Penninah's tent was filled with little voices, Hannah's tent was silent. While children ran around the camp and climbed onto Elkanah's lap to amuse him, Hannah knew in her heart she had not contributed to the legacy Elkanah was building. Hannah’s life seemed glaringly empty.
And to add to Hannah’s heartbreak, Peninnah would look at Hannah with pity, or sarcasm or even remorse. She would brag about her dozen children and used that privilege to taunt Hannah with words like: “Oh you poor woman – it must have been difficult when God closed your womb!” In that period, women lose their status in the society if they were barren – if they were childless. Remember the story of Sarah or Elizabeth in the Bible. There are many people today who know all about that sort of grief, and even if we aren’t familiar with it, we’ve all had times when we longed for things and our longing was not fulfilled. Hannah seems to understand that if it was indeed God who closed her womb, then only God can open it and allow her to bear children. And she persistently went to God in prayer.
In those days it was customary for people to go on pilgrimage to Shiloh, a significant place in Israel. Shiloh was the sanctuary above all others where the Israelites felt they could meet with God. So on one of those occasions, after they had enjoyed their meal, Hannah pulled herself together, she rose, slipped away from the family group and entered the sanctuary. That part of the story caught my attention. I could not resist saying: “That’s it, Hannah- go for it!” For when we are bullied or rejected or misunderstood, there's no need to spend time simply crying about it, or being depressed about it. Hannah rose and I think that's what we should do as well.
There was an old priest named Eli, who was “the man-in-charge” of that worship centre. He was sitting on a seat beside the door, and he saw Hannah going into the sanctuary. He saw this woman –who was deeply distressed and wept bitterly as she prayed to God. In her prayer, she made a vow to God- if God would give her a son, she would offer him to God as a Nazirite – one who abstains from drinking wine and one who will never cut his hair. I agree that asking for a male baby is somewhat unfair when baby girls are also as valuable as baby boys. But the story was written in a time when patriarchy was the predominant social system and sons in that system were favoured over daughters. Sadly, a lot of cultures today still embrace this system which I think needs to be addressed. Let’s go back to Hannah’s story.
Eli, the priest was watching Hannah with uneasiness. Hannah was doing something unusual; she was praying silently. Most people in those days prayed out loud. In Hannah’s case, though, her lips were moving but she was not sounding out the words. Eli totally misinterpreted the situation; he thought that Hannah was drunk, and so he got upset with her. “Woman, you are drunk! How long will you plan to keep this up? Be sober!” But Hannah replied, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been in pain, unhappy and desperately praying to God to give me a son”.
Eli knows his position too well - he knows his responsibilities as a priest and keeping the order would be one of them. You can't just come into the holy place - walking right past the boss of the sanctuary, and be odd, or drunk, or out of order. Sometimes, we, too, would act that way – we have to maintain our decorum! But there is something deeper going on here. Some people find it uneasy going "straight to God" with their prayers, without asking the priest or the minister to represent them. Again, that may ring a bell for us today- if we think we can't speak directly to God, think twice! Prayer is a person’s lifeline to God and we can approach God directly with our deepest concerns. God is always there listening to our prayers if we but open ourselves to God.
Hannah is a model of direct, authentic prayer, “the prayer of the heart”. She shows up, without bringing an offering, without asking directions from the priest, and simply prays, soaring past all the liturgical conventions of her age, boldly presenting her petition before her God without benefit of clergy. She uses her own words, her own voice, without representation. Hannah, this broken-hearted, misunderstood and taunted woman leads us to further reflect on our own prayer life. I am reminded of what Mahatma Gandhi said about praying: “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weaknesses. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart”. What about looking at our lives as prayers in action? Hannah’s life is a prayer of the heart. Hannah’s prayer was answered. She gave birth to a son named Samuel who grew up under the mentorship of the priest Eli and later on became a judge and a prophet. It was Samuel who anointed David as king of Israel.
Hannah walked in as a woman of faith, pressed down but trusting and ready to pour out her heart and expose her need, and she walked out a woman of faith, radiant with confident joy that what she needed would be coming her way. Hannah finds her voice - she does experience a kind of transformation. The song attributed to her celebrates God – the holy one – her rock and refuge. Hannah sings a song that inspires the song of Mary, the Magnificat, which we still love reciting today especially in Advent, perhaps without noticing the kind of radical transformation it expresses, of the mighty brought down and the lowly lifted up. Surely, the lives of Hannah and Mary and many like them on the margins long ago and today as well, have been transformed by God’s enduring love.
In reflecting Hannah’s story, what prayers of the heart do you have in this very moment? Are you weighed down by emptiness because of grief or illness or barrenness of your spirit? Take heart – for God is with us – all we have to do is open ourselves to God with our own truths in prayer. Sometimes our prayers are not answered but there must be reasons behind each unanswered prayer – at times, the answer is “wait and see.. be patient”. And no matter what answers we receive, let us always count our blessings and be grateful for every circumstances life may offer. Because when God sometimes closes a door, God will surely open a window for us. When Hannah poured out her grief and emptiness in the presence of God, she was finally able to see that her life was, indeed, filled with good things. Filled, piled high, overflowing, lavishly supplied . . . with everything she needed.
Today, as we celebrate and honour all kinds of mothers, nurturers and life-givers, as we honour families in all of its configurations, their presence in our lives, let us rejoice for the many Hannahs in the world. Let us remember those who chose to live - out of love, devotion, faith and prayer. Hannah stands for those mothers whose heart aches with longing, grief, and even bitterness but also those who live with courage, persistence and hope. Wherever life takes us this day and in the days to come, let us approach God with the prayers of our hearts. Follow the simple and powerful example of Hannah and view your life, not through the circumstances that makes life seem empty, but rather through the lens of God's goodness filling your life with blessings and grace. For this reality . . . or for this hope that we cling to, even in the most desperate times, I can only think to say this morning: let us celebrate life! Let us celebrate mothers and life-givers! Let us celebrate with Hannah! Thanks be to God. Amen.
A Litany for Mother’s Day
Mothers come in many different forms,
and today we celebrate them all!
Thank God for mothers!
Everyone here is either a son or a daughter.
Thank God for my mother!
For those women who have passed and
whom we miss dearly here on earth.
Thank God for the mothers of the past.
For every woman who is working day and
night to raise her children right now.
Thank God for the mothers of today.
For all the women who are expecting,
but aren't quite mothers yet!
Thank God for the soon-to-be-mothers.
For the women who took in others' children
through adoption and foster care.
Thank God for the mothers with hearts so big.
For those women who have lost a child to death and must carry on.
Thank God for the mothers who are so strong.
For all the women who have desperately wanted to have children of their own,
but chose instead to mother everyone else.
Thank God for the mothers in spirit.
We also pray for those who lost their mothers in this time of pandemic.
And those who are in the wilderness of illness, loneliness and grief.
We thank you, God, for the women and life-givers
who have helped us, loved us, supported us and influenced our lives in so many ways.
We pray that we will honour them in everything we do.
All these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ who taught us to pray.
Please join me as we recite together the inclusive version of the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer (Inclusive Version)
Blessed One, our Father and our Mother
Holy is your name.
May your love be enacted in the world.
May your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us in the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For all that we do in your love,
and all that your love brings to birth,
and the fullness of love that will be
are yours, now and forever. Amen.
The Offering
I now invite you to offer your gifts of time, talents and resources as expressions of your gratitude to God’s blessings. If you are not on PAR and wish to send in your offering and donations, you can drop them in the slot by the kitchen door of the church or mail them to BCUC. You can also send in your support through e-transfer. Thank you for your continued love and support to BCUC.
Offertory Prayer
Giver of life, may these offerings of time, talents and treasures be a “breaking open of your abundant love as we serve others and the world. Amen.
Sending Forth: A Mothering Blessing
May God who brought us to birth by the Holy Spirit,
strengthen us for the Christian life.
May God who provides for all our needs
sustain us day by day.
May God whose steadfast love is constant as a mother's care,
send us out to live and work for others.
And the blessing of God: Creator, Christ and Comforter
be with you and remain with you always. Amen.
Departing Music: Are You a Shepherd? More Voices #126
