1 Samuel 1: 1-23
1 Samuel
1:24 – 2: 11
Proclamation
of the Word
Our readings this morning have 2
different prayers.
One, almost silent, lips moving, but
not heard by human ears.
A prayer of longing, a sigh, a yearning, a hope
A plea to God.
The other joyful and heard by those around
her
A prayer of praise, confident, and prophetic
A melody of the world to come.
When we gather for worship, we pray,
we pray for God to be with us, to forgive our sins. We pray for health and healing;
we pray for peace in our world and in our hearts; we pray for family and friends,
leaders of nations and leaders of churches; we pray for creation. And when we
share around the Lord’s table, we have the great prayer of thanksgiving.
I sometimes wonder if we have too many
words in our prayers and not enough yearning, longing, sighing, and honesty with
God.
Prayer is one way we grow in our
relationship with God, the more we are honest, when we admit our faults and
fears and celebrate our joys and courage, the closer our bond.
In Hannah’s prayer we hear about her pain and anguish. We too can
come to God with our fears, our hurts, our confusion.
It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
We live in a society where we are told
to put on a brave face, even when we are in pain or grief. We can become so used to hiding what is
happening in our lives and our hearts from those around us, that we also try
and hide from God.
We are people who know God, and that
means instead of holding everything inside ourselves, we can pour it all out to
God.
God knows about pain and fear and grief,
God, the giver of life, knows the diversity of emotions, the variety of
experiences, the terror in the joy of being alive.
God wants to hear our sighs, our fears,
God is not scared of our tears or our anger, God wants to hear it all, with or
without words.
Hannah does bear a son, Samuel, and
another of Hannah's prayers is recorded. This is a very different prayer to the
first one. This is a prayer of joy, a prayer about God, to God. Theology is
talking about God, prayer is speaking to God, prayer uses first person
language. But this prayer is not only a prayer of joy at having a son, it is a
prayer about a world turned upside down.
Hannah's prayer is very much like the song of
Mary that we will read in a few weeks, they both talk of a world turned upside
down. A world where the poor will have food and the rich will be hungry.
It is the end of the world as we know it.
And that means the beginning of a new world.
A new world based on love and grace, and when
we know the God of love and grace, we can be honest about the fears in our
minds and the hurt in our hearts, the pains in our bodies.
God didn't create us to live in fear, but God
understands our fears. God created us for love and for life, for freedom. We
are created, known, and named as God's daughters and sons.
We are called to live as the people of God,
people known by God, people loved by God, people blessed by God.
Like Hannah we can mouth our silent please to
God and sing in joy of God’s wonderful action in our lives.
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