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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
If you're in a time of change, if you're evolving, if you're getting honest about some cold hard facts, you might be as close as you will ever get to hearing God say your name. The series taking us to summer is called last of them, and it focuses on the leadership in ancient Israel that gets us to David. David, this linchpin character to, well, basically everything. David gets credit for being the voice of the psalmist. It's his family line that leads to Jesus, and we see through him God's faithfulness to the promise.
Speaker 1:So in this series, we dove into Judges and talked about these tribal chieftains who rise to power to deal with the conflict Israel faces in the land that they were meant to peacefully live in. So the cycle in Judges is peace followed by disobedience, followed by oppression from their neighbors and enemies, followed by a momentary rescue, and it is on repeat. Last week, we took a bit of a roller coaster ride with Samson. He's our biblical Hercules, killing a lion with his bare hands and taking foreign women as his lovers. And we had a lot of fun not just grimacing at Samson's barbarism, but reading Samson and Delilah with a little more sympathy.
Speaker 1:Like, Samson is restless with impulses. He doesn't seem to really understand. And Delilah is in an impossible situation, and she still finds a way to survive. These master storytellers behind these tales want us to grow tired of Samson and to notice that he is the only judge who doesn't actually get the job done. And so the writers and editors, they pose this question under the text, After this hot mess of a judge, maybe it's time for a king.
Speaker 1:But before you rush to answer, they also ask their audience, will a king be any better? And I love the way the scripture speaks out of both sides of its mouth. A king is good. A king might not be so good. The storytellers are saying, yeah, we have wanted it both ways.
Speaker 1:And maybe these judges and kings were never meant to lead us like Yahweh. And you will find all of these contradictions in the text. And an honest faith makes space for the way contradictions can be true too. Today, we are moving on to first Samuel. Now in our Christian bibles, Ruth comes between Judges and first Samuel, and Ruth is great.
Speaker 1:Ruth is heartbreak and female friendship and a sexy little scene by a grain pile because that's the Bible for you. Even so, we are passing by Ruth in favor of the Jewish order of the scriptures that goes from Judges straight to Samuel. And again, Christian Bibles divide Samuel into two because it was hard to fit the whole thing on one scroll in translation. So Samuel is two books in your bible, but it used to be just one scroll. So last week was bad boy Samson, and this week is good boy Samuel.
Speaker 1:But before we dive in, let us pray. Loving God, as we open our hearts and minds to the scriptures today, we are mindful of your involvement in these complicated stories of the past, in times and places so different from our own. And so we bring curiosity and we bring humility with us today. And we wonder about what changes and maybe what also stays the same. About grace in times of transition, about meaning made out of pain.
Speaker 1:Do we take a moment to pay attention to what we bring with us today? Maybe it's a lot of worry about conflict in the world. Maybe it's a personal struggle or ache we feel in our bodies or relationships. And as we notice these very real burdens, we take a moment just to catch our breath. Our inhale here is to remind us of all that we receive, provision, grace, and so much beauty.
Speaker 1:And our exhale reminds us of all that we can give, patience, care, and openness. So may the beauty of God be upon us, establishing the work of our hands. Amen. So if I were to ask you who you are, how would you tell me your story? Like, would you map it out chronologically?
Speaker 1:Or would you map it out geographically? Or would you highlight the key players? Personally, I always go with geography. I was raised on a cattle ranch in Saskatchewan. Sometimes that throws people, but it's the truth.
Speaker 1:I moved to California out of college. I lived in Vancouver through my twenties and thirties. I came to Calgary for love, and then I joined up with you jokers, two of the best, best, best decisions of my life. Place is how I always map out my story. What's going on in what we call the Deuteronomist history, where themes are woven together from Deuteronomy all the way to Kings, is an identity story where the key characters are the chapter markers.
Speaker 1:So as we move into Samuel, the people tell their story through their leaders. Time and land are there too, but the leaders determine the story. There's Samuel, the judge slash priest slash prophet dude wears a number of hats. Then Saul, the first king. Then David, their true king.
Speaker 1:After that, it is kind of a rough and tumble time, but today is about Samuel. It's a bit of a story time today, so just settle right in. There was a certain man from Ramothaam, a Zophite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuf, an Ephraimite. Off to a fun start. Right?
Speaker 1:Well, he had two wives. One was called Hannah and the other Paninnah. Panina had children, but Hannah had none. Now we're in a story. In a sea of very unfamiliar proper nouns, there are still these common motifs for us to notice.
Speaker 1:There's this barren woman. So we know we're in an annunciation story biblically or an announcement story. Take note though, no angel appears here. And there is rivalry between two women. Think back to conflicts between Sarah and Hagar or Rachel and Leah.
Speaker 1:And these motifs point you to the importance of this character's entrance. It's like scripture's pyrotechnics. Now Hannah means favored and Panina means pearls or coral branches. So maybe Panina is the pretty one but Hannah is the favorite. So Elkanah and his family, they regularly worship and sacrifice at Shiloh where Eli and his sons are the priests.
Speaker 1:And we're told that Elkanah doles out portions of sacrificial items to everyone in his family, but he gives a double portion to Hannah, you know, because she's so special to him. Even so, Hannah's fate is precarious. She has no children of her own. Verse seven says that the Lord had closed her womb. And there's extra stress in the story because Paninna has been bullying Hannah for years.
Speaker 1:And worn down, Hannah weeps and she stops eating. And Elkanah steps in to bring comfort. He says, come on. Isn't my love enough? Am I not more to you than 10 sons?
Speaker 1:I mean, this guy. In other words, what's all this crying about? So his comfort is no comfort at all. And eventually, on a family trip to Shiloh, Hannah presents herself to the Lord. Remember, there is no angel in this annunciation story.
Speaker 1:It is all riding on Hannah and bitterly she prays and she weeps and in her desperation she makes a vow. She says, God of plenty, if you give me a child, I'll give him back to you as a Nazarite. Now we remember Nazarite from last week. Samson was a Nazarite. Typically, a Nazarite served out their vow of abstinence from booze and dead things and shaving their heads for a set period of time.
Speaker 1:But for Samson and for Samuel, their mothers make their vows last a lifetime. And the point here is that Hannah is part of this ritual system in ancient Israel. So in dedicating her firstborn to the Lord, she is hoping, fingers crossed, that she will receive the blessing of future fertility. So when the priest Eli sees her praying, he wrongly assumes that she is drunk. We are meant to notice that Eli is very bad at his job.
Speaker 1:What kind of priest wrongly assumes that a woman praying in the temple is doing something other than care for the matters of her heart? So after Eli rebukes her, Hannah says, not so, my lord. I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. I have been praying here out of my anguish and grief. Eli answered, go in peace and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. She said, may your servant find favor in your eyes. Then she went on her way, ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
Speaker 1:I love a snack after a good cry and confrontation, I might add. So Hannah goes home. She and her husband get in on, and she has a baby boy. After he is weaned around the age of four or five, she brings him to Shiloh and gives her boy over to God. Now so often, barren women's stories in the bible, they get reduced to being about womanhood and wife dom.
Speaker 1:You know, as if Hannah is the OG trad wife. And I am not saying that if you have struggled to conceive, Hannah's story is not your story too. But Hannah's changed fertility is no guarantee of anyone else's. Hannah's story is about so much more than baby making. It's about survival.
Speaker 1:You see, Hannah is doing okay as long as Elkanah favors her. But what if, because Elkanah is likely older than her, what if he dies first? And what if, as affections are won't to do, he changes his mind about Hannah, you know, because she's just so sad. Hannah is a model of faithfulness, not because she gets what she wants, though I do love that for her. Hannah is faithful because she knows herself.
Speaker 1:She is clear about her situation, and she insists that her life is worthy of provision too. Absolutely. Hannah is saintly because she is faithful to God, but she's also saintly because she trusts herself and advocates for what she needs. How often has the church made space for that? In her story or in yours?
Speaker 1:I spent years of my life and a lot of money in therapy figuring out how to undo some of the damage from Christian culture that told me that I should not trust myself or my body or how I navigated relationships in my life. By the way, that can be true for you, and you can still stay Christian. You can still hold onto the best things about our faith even while you set aside the parts that got so disordered and distorted by other people or powerful forces like patriarchy and white supremacy. The Jesus story is for you no matter who tries to take it away. I love Hannah's story because it is for all of us.
Speaker 1:Hannah uses her pain, her deep pain to know herself. And when people with more power call her into question, she is resolute in what she must do. It's not because an angel tells her what to do. Hannah trusts herself, and she trusts her God. Now there is more to cover today than just Hannah, though I could hang out with this cool lady all day long.
Speaker 1:In first Samuel two, we swing from a high to a low and it's intentional. This is a transition to foreshadow transitions to come. The judges are followed by the prophet Samuel and Samuel will anoint the kings. So let's focus on two liturgical forms in the chapter, a song and a prophecy. The song is called Hannah's song, and scholars agree that it is added much later to the text.
Speaker 1:And we know this because of the break in style, the discrepancy of facts, and this really interesting reference to a king in the final verse. Because at the time of Hannah's prayer, there was no king. Saul and David are still to come. And the theme of Hannah's song is that God has this ultimate power to reverse fortunes. So Hannah prays, my heart rejoices in the Lord.
Speaker 1:There is no one like God. She who was barren has born seven children and she who had many children has become forlorn. Now in Hannah's case, seven is not literal because she eventually does have six kids. Seven is the signal of completion and plenty. So the song ends, the Lord shatters adversaries and gives strength to God's king.
Speaker 1:Hannah's song will become the model for Mary's song centuries later in Luke one. Remember in the bible everything is kind of about everything else. And the second liturgical form to notice in chapter two is this prophecy and it is directed at Eli's house on account of his very ineffective parenting and his scoundrel direct quote sons. In verse 27, a mysterious man of God comes to Eli and he says, in the past I chose your family. After the Exodus, the Levites were to be my priests.
Speaker 1:But here you are giving choice sacrifices to your sons. You fatten yourselves with offerings meant for God. Going forward, no one from your family will ever grow old again. Your sons, Hofne and Phineas, are so rotten, the Lord has decided they will die on the same day. It's my voice of doom.
Speaker 1:Then he declares to Eli these words of the Lord. I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house and they will minister before my anointed one always. Hannah's song says, God is in charge. And the prophet says, those scoundrel boys, they are to blame.
Speaker 1:So which is it? Is God in charge? Sovereign over it all? Or is human agency to blame? Who really shapes the past, the present, the future God or us?
Speaker 1:And you know what? I don't think we get the answer we want. We get both. A song and a prophecy. Old Testament scholar Ellen Davis says that the narrative portrayal of Samuel, Saul, and David is the most complex exploration of moral character in the bible, and I'd add Eli and his scoundrel sons to the mix.
Speaker 1:The complex portrayal of both the people and their God says, we are involved and God is at work. We have agency and still the world is held mysteriously by God. Maybe God even likes it that way. With all the risk and all the pain there is still all this potential for us to be involved in something holy. Now as one family descends and another ascends here's the state of things in Israel.
Speaker 1:The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli in those days, the word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. Word of the Lord here does not mean this cute leather bound bible. It means oracles the priests are meant to discern. Oracles.
Speaker 1:We already know that Eli and his sons are not fulfilling that job. So it's fair to say that Samuel's mentor is a lousy one. And still there is this stirring. One night in the temple we get this scene. It's pretty iconic.
Speaker 1:Eli whose eyesight has grown dim. Remember that. He is resting. It's early morning and the lamp of God that burns through the night has not yet been extinguished. I love the eerie light and the long shadows of this story, by the way.
Speaker 1:It's giving creepy movie from the eighties, which is totally my gem. Now the boy Samuel is laying down in the temple. Remember, this is his home now and the ark of the Lord is nearby signaling God's presence is there too. And three times the same drama plays out. The Lord calls Samuel by name.
Speaker 1:Samuel. Samuel. And three times Samuel runs to Eli and says, here I am. You called me. And twice Eli sends Samuel back to bed saying, no.
Speaker 1:I truly didn't. And by the third time it dawns on Eli that God must be calling Samuel. So he says, go back lie down and see what the Lord has to say. So the Lord calls Samuel a fourth time and Samuel says, speak for your servant is listening. And then the Lord kinda moves in closer to deliver the same prophecy against Eli.
Speaker 1:The house of Eli will fall. The language of the story, Samuel has become the main character. His name is repeated 24 times in chapter three and that's a lot. And in the morning, I imagine Samuel just lying on his back, blinking up at the temple wondering what just happened. And finally Eli calls him in and asks about the message from God.
Speaker 1:What was it God said to you? Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything that he told you. So Samuel, tells him everything hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, he is the Lord.
Speaker 1:Let him do what is good in his eyes. Did you catch that? Remember Eli can't see very well anymore and some of his final words are surprisingly insightful. Maybe I don't see so well but my experience is not the experience of my God. So let divine sight lead the way.
Speaker 1:When we find ourselves in these ancient stories, we start to wonder what does it mean to hear from God? And across the scriptures, God gets people's attention by name. Abraham Abraham, Moses Moses, Samuel Samuel. Then we get new testament greetings like, Do not be afraid Zechariah. Do not fear Mary.
Speaker 1:Saul Saul, why do you persecute me? Wanting to hear from God is a normal longing. We're always in relationship with this mystery. But it seems to me that if you are called on God by name, you are in the crosshairs of transition. You are changing.
Speaker 1:It's time to face a hard truth. Something new is afoot. But I hope something quieter is true too. If you're in a time of change, if you're evolving, if you're getting honest about some cold hard facts, you might be as close as you will ever get to hearing God say your name. I think God loves it when we change for the good.
Speaker 1:Try try, beloveds, not to rail against that early in your life or really, really late. Get better at conflict. Be bold in finding out what you need. Express your regret to someone who can just sit and listen. In chapter three, Samuel enters as a boy priest, and he leaves a man prophet.
Speaker 1:So here's how we end today. The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word and Samuel's word came to all Israel. The chapter closes as this counterpoint to how it started.
Speaker 1:It was rare to hear from God until it wasn't. In Judges, life had become so hard and so violent and so chaotic. And in Samuel, there has been a housecleaning. Bad boy priests are booted from holy places. And a good boy given to God by a strong mother becomes the mouthpiece of God.
Speaker 1:God still speaks. Maybe through the circumstances of your life. Maybe in a voice that calls to you in the night. Maybe in new beginnings or tough endings, old stories or ones that you have yet to hear. God still speaks.
Speaker 1:Let us pray. Loving God, we just take this quiet moment to reflect on Hannah and Samuel and even that stinker Eli. There's conflict. There's failure. There's desperation.
Speaker 1:Here, there's sacred silence and there's this in breaking of your word. I love the opportunity to step into other times and places and wonder together what we can learn. So where there is need, let us work for provision. Where there is desperation, let us work to relieve pain, our own and those around us. Where there are new voices for us to listen to and learn from, soften our stubborn little hearts to take in something new.
Speaker 1:Spirit of the living God, present with us now. Enter the places of our pain and our longing and heal us of all that harms us. Amen. Hey,
Speaker 2:Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server.
Speaker 2:Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.