November 19
I Samuel 2: 1-10
Hannah's Song
Hannah lived in the time before there were kings in Israel. The last line of the book of Judges notes that the system of having Judges who helped mediate disputes and organize community was falling apart. We know from the first chapters of I Samuel that the religious establishment was also in trouble. Israel needed new leadership, new intervention from God.
Into the midst of this comes a very human story of the family of Elkanah, a common man from the hill country of Ephraim, and his wives Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had been unable to conceive (the word used at the time was "barren"). In any context, that physical reality would be difficult, but in her context it might have meant her being cast out of her home and divorced. But we are told that Elkanah loved her deeply; he comforted her and made sure she was well-cared for. Nevertheless, Hannah suffered, and apparently Peninnah didn't make it any easier.
So Hannah went to pray at the Temple. Chapter 1 tells us the wonderful story of the priest misinterpreting her fervent prayer as drunkenness, but then blessing her with the hope that her prayers are fulfilled. And they are. She gives birth soon after to her son, Samuel. She has promised God that the first child she bears will be dedicated to God's service, so when Samuel is weaned, she takes him to the same priest, Eli, to give him as a servant in the Temple. Eli receives him, and Hannah leaves. Instead of weeping for the loss of her son's companionship at that point, she sings the song which is our text for this day.
(Before we discuss the text, it is important to note that Samuel grows up to be a great reformer in the religious life of Israel, and he also anoints the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. Hannah goes on to have five more children.)
Hannah's Song is one of the classic doxologies (songs of praise and thanksgiving) in the Bible. Those of us who are Christian are perhaps more familiar with Mary's song in the first chapter of Luke which gets its form and some of its content from Hannah's song and others like it. The Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann calls these songs "songs of impossibility," for they note that "conventional definitions of reality do not contain or define what God will yet do." Hannah sings about things that have not yet come to pass (the poor sitting with princes? the hungry full?), just as Mary does, but she sings about them in the present and not the future tense. Her personal experience of God acting beyond what seemed possible enables her to proclaim that God acts that way not only for her, but for the whole world. It is thanks both for the "now" and for the "not yet" which she confidently expects to happen. The scholar Patrick Miller comments that doxologies are "fundamental indicators that wonders have not ceased, that possibilities not yet dreamt of will happen, and that hope is an authentic stance." More on doxology tomorrow!
Hannah's Song
Hannah lived in the time before there were kings in Israel. The last line of the book of Judges notes that the system of having Judges who helped mediate disputes and organize community was falling apart. We know from the first chapters of I Samuel that the religious establishment was also in trouble. Israel needed new leadership, new intervention from God.
Into the midst of this comes a very human story of the family of Elkanah, a common man from the hill country of Ephraim, and his wives Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had been unable to conceive (the word used at the time was "barren"). In any context, that physical reality would be difficult, but in her context it might have meant her being cast out of her home and divorced. But we are told that Elkanah loved her deeply; he comforted her and made sure she was well-cared for. Nevertheless, Hannah suffered, and apparently Peninnah didn't make it any easier.
So Hannah went to pray at the Temple. Chapter 1 tells us the wonderful story of the priest misinterpreting her fervent prayer as drunkenness, but then blessing her with the hope that her prayers are fulfilled. And they are. She gives birth soon after to her son, Samuel. She has promised God that the first child she bears will be dedicated to God's service, so when Samuel is weaned, she takes him to the same priest, Eli, to give him as a servant in the Temple. Eli receives him, and Hannah leaves. Instead of weeping for the loss of her son's companionship at that point, she sings the song which is our text for this day.
(Before we discuss the text, it is important to note that Samuel grows up to be a great reformer in the religious life of Israel, and he also anoints the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. Hannah goes on to have five more children.)
Hannah's Song is one of the classic doxologies (songs of praise and thanksgiving) in the Bible. Those of us who are Christian are perhaps more familiar with Mary's song in the first chapter of Luke which gets its form and some of its content from Hannah's song and others like it. The Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann calls these songs "songs of impossibility," for they note that "conventional definitions of reality do not contain or define what God will yet do." Hannah sings about things that have not yet come to pass (the poor sitting with princes? the hungry full?), just as Mary does, but she sings about them in the present and not the future tense. Her personal experience of God acting beyond what seemed possible enables her to proclaim that God acts that way not only for her, but for the whole world. It is thanks both for the "now" and for the "not yet" which she confidently expects to happen. The scholar Patrick Miller comments that doxologies are "fundamental indicators that wonders have not ceased, that possibilities not yet dreamt of will happen, and that hope is an authentic stance." More on doxology tomorrow!
posted by shelly @ 11:51 AM
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