Sermon for November 17, 2024: Foundations of Thanksgiving based upon 1 Samuel 2:1-10

1 Samuel 2:1-10 Hannah’s Song

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.
‘There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
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.
The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.
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.
The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts.
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.
‘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.
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.’

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 I’m not sure that I can fully describe to you the elation I felt in 1990 when I heard a particular bassline (you only need to listen to the first 15 seconds of the song to get the gist):

If you are like me and in your mid-forties, you might have been similarly excited to hear what you may recognize to be the opening bars of timeless classic, “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice. Fifth grade Chrissy loved this song and worked hard to remember all of the lyrics. Middle-aged Chrissy still remembers much of it. At some point, teenage Chrissy learned that the bassline was a sample from a previously released song titled “Under Pressure,” by the band Queen, featuring the singer David Bowie. Queen and Bowie proved to have a slightly more robust musical legacy than the musician who caught my attention in elementary school.

I imagine that you can think of songs that are inspired by other songs, even making use of the older compositions. “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” is a song from 1993 that I loved and it features Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island.” What a great introduction to Herbie Hancock.

 As I was writing this sermon and talking to my pastor friend Tijuana, she showed me that an introduction that I recognize from Mariah Carey’s song “Fantasy” is a sample from “Genius of Love” by Tom Tom Club. A newer artist named Latto has sampled the sample from Fantasy for one of her songs, too, but that song features a few words I don’t usually say from the pulpit. Whenever I hear it, though, my ears perk up because I recognize a song I have liked for a really long time, and it makes me smile.

     Today’s scripture is a song that, like Cantaloupe Island, Under Pressure, and Genius of Love, you can hear in other beloved songs. Or, at least one other beloved song. You may have heard the newer song before:
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‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

     That is the song Mary sings in Luke 1:46-55. Christian tradition knows it as the Magnificat. We will be hearing more about it in just a few weeks during Advent. It is the song Mary sang when she agreed to be Jesus’ mother. As one unmarried and still a teenager in a culture where being unmarried and pregnant was not well-regarded, it was significant leap of faith to risk the social cost of her divine pregnancy, not to mention the physical risk inherent to pregnancy. It is perhaps unsurprising that a faithful teenager would reach back into the foundations of her faith traditions to find inspiration to carry her through her miraculous pregnancy. When she reached back, she reached back, she reached towards Hannah.

     Hannah was married to a man named Elkanah. He was also married to a woman named Peninnah. They lived in Ramathaim, also called Ramah, which is just north of Jerusalem. Penninah was able to have children with Elkanah. When we first meet Hannah, she had not. She deeply grieved not having biological children of her own, a grief not unfamiliar in our own era and a theme common in the Bible. Steven McKenzie, in his notes on 1 Samuel, points out that Hannah is in good company among women in Hebrew scripture who wanted to be mothers and had difficulty becoming pregnant. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and the unnamed mother of Samson each wanted a child and each found themselves unable to conceive with their husbands.
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   In some cases, the husbands had additional wives or enslaved women in the family who were able to conceive. As Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney notes in one of her commentaries, this is an era in which women’s worth was often judged by her ability to produce many children, especially sons, who were most highly valued. To have this kind of family unit, which included multiple wives as well as enslaved women with little say over their own reproductive choices, was to create conflict among the women tasked with providing heirs for the patriarchs. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman described this conflict as a “soul irritation, [a] rub against the heart” in a commentary on an earlier part of 1 Samuel. Even though Elkanah deeply loved Hannah, he didn’t truly understand her grief over their infertility. Also, society judged her as less worthy and, rather than offer compassion to Hannah, Peninnah would provoke her, harassing her about her lack of children. I find the ways these two women are pitted against each other particularly disappointing, especially given how little support Hannah has in other places.

     In the midst of her grief, Hannah remained faithful. In the chapter before today’s reading, the family traveled to the holy site at Shiloh. In a commentary on that chapter, Dr. Gafney notes that Hannah appears to be worshiping in the tabernacle by herself, without her husband, and she speaks to the priest named Eli. She did not hide her grief, weeping and praying while making the 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 your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He will drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.” Mckenzie notes that nazirites were boys and men set aside, or consecrated, to God for a set period of time. They weren’t allowed any intoxicating beverages or grapes, they couldn’t cut their hair or beards, and they couldn’t be around dead bodies. It was not small thing to set aside a child for God, especially one you had prayed so fervently to have.

     Eli watched her pray silently, which was strange because the prayers were supposed to be said aloud. He assumed she was drunk, with her intensity and tearfulness. He even began to chastise her for making a drunken scene. Thank goodness she stood up for herself, explaining that she was not intoxicated but pouring her soul out before God. Hearing this and believing her, Eli offered her a blessing, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant petition you have made to him.” Hannah’s last words to Eli were “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Not long after this encounter, she became pregnant. She carried to term and delivered a baby boy who she named Samuel. Samuel means, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

     She would honor her vow, taking the boy to Shiloh once he was weaned. He would have been older than a toddler at that point, but we don’t know how old. Hannah sings her song when she brings the boy, as well as sacrifices of thanksgiving, back to the place where she was assured that God heard her prayers. Dr. Bridgeman describes her words as a “prophetic song” that point to a future for their nation... a future in which Samuel will figure strongly as a prophet. He will be one of the ones who will push future kings Saul and David to live into their own callings to be kings according to God’s wishes.

     Hannah sings what she knows to be true... that God is the creator of all people and will lift the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap.... that God can lift up the lowly and bring down the mighty. It is no wonder that Mary would feel a matter of kinship with Hannah, though their stories are quite different. Hannah still showed her that one who had been dismissed and disregarded, one who had been understood to be a disappointment, could ultimately help do great things. She also saw in Hannah’s story a good husband who maybe didn’t understand exactly what was going on, but stood with his beloved regardless. Mary would need that kind of support, too.

     I imagine that you might be looking for some consolation and inspiration for the challenging times ahead. It is could to be remind that our ancestors in the faith did the same. May we reach back to our own foundations, as Mary reached to Hannah, and may we find strength that we are thankful for. May that strength care us into the just and loving future that God is inviting us to help create. May we hear echoes of Hannah’s reminder of the God who lifts the needy from the ash heap, and create a new version of that old song in this time and this place. 

Resources consulted while writing this sermon: 
Steven L. McKenzie's notes on 1 Samuel in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Valerie Bridgeman: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-33-2/commentary-on-1-samuel-14-20-5
Two resources written by Wilda C. Gafney:

• "Proper 6," A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church: Year W, A Multi-Gospel Single-Year Lectionary (New York: Church Publishing, 2021)
• "Proper 20 (Closest to September 21)," A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church: Year B (New York: Church Publishing, 2023)