Pentecost 21 (NL 3) John B. Valentine
1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20; 2:1-10 October 13, 2024

“OF LAMBEAU LEAPS ....”

I’m going to let you in on a little secret:

I DON’T LIKE THIS WEEK’S BIBLE READING!!!

Seriously ... I just don’t “like” it ....... and I kind of wonder if it’s okay for me to actually feel that way.

You see ...

Today’s Bible story comes from the Old Testament book we know as “First Samuel” ....

And it recounts a scene from the life of a woman named Hannah ... who plays a small but utterly essential role in the history of the people of God.

The back story is this:

There’s a man by the name of Elkanah ... who has two wives ...

• one of them is named Peninnah ...
• the other is this Hannah.

And while Peninnah has borne her husband numerous children ... Hannah has had none.

Now Elkanah is apparently a truly decent guy ...

He tries to do right by his religious responsibilities ... and he tries to do right by both of his wives.

In fact ... he is constantly bending over backwards to reassure Hannah that he doesn’t love her any less even though she has had no kids.

But it’s not all harmony and tranquility in Elkanah’s household ...

For his two wives are ... to say the least ... conflicted.

In fact ... they’re so conflicted that ... had they been alive today ... somebody would have undoubtedly approached them about having their own ‘reality’ TV show of the sort that serves up household drama!

You see ...

Since Hannah has no kids ... Elkanah tries to comfort her by giving her a double portion of stuff ...

But that extra attention makes Peninnah jealous ...

So Peninnah rubs it in Hannah’s nose that ... while Hannah has no kids ... she herself has many.

But that in turn makes Hannah all the more ashamed and heartbroken and irritated ...

And when the husband tries to offer Hannah comfort and consolation ... it only makes matters worse!

+ + + + +

Anyhow ... one day ... the whole household goes to church together.

And ... after the service .... sitting alone in her pew ... Hannah breaks down and starts to sob.

And the pastor of that church ... a certain Pastor Eli ... can’t quite figure out what is going on.

• Worship is over ...
• Coffee Fellowship has started ...
• And there’s this woman still in the sanctuary ... bawling her eyes out.

What’s a pastor to do???

• Confront her???
• Console her???
• Maybe just leave her be???

Well ... Pastor Eli somehow concludes that Hannah must be drunk ... and so he opts for confrontation.

But then Hannah explains that she’s not drunk ... but just troubled ...

Troubled by the fact that she doesn’t have a child.

And Pastor Eli gets all apologetic in return ... and speaks to her some words of consolation ... and a prayer that she might get pregnant.

And ... lo and behold ... nine months later ... Hannah DOES give birth to a son ...

And she names her son Samuel ... which means “I asked God for him”.

And then ... in the final part of the lesson ... Hannah sings a victory song ... celebrating just how much God has done for her.

+ + + + +

Now ... in and of itself ... it’s a nice enough story.

But you care to guess WHY ol’ Pastor John really doesn’t like this lesson???

Actually ... it isn’t just one reason ... but two ... or maybe three!

My first complaint is this:

I don’t like the idea of people trying to make ‘deals’ with God ... and I particularly don’t like stories that confirm “deal-making” as an appropriate form of prayer.

You see ... while conditional language may well be the language of the world in which we live ... it’s contrary to most of the covenant language in the Bible.

• Conditional language is all “if, then / if, then / if, then.” As in ... “ If you’ll help me with my homework ... I’ll be your friend.” It’s “deal-making.”

• Covenant language ... on the other hand ... is based on “because” and “therefore”. It’s more along the lines of “Because I’m your friend, I’ll help you with your homework.

“If/then” language doesn’t really lead to healthy relationships between husbands and wives ... or between parents and children ... or between people of faith and the Lord our God.

Now .... it’s not like I’ve never prayed that prayer that says ... “Lord, if you’ll just let me win the lottery this one time, I promise I’ll donate 90% of my winnings to the work of the church.”

But the God who is revealed in Scripture ... doesn’t ... for the most part ... operate that way ... and when Hannah sets to ‘deal-making’ with God ... it kind of makes my skin crawl.

So much for my first complaint.

Then again ... my second complaint is this:

I don’t like this story because I’m troubled by the phrase that asserts that “The Lord had closed Hannah’s womb.”

That one ... too ... makes my skin crawl.

Now I know that there are some people who believe that absolutely “everything that happens in this world is caused by God” ... but I’m not one of them.

You see ... in my years as a pastor ... I’ve met some couples who have struggled mightily to get pregnant ...

And I just can’t bring myself to believe that a good and gracious God would deliberately wreak such emotional and relational and spiritual distress on anyone whom God loves.

And ... for that matter ... I don’t buy that God “caused”:

• my nephew’s brain cancer ... or
• my buddy Greg’s Down’s Syndrome ... or
• the dementia of any of those participants in the LARC program that we run.

Not that God doesn’t excel at making lemonade for us out of life’s lemons ...

But the God whose ultimate self-expression is found in taking on the suffering of others doesn’t sound like the sort who would seek to bring down suffering on others whom God loves.

And my third complaint ....

I can’t stand it when people do those orchestrated end-zone dances ... like the Lambeau Leap.

You know what I’m talking about ... all you football fans ...

• In the beginning ... there was the touchdown ‘spike’ ... throwing the bal down hard onto the ground whenever one scored a touchdown ... as a sort of visual “take that” ...

• Then along came the “Lambeau Leap” ... hurling oneself into the end-zone stands to be back-slapped by the fans ...

• To the point that now there are ball-spins and camera-struts and choreographed dance moves and the like every time anybody does anything noteworthy on the football field!

All of which I find to be rather irritating.

And Hanna’s so-called “victory song” ... at least to my ears ... sounds like the vocal equivalent of a “Lambeau Leap”.

Now I GET that she’s happy to the point to losing herself in the moment.

And I GET that she’s feeling vindicated for all of the internal anguish that she’d suffered through over the years.

And I GET that she’s thankful for the way things have turned out.

But does the ridiculed really need to become the ridiculer?

I mean ... the very words Hannah speaks include a bit of self-accusation .... do they not???

Those words “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” ... can certainly cut both ways.

It’s not that I don’t have my own Hannah moments wherein I want to snarkily chuckle “What goes around comes around” ...

But then along comes Jesus ... saying “Love your enemies” and “Pray for those who persecute you” and stuff like that.

So you see why I don’t like this story????

+ + + + +

But maybe the question we need to ask ourselves today is NOT whether we LIKE this story of not ... But “What are we going to DO with it?” ...

Because ... whether we like it or not ... it’s a story that we confess to be sacred ... and which we confess to be God’s Word.

Honestly ... this is an important question for all of us ... folks.

• What DO we DO with the parts of the Bible that we just don’t like?
• What DO we DO with the parts of the Bible whose message we don’t agree with?
• What DO we DO with the these words that don’t seem ... to us ... like the Word of God?

We obviously don’t have time to probe that at TOO great a depth ...

But let me simply suggest that ... when we come up against something in the Bible that makes us uncomfortable ... we pay particular attention.

• We need to ask WHY it makes us feel uncomfortable ... and maybe use that as an opportunity to learn something about ourselves.

• We need to ask WHAT that story or thought or reflection IS ... at its heart ... trying to communicate ... and embrace its insights more broadly ... even if we can’t embrace some of its particularities.

• And we need to OWN the fact that ... whether or not we ‘like’ it ... it is still a part of God’s Word.

+ + + + +

Like ... for instance ... with this story of Hannah ...

When I think about it ... and when I think about what it is that makes me uncomfortable with it ...

I’m reminded that ... whereas Hannah has been carrying the burden of childlessness for years ... I haven’t had to carry many burdens like that in my life ... at least not so big and not for so long.

And maybe I need to spend some more time just listening to Hannah’s pain.

Then again ... this story confronts me with the sense of powerlessness that Hannah feels in the face of her situation ...

And I ... for my part ... maybe because I’m relatively wealthy ... over-educated ... fairly-healthy ... well-loved ... white and male ... don’t know too very much about being powerless.

And maybe I need to spend some more time learning from Hannah’s circumstance.

Then again ... this story reminds me that ... because I haven’t spent much time at the bottom of the heap ...

I can’t quite imagine the emotions that coursed through Hannah’s veins when she was vindicated at the birth of her son ...

And maybe I need to be a bit less judgmental about others who celebrate in moments of vindication ... and a bit more compassionate toward those for whom vindication seems like a pipe-dream.

You see ... I once had a seminary professor who reminded me that maybe that best way to read the Bible is to go through it and underline are the parts that you like ... all the parts you find comfort in ... all the parts that make you feel good about yourself ...

And then pay particular attention to all the parts that you didn’t underline!

Because maybe ... just maybe ... THOSE are the words that we need to hear.

God’s Word is TRUTH ... my friends. May it be true among us!