SERMON
at
Christ Church, Watertown, Connecticut
Pentecost XXIV
November 15, 2009
by
The Rev. Stanley C. Kemmerer, AHC

In this morning’s Lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures we encounter a desperate and despondent woman: Hannah. Hers is a story to which any woman who has suffered from infertility or had difficulty conceiving will relate. But the pain these women have experienced pales in comparison to that Hannah must have experienced.

Hannah is one of two wives of a man of Ramathaim…whose name was Elkanah. His other wife was named Peninnah. Penninah had children but Hannah had none. Every year this man used to go up from his town to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh Sabaoth in Shiloh.

One day Elkanah offered sacrifice. He used to give portions to Penninah and to all her sons and daughters; to Hannah, however, he would give only one portion, although he loved her more, since Yahweh had made her barren. Her rival (Elkanah’s other wife) would taunt her to annoy her, because Yahweh had made her barren. And this went on year after year; every time they went up to the temple of Yahweh she used to taunt her. And so Hannah wept and would not eat.

Her barrenness held an importance for Hannah greater than her husband did. Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah why are you crying and why are you not eating? Why so sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

Apparently not, because after they had eaten in the hall, Hannah rose and took her stand before Yahweh, while Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh. In the bitterness of her soul she prayed to Yahweh with many tears and made a vow, saying, “Yahweh Sabaoth! If you will take notice of the distress of your servant, and bear me in mind and not forget your servant and give her a man-child, I will give him to Yahweh for the whole of his life…”

This was so important to her that, in effect, while praying for fertility she was bargaining much of the joy of parenting she would have had because, as following scripture records, the child Samuel was turned over to Eli at a very early age and for the rest of his life, as promised. Perhaps easier to understand if we keep in mind that in Hannah’s culture much of a woman’s worth and honor was tied to her ability to give birth to children, and especially male children.

But Hannah kept her focus. She was single minded. And, as we know, Yahweh granted her request. Samuel grew up to be a prophet and judge, one of the most highly regarded ones, who would be the one to anoint both Saul and, later, his son, David, as kings.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews faces a different challenge: Keeping the early Christians in the Faith. As one commentary puts it, In the first century becoming a Christian could involve considerable personal sacrifice. It sometimes meant the severing of family ties, the loss of job opportunities and income, and even arrest, torture, and execution. The Christians to whom Hebrews was written apparently endured “hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.” It seems that some of the Christians were imprisoned and others were robbed of their possessions. There were many reasons not to become a Christian, and if one did become a Christian, there were many reasons to recant.

Again, keeping the focus is important. Not to do so is to lose the salvation gained through Christ’s atonement on the cross and discipleship. You will need endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised….Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the promise is faithful. Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works. Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage each other to go…

Similarly, the readers of Mark’s Gospel are urged to keep their focus. This passage, widely interpreted (incorrectly the commentators tell us) as about the end of the world, is more a warning about what happens in times of upheaval when “false prophets” arise, distracting the faithful from the steady course.

The early Christian community was living under Roman rule. By the time Mark’s Gospel was written a number of outrages had occurred, among them: