I.

As you read commentary on these Scriptures in various places you will see them titled differently.  One title I read for this Sunday’s text was “God Answers Prayer.”

Well … That certainly got my attention!

I can’t speak for you but if I think I am about to read how God has (and maybe will) answer prayers, my interest is perked.  It probably is not too much to say “I am all ears!”

Getting your prayers answered is an interest to many of us.  How to pray to get your prayers answered can most likely get a group of people paying attention.  Maybe for what tips they can get about praying or for the more skeptic in the group to see what is offered or instructed this group already “knows” can’t be right.

But, maybe, if we give our attention to what we can or must do to “get” a prayer answered we are already starting down the wrong path.  Does that make some sense to you?

II.

In our reading for this week we meet Hannan, Eli and Elkanah.  Let’s pay attention to each.

Notice where they are and what they are doing?  Notice their spirits (as much as that is possible).  How expressive they are? Yes, and what they express.  The emotion their words carry. And what their words and attitude convey about the one they address.  How intense their words/emotions are. How we see changes and different aspects of their personalities, even in so few sentences about them.

With that in mind, pause for a moment, take a deep breath, open yourself to fully hearing, even standing beside these people as you listen in on their conversations.

III.

1 Samuel 1:9-20 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.  She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this 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 to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk.  So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.  Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.

They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.  In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

IV.

Is prayer a want list? A wish list? Do we itemize to God what we want?

Is that what Hannah is about here?

If I set out to read about and learn about prayer so I “get” my prayers answered maybe that is what I think of the process.

Is prayer monologue?  I am just talking to myself about what is on my mind and heart?  Am I trying to convince myself of something?

Is prayer conversation?  Between?

At this moment, what are your thoughts about what prayer is for you.  Please be honest with yourself.

Look at Hannah.  “[She] presented herself before the Lord … she was deeply distressed and prayed … and wept bitterly.”

What do you think?  We sometimes speak of folks “being ALL in.”  Does that describe Hannah?

As you reflect on this scene, spend time with Hannah.  Notice what she says, how she expresses it, what she promises.

V.

Turn you attention to Eli, “the priest.”  The first judgement he makes of Hannah does not speak well of the impression she made on him.  WIth us already having some insight into her distress, the first judgement we probably make of Eli is not too sympathetic either.  He is quick to jump to conclusions based on too quick an observation of a person’s behavior. Should we give Eli a break? Can we hold out hope for him to show us his “better side”?

VI.

It seems we are not offered much about Elkanah here.  If you go to 1 Samuel 1:1-8 you get a fuller picture of Elkanah’s relationship to Hannah, his affection for her and his sense of religious obligations.

All of which for me fits with the picture offered of him in our focus passage.  How do you see it?

VII.

What stands out to your in this passage?  What is your take-away?

God answered Hannah’s prayer(s)?

Even a rude, inconsiderate priest might get some things right some time?

Crying when you pray gets quicker results?

Or is prayer even about results?

It is … but it is more also.

I see a person willing to put everything before God even if it means she might look silly, stupid, simple, or drunk.

How much do you trust being “all-in” in your prayers?  How much are you willing to not hold back? How honest am I when I “present myself before the Lord.”  How did Hannah present herself?

What in this scene captured you?  What value is that to you? How can your put your insight into your daily life?

We’ll talk more later.

Grace and Peace to you.

charles

{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}