The Lectio Room

September 8, 2019, 1 Samuel 1:9-20

Posted on September 2, 2019 by Charles

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.

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}

September 1, 2019, Genesis 19:1, 15-26, 29 – Post 2

Posted on August 30, 2019 by Charles

VIII.

Did I mention circumstances the other day? I hoped for the past couple of days to add a few more thoughts to our considerations on this passage, but “circumstances” just got in my way.

IX.

A few days ago as Linda and I were talking about this passage and I mentioned how I basically ignored “Lot’s wife” in my initial post both of us started thinking about her and out of that discussion I want to share a couple of thoughts.

We read, “… Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

On Monday I asked what might have held Lot so much to Sodom that he bargained with the messengers who were determined to get him out of town and away from the coming devastation?

Family ties? Other family members’ ties to Sodom?

What did Lot’s wife look back to see? Did she hear something? Or, did she think she needed one last look at the life she was being pulled away from? Did she want one last memory of Sodom in her mind she could hold on to?

And did Lot know how much his wife (and daughters maybe?) wanted to stay at their home in Sodom. Was Lot bargaining because of his love for and attachment to his family. I know you understand I am not saying love for family is wrong. It is not wrong; it is demanded in our very nature. But might there be a call strong enough that we are asked to make a change in family dynamics, family residence? There was for Lot. And he struggled with it. Give him credit for listening to the call. And give us credit to know how hard sometimes life can be, especially “family life.”

XI.

As Linda and I talked about Lot’s wife looking back, Linda mentioned it made her think of how sometimes at churches folks can talk about “how it use to be.”

Have you heard those conversations? Maybe you have taken part in them on one side or the other? For instance, “we use have pews full … when so-and-so was pastor … when we had two services every Sunday … when we had a monthly fellowship meal … when we didn’t have the distraction of so many businesses being open on Sunday ….”

What can you add to the list?

Or we look back to how we see society has changed and long for the time before the changes.

I guess we need to acknowledge there is a good way to look back and a bad way to look back. If we look back to learn from the past or to rejoice in the good times and good memories that seems productive. But we look back to be held in place by our ties to the past, or to be so tied to it we can not look forward and move forward to a new day, then that is not so good.

What do you think? Where is the line crossed from the past being a path to the future and a means of holding us in place so we cannot move to our futures?

XII.

I closed on Monday with the question of how might you and I respond the next time God’s grace comes; God’s call is put before us.

Let me put that differently – What do we do now, every day, to prepare ourselves to notice God’s grace in each day? What do you do each day to make sure your eyes are so open, they do not miss God’s grace, God’s call as it comes before you? How do you pay attention?

What do you see, hear, feel, know today?

Let me know how it goes with you.

See you next week.

charles

{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflection for September 1, 2019 – Genesis 19:1, 15-26, 29

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Charles

I.
Over the next weeks I will be offering some thoughts for reflection on the Scriptures that follow the International Sunday School Lesson Cycle for 2019-2020.

I will not be concerned with offering historical background for the Scripture passage, though at times such background may help provoke my reflections and yours. Neither will I aim to offer commentary on the passage, though certainly any attempt to reflect on the passages will lead to my “comments” and to yours.

Reflection – my hope is for us to read these passages, rest in them, and spend time with them so they soak into our spirits and we come to a place where we are not simply reading words on a page but listening for what the Spirit would have us hear.

I plan to put before us each Monday the Scripture passage for the next Sunday’s lesson and to offer a few beginning thoughts for consideration.

During the week you and I may add to those initial reflections and share with one another what we are hearing.

Does that sound like a project that interests you?

Let’s start.

II.
The editors for the lesson cycle offer as the theme first quarter’s lessons (September – November, 2019) “Responding to God’s Grace.” The first lesson is taken from Genesis 19 and puts before us Lot and the end of his residency in Sodom. Given the number of times this account has been told and retold many of us probably already presume we know the account from beginning to end. But before we fall back on our recollections about Lot, Lot’s wife, and Sodom, take a moment to let yourself enter the passage with the question in mind, “How does this account inform our understanding of how we respond or do not respond to God’s Grace?”

III.
Genesis 19:1, 15-26, 29 (New Revised Standard Version)

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground.

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, they said, “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.” And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords; your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die. Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” He said to him, “Very well, I grant you this favor too, and will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” Therefore the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.

IV.

First question – did the verses selected here skip or leave out parts of the account you are very familiar with and expected to see repeated? Does that bother you or are you comfortable with this presentation? If you are uncomfortable with the verses selected here, why do you think that is?

And second, did this presentation of account bring out to you more clearly other aspects of the passage? What are you noticing with this reading you have not noticed before?

Let’s spend a few minutes with Lot and notice some of his reactions to and interactions with the two angelic visitors.

How does Lot respond when they first come to him?

What does his rising and his bowing “with the face to the ground” suggest to you?

“ … But he lingered … “

Lot is told to get up and – as they say at home – “get a move on it!” It seems to me that Lot has already showed respect for and deference to his visitors but now he shows them what? Does he not believe what they tell him? Does he think there must be other ways of dealing with the situation he is in? Or, is he so attached to his life in Sodom that he cannot leave the city?

What do you think?

Do we see grace here? What do we make of Lot’s response to this offer of … life, grace … how do you name it?

VI.

When you cannot leave a place under your own power, sometimes others help you get up and get going. That seems to be the case here.

He is told again to “Flee for your life … “

And what does Lot do? “ … but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I will die.”

Is he responding to “grace” with fear? How is that possible? For him or for us?

And next he proposes an alternate plan – “Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there … and my life will be saved!”

So we have Lot bargaining with his protectors. I wonder if we looked through Scripture for a while, who else might we find that bargains with God or with his messengers to get the outcome they want?

Then we hear that the angel will “grant you this favor too …” And if that is not enough of a surprise, the angel says, “ … for I can do nothing until your arrive there.”

How is the angel hampered by Lot’s reactions, requests, and reluctance to “obey”? At one point in the account the angel “seized” Lot and took him out of the city and yet at another the angel cannot act until Lot acts. Who’s in charge here?

VII.

So, is the story about “responding to God’s grace”?

Does Lot respond whole-heartedly? Half-heartedly? Quickly? Reluctantly? Fearfully?

Or is it about how Lot does not respond to God’s grace?

What holds back Lot from responding immediately?

And let’s not keep our eyes solely on Lot? How about us?

When we are offered a grace-filled moment or opportunity do we immediately see what to do and do it? What thoughts, commitments, pressures mute or delay our response.

From your perspective today, can you think of time in the past you should have responded differently to a graced moment? Can you identify what got in the way of your accepting grace?

How might you respond next time?

Charles

{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

Easter – Evening Prayer

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Charles

Psalm 113

1 Hallelujah!
Give praise, you servants of the LORD;*
praise the Name of the LORD.

2 Let the Name of the LORD be blessed,*
from this time forth for evermore.

3 From the rising of the sun to its going down*
let the Name of the LORD be praised.

4 The LORD is high above all nations,*
and his glory above the heavens.

5 Who is like the LORD our God, who sits enthroned on high,*
but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?

6 He takes up the weak out of the dust*
and lifts up the poor from the ashes.

7 He sets them with the princes,*
with the princes of his people.

8 He makes the woman of a childless house*
to be a joyful mother of children.

Easter – Morning Prayer

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Charles

Psalm 148

1 Hallelujah!
Praise the LORD from the heavens;*
praise him in the heights.

2 Praise him, all you angels of his;*
praise him, all his host.

3 Praise him, sun and moon;*
praise him, all you shining stars.

4 Praise him, heaven of heavens,*
and you waters above the heavens.

5 Let them praise the Name of the LORD;*
for he commanded, and they were created.

6 He made them stand fast for ever and ever; *
he gave them a law which shall not pass away.

7 Praise the LORD from the earth,*
you sea-monsters and all deeps;

8 Fire and hail, snow and fog,*
tempestuous wind, doing his will;

9 Mountains and all hills,*
fruit trees and all cedars;

10 Wild beasts and all cattle,*
creeping things and winge!d birds;

11 Kings of the earth and all peoples,*
princes and all rulers of the world;

12 Young men and maidens,*
old and young together.

13 Let them praise the Name of the LORD,*
for his Name only is exalted,
his splendor is over earth and heaven.

14 He has raised up strength for his people
and praise for all his loyal servants,*
the children of Israel, a people who are near him.
Hallelujah!

Holy Saturday – Evening Prayer

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Charles

Psalm 27

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom then shall I fear? *
the LORD is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers came upon me to eat up my flesh, *
it was they, my foes and my adversaries, who stumbled and fell.

3 Though an army should encamp against me, *
yet my heart shall not be afraid;

4 And though war should rise up against me, *
yet will I put my trust in him.

5 One thing have I asked of the LORD;
one thing I seek; *
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life;

6 To behold the fair beauty of the LORD *
and to seek him in his temple.

7 For in the day of trouble he shall keep me safe in his shelter; *
he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling
and set me high upon a rock.

8 Even now he lifts up my head *
above my enemies round about me.

9 Therefore I will offer in his dwelling an oblation
with sounds of great gladness; *
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

10 Hearken to my voice, O LORD, when I call; *
have mercy on me and answer me.

11 You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.”*
Your face, LORD, will I seek.

12 Hide not your face from me, *
nor turn away your servant in displeasure.

13 You have been my helper;
cast me not away; *
do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.

14 Though my father and my mother forsake me, *
the LORD will sustain me.

15 Show me your way, O LORD; *
lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.

16 Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries, *
for false witnesses have risen up against me,
and also those who speak malice.

17 What if I had not believed
that I should see the goodness of the LORD *
in the land of the living!

18 O tarry and await the LORD’S pleasure;
be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; *
wait patiently for the LORD.

Holy Saturday – Morning Prayer

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Charles

Psalm 88

1 O LORD, my God, my Savior,*
by day and night I cry to you.

2 Let my prayer enter into your presence;*
incline your ear to my lamentation.

3 For I am full of trouble;*
my life is at the brink of the grave.

4 I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;*
I have become like one who has no strength;

5 Lost among the dead,*
like the slain who lie in the grave,

6 Whom you remember no more,*
for they are cut off from your hand.

7 You have laid me in the depths of the Pit,*
in dark places, and in the abyss.

8 Your anger weighs upon me heavily,*
and all your great waves overwhelm me.

9 You have put my friends far from me;
you have made me to be abhorred by them;*
I am in prison and cannot get free.

10 My sight has failed me because of trouble;*
LORD, I have called upon you daily;
I have stretched out my hands to you.

11 Do you work wonders for the dead?*
will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?

12 Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave?*
your faithfulness in the land of destruction?

13 Will your wonders be known in the dark?*
or your righteousness in the country where all is forgotten?

14 But as for me, O LORD, I cry to you for help;*
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

15 LORD, why have you rejected me?*
why have you hidden your face from me?

16 Ever since my youth, I have been wretched and at the point of death;*
I have borne your terrors with a troubled mind.

17 Your blazing anger has swept over me;*
your terrors have destroyed me;

18 They surround me all day long like a flood;*
they encompass me on every side.

19 My friend and my neighbor you have put away from me,*
and darkness is my only companion.

Good Friday – Evening Prayer

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Charles

Psalm 40

1 I waited patiently upon the LORD; *
he stooped to me and heard my cry.

2 He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay; *
he set my feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure.

3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God; *
many shall see, and stand in awe,
and put their trust in the LORD.

4 Happy are they who trust in the LORD! *
they do not resort to evil spirits or turn to false gods.

5 Great things are they that you have done, O LORD my God!
how great your wonders and your plans for us! *
there is none who can be compared with you.

6 Oh, that I could make them known and tell them! *
but they are more than I can count.

7 In sacrifice and offering you take no pleasure*
(you have given me ears to hear you);

8 Burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required, *
and so I said, “Behold, I come.

9 In the roll of the book it is written concerning me: *
‘I love to do your will, O my God;
your law is deep in my heart.'”

10 I proclaimed righteousness in the great congregation;*
behold, I did not restrain my lips;
and that, O LORD, you know.

11 Your righteousness have I not hidden in my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance; *
I have not concealed your love and faithfulness from the great congregation.

12 You are the LORD;
do not withhold your compassion from me; *
let your love and your faithfulness keep me safe for ever,

13 For innumerable troubles have crowded upon me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see; *
they are more in number than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails me.

14 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; *
O LORD, make haste to help me.

15 Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed
who seek after my life to destroy it; *
let them draw back and be disgraced who take pleasure in my misfortune.

16 Let those who say “Aha!” and gloat over me be confounded, *
because they are ashamed.

17 Let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad; *
let those who love your salvation continually say,
“Great is the LORD!”

18 Though I am poor and afflicted, *
the Lord will have regard for me.

19 You are my helper and my deliverer; *
do not tarry, O my God.

Good Friday – Morning Prayer

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Charles

Psalm 22

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?*
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?

2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; *
by night as well, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are the Holy One, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

4 Our forefathers put their trust in you; *
they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 They cried out to you and were delivered;*
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.

6 But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *
scorned by all and despised by the people.

7 All who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

8 “He trusted in the LORD; let him deliver him; *
let him rescue him, if he delights in him.”

9 Yet you are he who took me out of the womb,*
and kept me safe upon my mother’s breast.

10 I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; *
you were my God when I was still in my mother’s womb.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near,*
and there is none to help.

12 Many young bulls encircle me; *
strong bulls of Bashan surround me.

13 They open wide their jaws at me, *
like a ravening and a roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water;
all my bones are out of joint; *
my heart within my breast is melting wax.

15 My mouth is dried out like a pot-sherd;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; *
and you have laid me in the dust of the grave.

16 Packs of dogs close me in,
and gangs of evildoers circle around me; *
they pierce my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.

17 They stare and gloat over me; *
they divide my garments among them;
they cast lots for my clothing.

18 Be not far away, O LORD; *
you are my strength; hasten to help me.

19 Save me from the sword, *
my life from the power of the dog.

20 Save me from the lion’s mouth, *
my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.

21 I will declare your Name to my brethren;*
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

22 Praise the LORD, you that fear him; *
stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
all you of Jacob’s line, give glory.

23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither does he hide his face from them; *
but when they cry to him he hears them.

24 My praise is of him in the great assembly;*
I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.

25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
and those who seek the LORD shall praise him: *
“May your heart live for ever!”

26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, *
and all the families of the nations bow before him.

27 For kingship belongs to the LORD; *
he rules over the nations.

28 To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
all who go down to the dust fall before him.

29 My soul shall live for him;
my descendants shall serve him; *
they shall be known as the LORD’S for ever.

30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
the saving deeds that he has done.

Maundy Thursday – Evening Prayer

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Charles

Psalm 142

1 I cry to the LORD with my voice;*
to the LORD I make loud supplication.

2 I pour out my complaint before him*
and tell him all my trouble.

3 When my spirit languishes within me, you know my path; *
in the way wherein I walk they have hidden a trap for me.

4 I look to my right hand and find no one who knows me; *
I have no place to flee to, and no one cares for me.

5 I cry out to you, O LORD;*
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”

6 Listen to my cry for help, for I have been brought very low;*
save me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.

7 Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your Name;*
when you have dealt bountifully with me,
the righteous will gather around me.

Good Friday – Morning Prayer
Psalm 22