"God The Wild Card", November 15, 2015

I Samuel 1:1-20 Mark 13: 1-8 In ancient times, there were sacred texts reserved as being available ONLY to the oldest of male priestly scholars. It was thought that the symbols, ideas and imagery could not be understood by anyone enslaved, younger, or female, without an advanced formal education in theology. By similar token, I have had a number of colleagues who blatantly dismissed that as a N.American/White/Male/ Educated/Married/Presbyterian I could understand OPPRESSION. Attending Seminary in Harlem in the early 1980s, the emphasis was on Black Theology and Feminist Theology and Asian Theology, all of whom began with self-identification of having being Oppressed, and that the best others could do was to understand our identity as Oppressors. Even 9/11, could not be compared to having generations before you in Slavery, or South Sudan, or in Afghanistan or on the West Bank. Living with constant war, fear of extermination, lynching, prejudice CHANGES YOU, changes your perspective on life from acceptance of whatever comes to railing against. But what has happened over the last 30 years, the numerous unending wars, the financial collapse of governments and our own expectations, multiple attacks most recently in Petra and France have changed us, to Anomie. Hopeless, Isolated, Alone, Depression, with No Way Out, Anomie... That is the context we have to understand for these passages about Hannah from I Samuel. Routinely, in the Church, at Worship and Bible Study, we take passages out of the Biblical whole, even at best, we read them within the context of their Book, or their half of the Bible. But this week, this morning, I suggest a new and different awareness. Suddenly I have come to a different conclusion than I have seen anywhere else, that HANNAH is the Archetype for the whole story of faith in God. For everything, from Adam& Eve, Abraham & Sarah, Jacob with Rachel & Leah, Moses, the tribes of Israel, the era of the Judges those flawed heroes of Samson, Gideon, Jephthah, Jonah and Ruth, ALL BEFORE HANNAH, and everything AFTER HANNAH: King Saul, the Monarchy of David, Solomon, the exile in Babylon and return to a devastated place, all eventually leading to the Gospel, Spirit and Savior. I believe simple, Hannah, whom no human understands, this beloved wife, trapped in circumstance, to be the turning point for the whole Bible. One of the recurrent images throughout human history is that more than biology, the identification of “being unable to conceive” meant that that generation has no hope, they have no future, their END their APOCALYPSE is NOW. For Hannah, more than a child, Conception is also a statement of survival. Whenever a husband died, the wife inherited Nothing, everything went to his children or his brother. So in this case, where there were two wives, and one had children, Peninah's sons would inherit all; being expected to care for Peninah and their own sisters, but having no responsibility for Hannah. Her husband seems to not understand her fears or loss, emphasizing everything her love means to him. Peninah rubs in her biological failure, by needling her. But Hannah does something even other women in similar circumstance had NEVER DONE; which is why I believe this is such an important passage. When confronted Adam blamed Eve; Sarah, used her Egyptian Slave Hagar to get a child; as did Rachel and Leah use their slaves; Naomi used Ruth the widow of her son to get children for her son/ to get grandchildren after his death. But Hannah turns to God, without using others, without reservation. Her prayer, which we recited as our Unison Confession, not only names her plight, the plight of the Nation, of Humanity, our TOTAL NEED for God, but then gives up any benefit for herself of getting a child, by making an OFFERING of that child's life and service TO God. In the New Testament, when Mary conceives, her song is based on Hannah's, but Mary's circumstance is different. I think, the only equivalency to Hannah's Prayer of Total Devotion and Giving this life to God without benefit for self, is Jesus on the Cross asking God to “Forgive them, they know not what they do.” That is a profound equivalency! Growing up, one of our favorite Board Games was Monopoly. Except, we were not yet skilled in reading, we saw GO with an Arrow and Dice to count how far and quickly grew to adapt our own rules. We did not understand Income tax or Luxury Tax so did not pay these. Beyond the money that was printed, we printed our own $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 dollar bills and if you could put 10 High Rent Luxury Hotels on Broadway and Park Place, why wouldn't you? Once all of us had learned to read and discovered the rules were different, it caused us to question what the difference is between a Closed System where there is limited amount of currency, and Land and Laws, with the possibility of a true Monopoly, an End! Versus an Open System, where anything is possible? Years later when taking Economics in College, the professor described that our Economy is based on Investment, which the Closed Board Game does not provide for. You witness a need, you have an idea, you create a Business Plan, you find the investors to raise the funds, you risk going from nothing to a new future. Will it work, who knows. But it does not work, without trying, without risk. But this is not theoretical economics, this is real life, at its earthiest, Hannah goes to the Temple to risk everything, to pray to God. In essence, when God enters in, God provides a WILD CARD changing a Closed System to have new goals, a new outcome, and everything assumed changes. The Bible describes Hannah “Was Deeply Troubled, Prayed out of Great Anxiety and Vexation.” What better description of railing against a closed system, against Anomie, against the present Apocalypse? God does a New Thing in the birth of Samuel, leading to a new and different end than ever before conceived. The First and Second Chapters of I Samuel are Not about Samuel; they are about HANNAH, her desperation and faith in God. Hannah's Song becomes the “Interpretive Key” to our Understanding Faith, in spite of the horrors to come, in spite of the reality that Hannah will disappear from the Narrative after the first 5 Chapters, and even Samuel will die before the end of the first Book, HANNAH's Prayer is in a GOD WHO CARES, WHO ENTERS IN, GOD WHO IS ACTIVE, GOD CHALLENGING THE APOCALYPSE WE KNOW, CHALLENGING THE STUFF we have based our lives upon. We like our stuff, our routines, our safety. We like driving up to our homes, pushing the button to have our garage door open for us, our dogs greet us with excitement, our lights come on when we enter a room or touch a button. Hot water and cold and frozen foods preserved forever, microwave cooked in seconds. We like our control of our normal. What if nothing happened at our control, as we assumed? Our fears over the Housing Bubble, over the Stock Market all were rooted in fear that where we placed our trust was valueless! What if we lost everything we had? Who would we be without our stuff? What would we be, if our identities and relationships, suddenly meant something different, or meant nothing? Throughout human history, Kings, Empires, Religions have all built Palaces and Temples to their Grandeur. It is as if the bigger and more extravagant, the greater the stability, the greater the prominence and expansion of the future. So when Jesus came out of the Temple at Jerusalem, one of the Disciples commented What Beautiful Stones! The Washington Monument, the Vatican, Westminster Cathedral, Riverside Church in Manhattan, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Peter's,... the list goes on and on, of Churches and Leaders fighting against their own mortality, against their limits by creating something of grandeur and permanence. When I returned to South Sudan, Government Officials and Professors from George Washington University in Washington DC toured the Clinic and declared “Emperors and Kings have built Palaces, Religions have built Sanctuaries, all to their power and influence, but a common people in a church in Upstate New York have created Health Care for people they will never meet or know.” Hearing this I sat down and wept. But Jesus replied: all of this, will be turned to dust. I wept again eight years after the Clinic was Dedicated, when everything that could be stolen, was. What I find marvelous is that the people on the ground, here and in South Sudan did not ever give up hope, and have continued to act and reach out in caring, without stuff. Repeatedly the reaction to Jesus, the reaction to proclamation: APOCALYPSE, is WHEN will this be? We want to worry over the details, the minutia, wanting security, wanting to control details in a closed Economy. Jesus replies, WHEN Does not matter! Instead of Punishment or Retribution, or a Day of Judgement, Jesus offers the most Optimistic Affirmation of the future: All the destruction and decay of built up security for ourselves, fighting against our mortality, will not be the end of God's Creation only of humanity's control, and this signaling the birth contractions of something New GOD is Doing. What if? What if we lived without concern for the stuff of this life, for belief in economies and rules as we know them? What if all our fears, of Natural Disasters, of Wars, of Terrorism, of Economies were pointless. What if we lived in that Apocalypse Now, believing God is about to do something New in GOD'S CREATION!