SERMON Be Careful What You Pray For November 18, 2018 The Reverend George Anastos
SCRIPTURE READING 1 Samuel 1:4-20 Hannah s Prayer On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year after year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons? 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 favour 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 worshipped 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. SERMON The Purpose of Prayer Text: I have borrowed him from God (v. 20). Often from this pulpit you have heard me say that the biblical stories we hear on Sunday morning are master stories in which our personal stories nest. These master stories guide and inform ours. Their universal nature transcends time and place because their themes and their content speak to the human condition in every culture and every age. This is true for today s story of Hannah praying in the temple that she might bear a son. Yes, I know, I know. I know that this story is like many other women s when they ardently want children. I know it is a valid question then to ask what makes this story of this woman a master story one that guides not only women, but also men, one that transcends time and culture and gender and race. The answer is quite simple: whether you be a woman or a man you are now, have been, or will be Hannah in a very real sense. And, when you become aware of that, she will stand beside you when you need her. Her story will guide you when you think you are lost. Her journey will walk with yours when you get exactly what you ask for, and it comes at a cost. Page 1 of 4
Biblically speaking Hannah s story is not unique. Before Hannah s story all the matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel had been barren and had pleaded with God for a son. After Hannah story we hear of Mary s barren cousin Elizabeth bearing a son in her old age, a son who was to become John the Baptist. Understood contextually, a woman s worth in this patriarchal world was most often measured in her fertility, not just of children, but particularly of sons. [Our feminist liturgist this morning said to me, Why do I get such a patriarchal reading? ] Culturally woven into the fabric of Hannah s being was the desire to give, from her very body, a son to her husband. Today our society is profoundly different, but Hannah s ardent prayer to give from her own body, to give from the very depths of her being, and to dedicate that to God, speaks of any person s need to birth life, to nurture growth, to participate in something larger than oneself. Hannah s prayer was therefore one of profound courage because she laid it all on the line, because she promised that if her petition were granted the fruit would be dedicated God and ultimately taken from her. Moreover, she understood, and this is where this master story has such profound importance to us, she understood that once you invite God fully into your life, once you intentionally dedicate the fruit of your life to God, you will have no idea where that will lead because God will take you up on it, but in ways you never expect. My wife Andrea s godmother was Madeleine L Engle and she warned Andrea repeatedly ( warned being the operative verb), At first glance this may seem a nonsensical comment. I m praying for it, of course I want to get it. Um, maybe not. Remember, as Jesus said in the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit blows where She will, you do not know where She comes from or where She is going. She may well give you exactly what you want in a way that turns your life upside down. Prayer. We clergy harp on this all the time. We as a congregation pray all the time, be that here in corporate worship or when we have meetings and ask for the Holy Spirit s presence and guidance as we pursue mission and ministry amongst ourselves and beyond our walls in the world. Be careful what you pray for because you may get it. Often I prayed that this church would know God s will and pursue that. When we formed the Mission Team eleven years ago we prayed for the Spirit s guidance. We understood Her guidance to be found in energy, or lack thereof. We knew when the Spirit was guiding us because we were filled with energy to pursue mission. We knew when She was not there because a proposed ministry, however worthy, felt like a burden. When She leads us there is no doubt. We only need look at our ministries around the reduction of gun violence, around mental health, around racial equality, around LBGTQ equality, to know how deeply present She is as She empowers us, and how deeply present She is as she changes us. As she changes us. Changes us. Because that what Hannah s prayer teaches us: prayer changes us right to the very core of our being. Madeleine s warning is apt: Be careful what you pray for because you may get it. Be careful because if you get it you will be fundamentally changed. You see, change is the purpose of prayer, whether we realize it or not. When we bring our petitions before God we are naming that which is incomplete in our lives, that which needs to change in our lives, that which causes angst or dissatisfaction or pain in our lives. We bring our petitions, as did Hannah, and lay them before God. As a colleague of mine says, We engage with God in intentional and focused relationship for the sole purpose of being changed. Page 2 of 4
My colleague goes on to write: Being changed. Not changing other people or events although other people and events will probably change as a result. We pray for the purpose of being changed. We say yes to God s invitation to us by inviting God to touch us more deeply. We voluntarily open ourselves to being touched more deeply in order to be transformed.... In other words, I pray so that I (as an individual, submitting myself to God s hope and vision) will be personally transformed in such a way that my presence in my family, church, place of business, school, courtroom, health care facility, rescue squad, wherever--will heal, strengthen, challenge, comfort, enlighten, and empower. Every prayer (whether spoken or unspoken, whether on the surface a prayer of thanksgiving or petition, intercession or praise, whether incorporating inner images or not) is an offering of myself to God to be shaped more fully and faithfully into a vessel to hold God s divine desire for creation, into a channel of God s divine power and justice, into a tool with which God can build God s commonwealth. 1 Hannah explicitly understood this. She said to God, 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. A nazirite, biblically speaking, is one who is consecrated, set apart, to pursue a path of holiness, working solely for God s kin-dom of shalom. We engage with God in intentional and focused relationship for the sole purpose of being changed. When, corporately and privately, we make our prayers for the church and for the world, we are changed. As we pray for peace in Syria or in our own fractured political system we are offering a vision of a world where people metaphorically beat their swords into plowshares and actually listen to each other. When we offer these prayers we are changed, however subtly, as we sit with the possibility of a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, because such vision shapes and guides us and our behavior in family, church and world. We open ourselves to that potential so that when faced with conflict ourselves we will choose collaboration over a need to win, listening over a need to dominate. This changes us. When we pray for healing for ourselves, for one we love, for someone in our church or sphere of friends, we are entering a vision of health not only of body, but of mind and spirit that invites us to reshape our view of human wholeness, of human holiness, transforming our understanding to embrace the fullness of God s of Love s intended health. This changes us. When we pray for the healing of a relationship, for the strength to be forgiven or to forgive, when we pray for a new job or a more rewarding path in life, we realize that our prayer is a response to God s invitation to see ourselves in purer harmony with ourselves and those we love. And praying ourselves that way, we begin to see ourselves that way, finding the inner determination to live and love into the image of God. This changes us. You see, ultimately, even when we think our prayers are for ourselves we come to realize that there is no such thing as private prayer; it is always corporate, because as it changes us it changes those around us in response, and the ripples go out from there in ways beyond our limited sight to perceive. Hannah s 1 If you haven t figured it out already, the wise colleague who wrote this is my very bright and mature wife. Page 3 of 4
prayer changed her. It changed her husband. It changed the high priest Eli. It changed the temple. It changed her nation. It changed the world. Hannah s prayer was not only for herself. No prayer is ever private. In the 13 plus years I have been with you, it is you who have taught me this truth: no prayer is ever private. You have taught me and shaped me. You have had the courage to change and to inspire me to trust your courage and to have some of my own. I m serious, because when I have heard your prayers I have been humbled and awed. I have sat and prayed with so many of you as you asked for God s grace, God s guidance, God s presence, solace, comfort, help. It is fair to say that all of these were moments when change was so desperately needed. I have prayed with you before major surgery as you expressed a great fear of death. I have prayed with you after the loss of a child when the resultant expanding emptiness fills your soul with an agony that no human presence can quell. I have prayed with you as you have said goodbye to your mother, father, sister, friend. I have prayed with you when your anger is so intense you have confessed to me that you are afraid you will murder a particular person. I have prayed with you when your spouse was unfaithful, when you were unfaithful, when your child went to prison, when you went to prison. I have prayed with you as you confessed past sins that haunt you down your days and stain your soul with guilt. I have heard your prayers and I have been humbled and awed. We engage with God in intentional and focused relationship for the sole purpose of being changed. Each time I have prayed with you, we have together, as fellow pilgrims on the way, asked God to change us in some substantial way, and most often, surprisingly or not, change happened. Fear of death no longer held such power over you. The expanding emptiness of agony resulting from the loss of a child began to be graced with another Presence that dulled the searing edge of pain and progressively replenished the void with Love. The dreaded moment of goodbye when a parent died of old age became a moment of astounding grace as you loved her to the very portal and felt God s peace as she passed to the other side. The murderous anger oddly gave way to an almost bewildering awareness of human frailty, both our own and the other s. The betrayal of trust remained as at the same time internal resources strengthened. Guilt came to be understood as a gift that allowed full contrition, absolution, and a way forward free of debilitating remorse. Every time your prayer changed you, it changed me. Every time your prayer changed you it changed us. No prayer is ever private, every prayer impacts community. Among you now sit people who had the courage to pray, the courage to engage with God in intentional and focused relationship for the sole purpose of being changed. Among you now are people who had the courage to trust Hannah and invite in the wild and unpredictable Holy Spirit who embraces your prayer and invites you on a journey to heal a broken creation. Among you now are people, ordinary people, finding ordinary strength to be shaped and reshaped into the extraordinary image of Love. Among you now.... I bless each of you for being one of them. Amen and amen. Page 4 of 4