28B Hannah and Lending Children 1 Samuel 1:4-20 November 17, 2024, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock, AR
Several months ago, some of us from Saint Mark’s helped perform school physicals at our sister African American Church, Saint Mark Baptist. We thought we would be seeing mostly elementary school children, but instead, we first saw 150 freshmen football players from Arkansas Baptist College vying for 28 scholarships on their team. The young men were from all over the country: Dallas, Detroit, Memphis, Mississippi, California, and a few from Arkansas.
We learned a lot about football and a little bit about them. Playing football was their ticket out of poverty. My husband told one player as he left, “We will see you on Sunday night Football!” His response was, “That’s my dream!.”
We kidded one large player as he came in, “You’re the quarterback!” He replied, “I’m smart enough to be a quarterback! You know linemen need to be smart, too. We watch the moves and know where to go.” I asked one receiver for his secret of catching the football. He answered, “I keep my eye on the ball at all times. Many receivers watch what is happening around them instead and miss the ball.” I will never forget another receiver, one of the few from small-town Arkansas, about three hours away. He seemed depressed. He said, “I miss my family. They are so far away.”/ I asked him, “Tell us about your family.” “There is my mother, two sisters, and a brother. I rarely saw my father growing up. He was in and out of prison. We often didn’t know if we would have food to eat each day. I am dreaming of a better life.”/ /////
Later, young children did come in to our make-shift examining room. Beautiful. Shy. We will especially remember one woman who brought four foster children, which she keeps. Two were obviously look-alike young sisters close in age. They clung to each other,/ sat huddled in the same chair,/ and did not move from each other’s side./ The foster mother works at a grocery store all day,/ picks up the children,/ and starts her next job of feeding and bathing them at night./////
Before we retired from our pediatric specialties, we cared for patients in these circumstances, but not one right after another. We had forgotten what it was like.
We tried to imagine why the four foster children were no longer with their parents. It must be an unbelievable situation to have to give up your child. I think of parents in England during World War II sending their children to the country to avoid bombings in London/ or Jewish children sent by their parents to this country. Of course, we well know that it is possible for them to find new and loving homes. ////
This leads us to the story of Hannah/ as she so bitterly weeps while praying,/ desperately pouring out her heart to God so dramatically/ that Eli thinks she is drunk. Hannah does not offer a sacrifice or ask the priest to intercede. She prays directly to God. Except she does offer a sacrifice. She vows to give up her first-born son to God.
Fertility for women in that culture was their role in life. Even though Hannah’s husband profoundly loves her, what she wants is a child, preferably a son. Like the Arkansas Baptist College freshmen football players who dream of escaping poverty with a football scholarship, Hannah dreams of changing her situation with her husband, his other wife, and society by having a son.
Hannah, of course, is not alone with infertility difficulties in the Bible. Many Old and New Testament matriarchs share Hannah’s story: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Sampson’s unnamed mother, a Shu/nam/mite Woman who cares for Elisha, and, of course, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Spoiler Alert! Whenever the Bible mentions that a woman is barren, she most probably will soon be having a baby!
Hannah’s Song, which we also hear today, hints at Hannah’s joy after her son is born. She,/ not her husband, names him Samuel and “lends” him to God. The story goes on to say that Hannah comes to Shiloh every year and brings Samuel a little robe. Later she gives birth to three more sons and two daughters./ Samuel goes on to change the structure of Israel by anointing two kings, Saul and David, who finally lead the Israelites to defeat the Philistines. Walter Brueggemann suggests that the Song of Hannah paves the way for a major theme of the Book of Samuel, the “power and willingness of Yahweh to intrude, intervene and invert.” 1
The Song of Hannah is so similar to the Song of Mary which we will hear next month. Both are songs of praise for God and thanksgiving, like none other, from two strong women with miraculous conceptions. Hannah and Mary sing about a God who has turned the world upside down. Both women have sons who do just that as they dramatically change the world of the Israelites. In fact, there is such similarity between the two songs that some believe Mary knew Hannah’s song and spontaneously praised God using words of Scripture that she had “hidden in her heart.”
At the end of this chapter, Hannah uses the word “lent” in our translation when she presents young Samuel to old Eli.// Hannah’s words remind us of Khalil Gibran’s (kuh·leel juh·braan) writing in The Prophet. “Our children are not really ours, but ‘lent’ to us by God.” They are the most important guests we will have in our homes, but they are not ours for the keeping. Gibran compares God to the archer and our job to be a bow, sending our children out into the world as arrows to become the person God created them to be. Listen to Gibran:
“Your children are not your children.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.” 2////
So, as parents and lovers of children, we are called to be the “steady bow.” The steady bow.//////
Of course, we wanted to take home the two sisters at Saint Mark Baptist and ensure all 150 freshmen football players received a scholarship. We remembered that at least one of the foster-care sisters was around five years old, about Samuel’s age, when Hannah lent him to God.
But what could we really do? First, we become aware of the needs of children and their parents right here in our county and in our own state. We read about it, but actually seeing it in person produces an insight like none other.
Awareness is the first step, and that is where we are. We are keeping those children and young men at St. Mark in our prayers. We can relate more to the children who come to our food pantry./ We can respond to children needing scholarships at Camp Mitchell,/ especially the Dick Johnston Camp for children of incarcerated parents./ We can respond to Free Read,/ giving books to men and women incarcerated at Hawkins./ We can partner more with Saint Mark Baptist in their programs./ We can dream of a time when all children will be loved and cared for./ /
My hope is that we will each be guided to hear a call to make a change for the children and parents of our state and our country.//
We have a responsibility to be a “steady bow” to our own children,/ but we also have a God-given responsibility to be the “steady bow” to the children outside this congregation in the world.
1. Walter Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel (Interpretation; Louisville; John Knox, 1990), 21.
2 Khalil Gibran “On Children” in The Prophet (1923).
Joanna joannaseibert.com