25PentecostProper28B, Sullivan Park Care Center, November
18, 2012 by Annette Fricke
I have been
watching a bush that is just a few feet outside my living room window. Every winter, it returns to a dormant state
and looks as though it has died. But,
every spring and summer, it comes alive again and blooms with fresh flowers. The changing of the seasons is evident within
one bush. You don’t need a whole floral
garden to notice how bushes and trees change with the season. Even the pine trees, so called evergreens,
change. Some of the needles turn brown
from lack of moisture and become covered with the snow. Hannah lived at a time
and place where she likely observed the years also as they went by, and was
probably depressed when thinking about her barrenness and yet, we are told, she
held onto her hope. We know about her
prayer in the temple, but I would bet that she prayed continually, everywhere
she went. She was determined that God would hear her prayer. I am not saying
that her hope may not have wavered. I am
sure that just like any human, her hope wavered. A preacher in my past once told me that the
grace of God is most profoundly in our struggles.
Hannah is a
woman who lived a very long time ago, and just like the bush I observe year
after year, I am sure she also observed the changing of the seasons as seen along
and beside the pathways she trod on a daily basis. And even though our text does not tell us
this, I bet she noticed those changes and wondered why it did not work that way
for her body. Although treated well by
her husband, she was taunted by other women. We are never told if she ever got
upset with or mad at God. Even the priest, Eli made mockery of her, thinking
she was drunk as she was praying. She bore the shame of a woman amongst a
people who valued women in their ability to bear and raise children, but
especially male children. There is a
parallel here with the story of Ruth and Naomi.
Do I abandon this faith I was taught from an early age or do I continue to
be faithful, in spite of the hopelessness of my years of barrenness? This is a passage about hope in the face of
despair. It is, more than anything else,
a text about spirituality. How can I be
faithful to God when all I see about me speaks of barrenness, death, and decay? How can a womb that has been infertile year
after year, ever produce a child, just one child, just one male child
heir? Is that at all possible? Then I
think of Job, a story in which all of his children are taken away. At one point, Job cries to God that it may
have been better if he had never been born.
Again, we are talking about a religion for which this life is all there
is. This Jewish community does not
believe in a resurrection. Life is here
and now. Krister Stendahl, once bishop
of the Church of Sweden said about American Christianity in general that too
much emphasis is placed on eternal life.
We too, ought to live our lives to the fullest in the here and now. If your thoughts are too much about the
future, how is it that you can live your life to its fullest in the here and
now? There is much we can learn from
Jewish faithfulness to God. We can
dismiss this guy’s remarks by noting that he was an Old Testament scholar; but
can we? Where in the New Testament does
it say that we should only think about eternal life with God in heaven and that
nothing else matters? Eternal life
begins in the here and now. Hannah
understands that her relationship with God is in the here and now. That is how we should understand it. Our gospel text states emphatically, “Do not
let anyone lead you astray.” Life is
filled with many temptations to be unfaithful to God on both a personal level
and in observation of all that may be around us.
Hurricane
Sandy was quite vicious in its devastating hurl onto the east coast and then
another storm came on its heels. People
lost their lives. It seems that no
matter how much know-how and technology we possess, we are never quite prepared
for disasters brought about in the natural occurrences in our world. The tsunami of Japan is still washing up
various items onto the Pacific Ocean beaches. Katrina, in another part of the
US also destroyed many homes, property and businesses. The American Red Cross always is in need of
volunteers for local and across the country needs from wind, fire,
flooding. We don’t have to go far to see
nature getting out of control. There has
been several times when I have watched the local news of the Spokane area and
learned that yet another family has been displaced by a fire. In the face of all this, some people respond
that there is no God. If there was a
God, why would a just and good God allow this to happen? And many of our questions, as when the book of
Job was written, are good questions, but we don’t have the answers. We come up short.
We struggle
as a nation to make things right for people in the workplace and surrounding
the issues of delivering healthcare.
Many of your may remember the poor farm.
Often the poorhouse was situated on the grounds of a poor
farm on which able-bodied residents were required to work; such farms were
common in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries;
it could even be part of the same economic complex as a prison farm
and other penal or charitable public institutions. Poor farms were county or town-run residences where
paupers (mainly elderly and disabled people) were supported at public expense.
They were common in the United States beginning in the middle of the 19th
century and declined in use after the Social Security Act took effect in 1935 with
most disappearing completely by about 1950. In a book written about a resident
in my care, there was apparently one of these in the Spangle area. From the
book, “Palouse Pilot,” we read, “As Jake drove the family car past the Poor
Farm, (and this was in 1945) Pauline told Scotty that there was talk of it
being disbanded and put up for sale.
Social Security had come in with the New Deal, and Old Age Pensions
would enable the old folks to make do without ending up in such a place. Yes, there were changes in the air. A lot could happen to a society in the two
and a half years he had been away to war.” (p.350)
Do
not let anyone lead you astray. “Many
will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do
not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. This is but the beginning of the birth
pangs.”
We
can wait on the Lord and be faithful servants.
We can pray for ourselves and for others. We can trust that God will see us through our
darkest hours. As in the Hebrews text,
“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who
has promised is faithful. And let us
consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to
meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all
the more as you see the Day approaching.”
The early church was deeply confused as to when Jesus would come again
and various Christian groups have made predictions throughout the years. We still do not know. The best advice I can give you is the same as
Luther’s, “Live your life as though this is the last one.” None of us really
knows as to when the second coming will be or even the end of our own lives.
The stories
of Job, Ruth and Naomi, and Hannah all remind us of the fragility of our lives
here on earth. No one escapes a hard
life, especially if they are determined to remain faithful to God. Live your
life as though this is the last one.
Amen.
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