Moving Other Mountains: 1 Samuel 1:1-20 - 21st Sunday after Pentecost

“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

These were the final words of the book of Judges, summarizing the grim state of God’s chosen people, roughly two centuries after they had settled the Promised Land.

Image by kordula vahle from Pixabay

In that time, the Israelites were very “on again off again” in their relationship with God. Enemies would attack, they’d cry out to God, and God responded by raising up judges to deliver them. Soon, they backslid into apostasy, and the hopeless cycle began again.

There was, however, a godly man named Elkanah who had two wives: Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah had borne Elkanah many children, whereas Hannah she was said to be barren. In those days, childlessness was believed to be the result of God closing the woman’s womb, rather than a medical condition. Peninnah mercilessly tormented Hannah for being childless. But Elkanah loved Hannah. Whenever he made his annual pilgrimage to Shiloh, he gave her a double portion of the sacrificial meat. But Hannah’s shame was unbearable. A woman without children was a woman with practically nothing to live for. So, Hannah went to Shiloh and made a vow that if God gave her a male child, she would dedicate him to the Lord for life.

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When the priest Eli saw her praying silently, he scolded her, thinking that she was drunk. After Hannah explained him, Eli assured her that God would grant his favor. In due time, Hannah bore a son named Samuel. From the time he was weaned, he was raised in the house of the Lord by Eli the priest.

This begs the question: why did Hannah beg God to give her a son for her to give away?

This is a serious matter, considering what kind of a man Eli was. He wasn’t much of a priest if he saw a woman praying and immediately assumed she was drunk. As a father, he was practically worthless. His sons, Hophni and Phineas, were complete scoundrels who regularly stole people’s offerings, and he did nothing to stop them.

Fortunately, there’s more to this story than God giving a barren woman a son, and that woman giving that Son back to God. That’s important, because there are many women and many couples who prayed for God to give them children, only for them to suffer infertility, miscarriage, or stillbirth.

We know Hannah suffered much disgrace for her alleged failure to bear baby boys for her husband, especially from Peninnah.

After all the shaming and the harassment, Hannah was looking for assurance that God had not forsaken her, and that she was not the disgrace her sister-wife was making her out to be.

God saw Hannah. God saw her pain, God saw her disgrace, and most importantly, God saw her potential. God saw that he could use her to do something far greater than mere childbirth. Hannah, together with the son she bore, would change the world. God used Hannah and Samuel to fulfill God’s promise to God’s covenant people..

Isn’t it amazing that a woman that everyone but Elkanah dismissed as worthless, would become one of the greatest heroes of Scripture? And all she had to do was cry out to God.

That’s the good news if you feel that you are a lost cause, or that you are living in a world that is a lost cause.

No matter what people say about you or even what you think about yourself, you’re not worthless to God.

Whether it’s due to something you have done or something that’s happened to you, shame is a cross you were never meant to bear. The cross of Jesus frees you from shame by washing away your sins and laying your past to rest, so that you may become a new creation. One of the most important duties of this congregation is to liberate people from the shame that holds them back from living meaningful, purposeful lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.

The truth is, there is far too much pain in the world, and far too much evil in the world, for any child of God to languish in shame, believing they are not good enough. God uses lowly people like Hannah by design, for it is those who have been wounded and those who have been forgiven who will be the most effective healers. Not people like the arrogant Peninnah, scoundrels like Hophni and Phineas, or rulers, celebrities, or politicians. God’s glory shines brightest when the lowly are uplifted by his grace. It’s the redeemed whose songs of joy inspire hope. It’s the redeemed whose hands, feet, and voices move mountains.

God never abandons anyone to despair, and God never ignores the pleas of those who want to do good in the world. There was a place for Hannah in that desperate time and desolate world. There’s a place for you, too.

You may move a mountain like Hannah. Or you may tunnel through it. Or, there may be another mountain for you to move that you don’t yet see in front of you. Either way, your time will come.

So, in these terrible times in which we live, with violence, poverty, and suffering seemingly everywhere you look, don’t look for God’s power in the rich and powerful. God doesn’t send politicians, celebrities, and billionaire CEO’s to save us.

God’s power works from the bottom up. God’s mightiness to save begins in you. Don’t allow your self-doubt or other people’s words about you define who you are. Don’t let your past define your future. Let God’s grace define who you are and what all you will become.