Wholeness

Pentecost 25B, 11/15/15
1 Samuel 1:4-20; Hebrews 10:19-25

God of the suffering and downtrodden, be with us as we hear your word, soak it in, and seek ways to live it out and share it with others. Amen.

Yesterday morning I was listening to the radio, and a great song came on.

“I love you just the way you are.”

Don't go changing to try and please me

You never let me down before

Don't imagine you're too familiar

And I don't see you anymore

I would not leave you in times of trouble

We never could have come this far

I took the good times, I'll take the bad times

I take you just the way you are

Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/billy-joel/just-the-way-you-are-lyrics/#IsJeE4O3vsbBAOBy.99

This song describes the kind of unconditional love that most of us hope for from our partners, our parents, and our closest friends.

This is the kind of love that Hannah has from Elkanah.

In a society in which a woman’s worth was gauged by the number of male offspring she could bear, Hannah would have been considered pretty worthless according to all the usual measures.

But Elkanah didn’t care. He loved Hannah, whether she fulfilled society’s gender stereotypes or not. Hannah was his favorite, and he wasn’t afraid to let the world know.

Now, practically speaking, Elkanah had an obligation to his family line to father sons to carry on the family name.

So he took a second wife, Peninnah, and she bore sons.

But Hannah was the one he loved. She remained his favorite.

        

In spite of Elkanah’s love, though, Hannah was unhappy.

Peninnah made her life miserable.

The other wife had everything that Hannah wanted – namely, children, and therefore, a good reputation in society.

The unconditional love of their husband and second helpings once a year at the time of the sacrifice weren’t enough for Hannah. 

And so Hannah prayed.

Hannah prayed    fervently.

Hannah    made history    with her prayers.

Hannah is one of the most faithful people we meet in the Bible.

She is the only woman in the Old Testament who is described as going to the temple of the Lord.

And once there, Hannah prays so fervently, the priest thinks she must be drunk.

This tells us a couple of things.

First, Hannah’s fervent prayers tell us that the men in her life just don’t understand her.

Elkanah minimizes her pain at not being able to conceive. I’m as good as 10 sons, aren’t I?

Well, no, dear, you aren’t. A husband isn’t the same as a son. Elkanah may be wonderful, but her marriage to him doesn’t prevent her from being called names, and he won’t be able to care for her in her old age, as a son would be expected to do for his mother. 

And then there’s Eli. He’s trying to do the good priestly thing, but I’m guessing he’s just a little burned out. Ugh, another woman here, making a scene. I don’t have the time to deal with this today.

“Hey lady, what are you, drunk? Stop making a fool of yourself.”

The first thing that we learn from Hannah’s fervent prayers is that she needs to petition a higher authority for assistance, because the earthly resources – the human people – she can go to are not able to help her any more.

The second thing we learn from Hannah’s prayers is that she is filled with the Holy Spirit.

There is one other prominent Bible story I can think of when people were worshipping God, and were mistaken for being drunk.

On the first Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus was raised from the dead, the disciples were gathered together to figure out what they should do next. Then the Holy Spirit swept through their assembly, and they all began speaking in different languages.

The people who were just trying to dismiss them said, “Hey guys, what are you, drunk? Stop making fools of yourselves.”

That’s when Peter stood up and said “No! We’re not drunk! This is the Holy Spirit, speaking through us!”

Hannah’s intense prayers show that she also is filled with the Spirit.

When the priest Eli realizes this, he blesses Hannah, and she goes on her way.

Now, here’s the really critical point in the story.

Hannah is restored.

After her prayers, after spending time in the house of the Lord, after receiving the blessing of Eli – and before she becomes pregnant with Samuel – Hannah experiences the healing and wholeness for which she had been praying.

It’s not the miracle of pregnancy that gives her back her identity and sense of self-worth – God has answered Hannah’s prayer by restoring her to wholeness whether she is able to bear a son or not.

This is a relief, I think, to those of us who do not have children, or who in other ways do not fit the paradigm of success according to society’s standards.

We can be the complete person God intends us to be, even when the people around us think we don’t measure up.

Hannah didn’t need the support of Peninnah (which she didn’t have) and she didn’t need the love of Elkanah (which she did have).

God made Hannah whole and complete in response to her prayers, regardless of these other relationships.

Hannah was restored at the house of the Lord.

By going to a place of worship, Hannah was able to experience the presence of God.

Worshipping together is critically important for God’s people.

The Hebrews passage today tells us to provoke one another to good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another.

Communal worship is important. It provides a way for us to grow closer to God, through interactions with other faithful people.

When we gather for worship, Hebrews tells us, we are reminded of God’s love for us, and of God’s forgiveness of our sins.

Do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some – don’t avoid the prayer and worship that can remind you of God’s presence in your lives.

Hannah knows the importance of going to pray at the temple of the Lord. That is where she receives God’s healing from her intense sorrow and grief.

And there is another miracle in today’s story about Hannah.

Hannah had the unconditional love of her husband, but didn’t feel that it was enough to make her whole. She thought that a son would bring her that sense of purpose, so she prayed that God would help her get pregnant. She went to the temple of the Lord and was blessed by the priest, and even before she got pregnant, she experienced healing – she realized she didn’t need to bear a son in order to be worthwhile.

But then she does get pregnant. And she does bear a son.

And Hannah gives him away.

Here is the miracle. The very thing that Hannah thought she needed in order to be complete,    a son,    she entrusts almost immediately into the care of another.

You have to read just a few verses beyond the passage we heard today to get the rest of the story:

When [Hannah] had weaned [Samuel], she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine.

She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh... Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli.

And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”

And she left [Samuel] there [in the temple] for the Lord. (1 Sam 1:24-28 NRSV)

Hannah had come to the understanding that God loved her even more unconditionally than Elkanah.

         In good times, in bad times, just the way she is.

While she was grateful for the son she had borne, she didn’t need to keep him in order to feel God’s love.

So, out of gratitude for God’s love, Hannah gave up that which was most precious to her, the boy Samuel, to be raised as a priest in the temple.

This brings us back again to the importance of a faith community.

Eli was the one who raised Samuel.

Even though he didn’t understand Hannah’s plight to begin with, he eventually stepped up to the plate, and welcomed both her and her son into the community of faith, at the temple of the Lord.

The place of worship was crucial both for Hannah’s wholeness as a child of God, and for Samuel’s growth as a child of God.

And Samuel’s growth ended up bring pretty important – he was the prophet who found and anointed the first kings of Israel.

God only knows what the Messiah would have looked like if Jesus hadn’t been born from the line of King David, if there hadn’t been a King David because Samuel had never found and anointed him.

The fact that Hannah and Samuel were part of a worshipping community was critical to the people and events that shaped the religion we now profess. 

And by being part of that faith community – by spending time at the temple of the Lord – Hannah learned that Peninnah’s taunting and Elkanah’s love didn’t matter nearly as much as the eternal love of God that was available to her.

Through her prayers and the blessing of Eli, Hannah discovered that God loved her, just the way she was.

And God loves each of us that much, as well.

This is the good news God has for us today:

God loves us just the way we are.

With our talents, our greatness, our weaknesses, our failings – God loves us and welcomes us and meets us with open arms, just like God did with Hannah.

God restores us to wholeness, to be the people that we were created to be.

And one of the primary ways that God restores us is through the community of faith.  

So thanks be to God for the blessing of a worshipping community, and thanks be to God for God’s unconditional love!

Amen.

Love

Pentecost 23B/All Saints, 11/1/15
Mark 12:28-34

Gracious God, help us to love you with our whole being. Be with us today in the reading, hearing, speaking, singing, and living out of your Word. Amen.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is teaching again.

He’s been doing this public ministry thing for a while by the time we get to Mark, chapter 12, and he’s made a few enemies along the way. Some people don’t like what Jesus has to say, so they’re trying to trick him into saying something that the authorities can hold against him later.

The Pharisees and Sadducees, and even the Herodians – we don’t usually hear much about the Herodians, but apparently they were people in power who were politically loyal to Herod… remember, the one who had all the baby boys killed when Jesus was born – so the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and even the Herodians were trying to trap Jesus in what he was teaching. They asked him impossible questions and expected him to eventually shoot himself in the foot with his answers.

But Jesus is able to respond appropriately to all of the challenges that these people bring to him.

He responds so well that he impresses one of the scribes who was within earshot.

The scribes were the professional scholars of the day. They were like today’s PhDs or professors at research universities, the most educated people in society, and generally respected for their knowledge, even when others didn’t agree with their particular area of expertise.

Scribes knew the Torah well, and they were even allowed to make judgments based on their interpretation of Scripture, which is what our scribe seems to be doing in today’s reading.

This scribe has heard enough arguing, he doesn’t have any more challenges for Jesus. All he wants to know is what lies at the center of his teachings.

         Which commandment is the first of all?

There are several correct ways that Jesus could have answered.

The first commandment that God gives to humankind is, be fruitful and multiply. That one shows up in Genesis chapter 1, verse 28.

The first of the Ten Commandments according to Jewish tradition is belief in God – I am the Lord your God. This could have been Jesus’ answer to the scribe.

But what Jesus chooses to use as his answer to the scribe’s question is a passage of Scripture called the Shema, which comes from the Hebrew word meaning “hear!” Deuteronomy 6:4 in Hebrew is Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.

This verse was written on little pieces of paper and stuck in boxes that faithful Jews mounted on their doorposts and tied to their foreheads. It was recited twice daily, in the morning and in the evening, by every adult male Israelite. The Shema was used in Jewish worship, and was really the most central teaching you could find in ancient Judaism.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Clearly, Jesus took the scribe’s question, “which commandment is first of all,” to mean, “which commandment is the most important?”

This is it. Remember that God is God, the only God. Love God with your body and soul, with everything you’ve got.

And – this part is important – Jesus doesn’t end his answer with the command to love God. Jesus realizes that loving God is a little too abstract for most of us, so he tacks on another verse from the Torah that can tell us how to love God.

Love God with all you’ve got.

And, love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving your neighbor is a lot like loving God, Jesus says.

The two commandments go hand in hand.

The scribe agrees. This guy, a professional Torah scholar, tells Jesus that his interpretation of Scripture is spot on.

         Love God and love your neighbor. Those are the most important things.

Or, as Lennon and McCartney put it, all you need is love!

(do-do-do-do-do, all you need is love!)

Love God and your neighbor.

This command is central to Jesus’ teaching, to the way he lived his life, and to his entire ministry.

Love God and your neighbor.

This is the verse that inspired the Bible study series we’ve been using, called The Jesus Creed, that focuses on spiritual formation – basically, what does it mean to love, and how do we do it?

Love God and love your neighbor.

It seems straightforward. But there are two questions that need to be explored before we can really live out our faith as Jesus commands.

What is love?

And who is my neighbor?

Let’s answer the second question first.

Most of us know how this conversation goes, because we’ve heard it before.

A lawyer came up to Jesus and asked how to gain eternal life. He knew that he needed to love God and love his neighbor. But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? The lawyer was trying to limit the definition of neighbor, so that he wouldn’t have to show love to very many people in order to be living out God’s commands.

Jesus doesn’t let him do it. Jesus tells a story of a man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road, and the only person who stops to help him is a vile Samaritan. The person from another culture, with different religious values, is the only true neighbor in this story.

         The point of the Good Samaritan story is that everyone is your neighbor.

Boundaries don’t matter, and love extends to all of God’s children, meaning, in other words, all humankind.

The commandment to love God and love your neighbor becomes, love God and love all other people.

Which leaves us with one more question.

What is love?

Those of you who have been attending The Jesus Creed Bible study spent some time brainstorming various definitions of love.

The author of our study defines love as unconditional regard for a person, that prompts and shapes behaviors, in order to help that person become what God desires. (The Jesus Creed, p. 8-9)

Pastor Stephen defines love as not putting an obstacle in someone’s way – or, if the obstacle is already there, helping to remove it.

Other people in the Bible study group define love as being hard, and selfless. Love is what creates peace among people. It is being willing to sacrifice for someone else. Love is a deep caring, and experiencing joy in the existence of the other.

Love is complicated. There are many ways to define it. But in general, all the definitions agree that love is an action, not just a feeling. It requires a change in our attitude and behavior toward other people.

Love God and love others.

There are many ways that we show love to other people as a congregation.

We show love by sponsoring a meal every month for the folks at Luke House, which is a local ministry that offers free meals twice a day to anyone who shows up. The people who eat at Luke House might be on a fixed income, or homeless, or just lonely. We show love by bringing food and company to these people.

We as a congregation show love to other people through our knitting ministry. We give away hats and mittens and prayer shawls to people who are cold or sick or going through a rough time. Individuals donate the yarn, and volunteers knit it into something usable, and anyone can give away the finished products.

We show love by advocating for justice through MOSES, an organization that especially focuses on issues around incarceration in Wisconsin.

We show love by teaching our children about God in Sunday School and welcoming their full participation in worship.

Those are just a few of the ways that we as a congregation already show love to people. But all of those are just examples, we don’t yet have a solid definition of love.

Maybe the best way to understand love is to consider those ways in which God shows love to us.

God’s love is made known at the very beginning of time through the work of creation – God makes the trees and the oceans and the stars and the animals and even humankind out of love.

God showed love to the Hebrew people by rescuing them from slavery in Egypt and leading them to the Promised Lane.

         God’s love is clear in the stories of Ruth and David and Mary and Lazarus.

But most importantly, God showed love to humankind in this way: even though we were sinners, unworthy of God’s love, Jesus came to earth in human form and died for us, so that we wouldn’t have to be subjected to the punishment for our sins.

God’s most meaningful act of love toward humankind was to give up being divine for a while, to live on earth in the person of Jesus, and then to give up that life in place of ours so that we will be able to enjoy eternal life with God.

         This is what love means.

         Giving up everything that you are for the sake of someone else.

It’s a tall order.

But that’s how God loves us.

And that’s what Jesus means when he answers the scribe… the most important commandment? It’s to love God and love other people. That means sacrificing everything that you have for the sake of someone else.

We have been blessed by God loving us in this way.

And today’s Gospel reading reminds us that our best response to that blessing is to love other people in the same way. We love because God first loved us.

In essence, loving other people becomes the best way for us to show our love to God.

So, love your neighbor as yourself.

And love God with all you’ve got.

         That really is a serious request.

What would it mean to love God with your time? With your marriage? With  your wardrobe? With your wallet?

That is what this stewardship season is all about. Those promise of giving cards that we collected today – they’re not primarily about paying my salary or keeping the lights on or buying coffee for Sunday mornings.

Of course we do all those things with the money, but that’s not the purpose of giving it.

The purpose of stewardship, of giving money to further the ministry of the church, is to show love to God with that one specific aspect of your life, the material and monetary aspect.

         How can you use everything you’ve got in service to God?

That’s the question for stewardship Sunday.

It’s also the question for faithful Christian living year round.

Because, of course, there are many more ways to love God than just with your wallet, and there are many more ways that your gifts can support the ministry of God’s church.

How can you love God with your hands and feet? How can you love God with your home, your car, your furniture?

How can you love your neighbor with everything you’ve got? Because, of course, by loving our neighbor we are also showing our love for God.

The answer will be different for each one of us.

For God, the best way to love us was to die on a cross to save humanity.

Which means, thank God, we don’t have to do that ourselves.

But we are still called to love God and love others. So, that’s our task for the day – for the week, for the rest of our lives.

Love God with every bit of your being.

And love other people – all people – in every way you can.

And in doing so, you’ll be showing love back to God.         

Amen.