Meditation on 1 Samuel 1:4–20
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY
Pastor Karen Crawford
November 17, 2024
This is my first year serving on the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry. When the Nominating Committee called to invite me to serve, my first instinct was to say no. To say that I was reluctant is an understatement. I’m busy with my own ministry in Smithtown. I’m busy with my family. I am busy with school, especially now that I am in my last year of the doctorate program.
The work continues to be challenging, humbling, exhausting, and time consuming. We have long monthly meetings on Zoom to work with churches and pastors in transition and otherwise needy and preparation before the meetings. Plus, we serve as liaisons to congregations and mentors to new pastors. We approve contracts and write policies. We work with PNC’s, help with mission studies and give advice on and approve what they now call MDP’s for the CLC. We interview candidates—pastors and CRE’s—for full and part time, temporary or installed ministry and pulpit supply. We moderate Sessions and Congregational meetings for churches without pastors. There’s more. I had no idea everything the Committee on Ministry does. I’m still learning.
And, to make our work more difficult, we have open positions on the committee. Volunteers are doing more than their fair share; they are getting tired. I’m sure you understand.
I thought of this passage in Scripture this week, when I thought of small, struggling churches without pastors and the overwhelmed leaders of our presbytery. In Matthew 9:35-38, we read, ‘Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”’
Like us, our presbytery, our neighboring churches and pastors want to live faithfully in these challenging times. They are trying to figure out what that means, in this day and age.
The harvest is still plentiful. That hasn’t changed. People all around us still need the Lord. But we need to trust in God’s faithfulness and not merely in our own strength and numbers. The most powerful thing we can do is pray. Pray for our church. Our presbytery. Our volunteers. Our pastor. Our staff. Our community.
Hannah knows this. The power of heartfelt prayer. She trusts in the Lord, through years of misery and despair and waiting for God’s answer. She never stops hoping and praying.
Her story in First Samuel is like other great women, the few but mighty whose names and narratives are included in the Bible. She has good company with others who were not able to bear children, for a long time, and yet that doesn’t stop their longing to be mothers and to be respected and active participants in their societies. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, is one example. And Rachel, the favorite wife of Jacob, is another. Rachel’s older sister, Leah, was able to give Jacob children when she, for a long time, was not.
Every year, the family—Elkhanah, Hannah, Penninah, and the children—make the pilgrimage from their town to worship and make the sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh. It is a time of celebration, drinking, and feasting. They would eat the meat that was sacrificed. But Hannah would not eat. She could not eat. Peninnah would taunt and provoke her. Hebrew Midrash or commentary fills in the gaps of their story. Elkhanah was married to Hannah first for 10 years. When she didn’t have children, he took another, younger wife, Peninnah, who gave him sons and daughters.
“According to another midrashic tradition, Peninnah would rise early in the morning and ask Hannah: “Aren’t you getting up to wash your children’s faces before they go to school?” And six hours later she would ask: “Aren’t you going to greet your children when they come home from school?” (Pesikta Rabbati loc. cit.). According to this midrashic account, Peninnah would grieve Hannah by means of ordinary everyday activities, taking pains to remind her, at all hours of the day, of the difference between them.” [1]
I am impressed by Elkhanah’s attempts to console his despairing wife, assuring her that she is his favorite, though she is barren. He believes, like others in his community, that the Lord has closed her womb. It isn’t her fault, unless one believes that God is punishing her for some secret sin. Some do believe that. Her loving husband says every year when they go to worship and make the sacrifice, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
While she is praying in the temple, Hannah makes a promise to the Lord. If God gives her a son, she will raise him to be holy, set apart as God’s own. He will be what is called a Nazirite. He will never drink or cut his hair. He will be raised by the priest in the temple to serve God and the people all the days of his life. She will keep her promise. And Samuel will anoint Israel’s first kings—Saul and then David.
Eli the priest, who misunderstands and misjudges Hannah, accusing her of drunkenness, will become Samuel’s mentor and teacher. He utters formulaic words that he probably says to everyone, words he doesn’t really mean, when he says to Hannah as she turns to leave, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”
Hannah chooses to believe.
Dear friends, today our congregation will elect new servant leaders—elders, trustees, and deacons. We still have some open positions. We have room for you, if God is calling you to serve in an official role. But we also have room and need for you to serve in our community in an unofficial, behind-the-scenes kind of way. Because some of our volunteers are doing more than they should, because they love the Lord and the church. But they’re getting tired. They need encouragement and a helping hand.
I hope, after today’s meeting, you will say thank you to those who said yes to serving and those who continue to serve, year after year. I hope you will say to them, “How can I help you?” I hope you will mean what you say.
You see, the harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few. That hasn’t changed. May the Lord of the Harvest send out more laborers into the Harvest. May you who haven’t heard Christ’s voice before this moment hear his loving invitation to labor today.
We are all trying to figure out what it means to live faithfully, in this day and age, my friends. Our merciful and patient God always gives us another chance to get it right. We have new mercies every morning. Great is thy faithfulness!
If we follow Hannah’s example, and I hope that we will, then we know that even in times of despair, of years of what seems like unanswered prayer and misery, the most important thing we can do as a people of God is to trust in the Lord and offer our heart-felt prayers. God is listening.
And when the Lord who is faithful grants us the desires of our heart, like the Lord did for Hannah after many years of waiting and praying, may we be faithful to keep our promises to serve with all that we have, all that we are, and all that we will become.
May God bless you for your kindness!
Will you pray with me? Let us pray.
Holy One, Lord of the Harvest, thank you for your love, compassion, and grace. Teach us what it means to live faithfully. Forgive us when we are reluctant to serve because it’s hard work, time consuming, and not always immediately satisfying or gratifying. Give us your vision of the Harvest of souls and the growth of your Kingdom here on earth, right here in our community. Stir us to long for which you long. Give us the desires of your heart. Help us to trust you as we serve, trusting that people need you, they need your Son’s salvation and a new way of living in this day and age. Stir us to gratitude and joy as we labor with one another, together, answering Christ’s call, praying without ceasing. We give ourselves to you now. All that we have. All that we are. And all that we will become, with your Spirit’s help. Amen.
[1] Tamar Kadari, Penninah:Midrash and Aggadah at https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/peninnah-midrash-and-aggadah
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