Faithfulness and Service
1 Samuel 2:18-21
This snippet is put immediately following a description of the high priest's wicked sons - how they exploited their positions of power and stole from those who came to sacrifice at the Temple. Presumably, this description of the crimes and shortcomings of the priestly family is inserted into the narrative of Samuel's early life in order to contrast with the piety of Samuel's family. Despite obvious hardship, every year Samuel's father and mother, Elkinah and Hannah, come to offer annual sacrifice. Every year, the scripture says, Hannah makes a little robe for young Samuel to wear in his ministrations at the Temple.
Instead of taking from those who come to sacrifice (flying in the face of the sacredness of the event), as Eli's sons do, Hannah herself brings more to offer to the Temple so that others would not have to provide this additional support for Samuel's ministry.
The obvious lesson and nobility in both sacrificing for the work of God and treating people fairly (even generously) is clear. The obvious farce of so-called priests treating both penitents and their sacrifices with contempt and greed is also clear. I'm amazed that this has remained in the Bible, edited all the while by priests and priestly scribes, who would have served themselves well to have merely omitted it. Perhaps the truth is too difficult to avoid - there are those who would abuse their position, turn a position of servanthood into mastery, we know all too well. And we would do well to be wary of such abuse. Even the halls of God are no match for the pervasive greed of human hearts.
But there is also room for praise here, too. These priests and scribes who could have been self-serving and edited out this lesson (taken it out of the text, but surely not out of people's ongoing experience), didnt. They served the people and God in their honesty and truthfulness - even self-critical truthfulness (oftentimes the most important truthfulness there is).
However intriguing the preceeding verses are, the lectionary selection focuses on Samuel's family and their faithfulness. Elkinah and Hannah are blessed by Eli, the high priest, for their faithfulness and for the service of Samuel at the Temple. Now, the blessing comes in the form of more births and children by Hannah, revealing the Priestly "piety-prosperity principle" (that is: the pious and faithful are rewarded with propserity in this life - if someone has riches, therefore, that is proof of their favor in God's eyes, while someone who is poor is poor because they have sinned in some way.) The piety-prosperity prinicple is patently contradictory to experience - sometimes good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people, and personal wealth is no reliable indicator of spiritual piety. (This is discussed at some length in the book of Job.)
While tossing out the peity-prosperity idea, we can look at the blessings that did come to Elkinah and Hannah - they had more children. Look at what happens: they have a child and consecrate it to the service of God, and find themselves with more children - and their faithfulness and response to God is all the greater. Apart from the agrarian praiseworthiness of having lots of kids (which doesn't necessarily translate into our urban, ecologically-minded lifestyles), there is another lesson here: our responses to God's call to serve beget more opportunities to serve.
Instead of something like paying ones taxes - where once you pay, it's paid (hopefully) - God's response to our faithfulness is to ask more of us, give us more opportunity to respond. Serving God faithfully is like a descending spiral: once you start to give in, you find yourself sucked in more and more, feeling strangly compelled to do more and more things that you wouldn't have expected yourself to do (and that certainly don't jive with the rest of your surrounding culture). Responding to God is the first step on a journey you have no idea where it will end.
This snippet is put immediately following a description of the high priest's wicked sons - how they exploited their positions of power and stole from those who came to sacrifice at the Temple. Presumably, this description of the crimes and shortcomings of the priestly family is inserted into the narrative of Samuel's early life in order to contrast with the piety of Samuel's family. Despite obvious hardship, every year Samuel's father and mother, Elkinah and Hannah, come to offer annual sacrifice. Every year, the scripture says, Hannah makes a little robe for young Samuel to wear in his ministrations at the Temple.
Instead of taking from those who come to sacrifice (flying in the face of the sacredness of the event), as Eli's sons do, Hannah herself brings more to offer to the Temple so that others would not have to provide this additional support for Samuel's ministry.
The obvious lesson and nobility in both sacrificing for the work of God and treating people fairly (even generously) is clear. The obvious farce of so-called priests treating both penitents and their sacrifices with contempt and greed is also clear. I'm amazed that this has remained in the Bible, edited all the while by priests and priestly scribes, who would have served themselves well to have merely omitted it. Perhaps the truth is too difficult to avoid - there are those who would abuse their position, turn a position of servanthood into mastery, we know all too well. And we would do well to be wary of such abuse. Even the halls of God are no match for the pervasive greed of human hearts.
But there is also room for praise here, too. These priests and scribes who could have been self-serving and edited out this lesson (taken it out of the text, but surely not out of people's ongoing experience), didnt. They served the people and God in their honesty and truthfulness - even self-critical truthfulness (oftentimes the most important truthfulness there is).
However intriguing the preceeding verses are, the lectionary selection focuses on Samuel's family and their faithfulness. Elkinah and Hannah are blessed by Eli, the high priest, for their faithfulness and for the service of Samuel at the Temple. Now, the blessing comes in the form of more births and children by Hannah, revealing the Priestly "piety-prosperity principle" (that is: the pious and faithful are rewarded with propserity in this life - if someone has riches, therefore, that is proof of their favor in God's eyes, while someone who is poor is poor because they have sinned in some way.) The piety-prosperity prinicple is patently contradictory to experience - sometimes good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people, and personal wealth is no reliable indicator of spiritual piety. (This is discussed at some length in the book of Job.)
While tossing out the peity-prosperity idea, we can look at the blessings that did come to Elkinah and Hannah - they had more children. Look at what happens: they have a child and consecrate it to the service of God, and find themselves with more children - and their faithfulness and response to God is all the greater. Apart from the agrarian praiseworthiness of having lots of kids (which doesn't necessarily translate into our urban, ecologically-minded lifestyles), there is another lesson here: our responses to God's call to serve beget more opportunities to serve.
Instead of something like paying ones taxes - where once you pay, it's paid (hopefully) - God's response to our faithfulness is to ask more of us, give us more opportunity to respond. Serving God faithfully is like a descending spiral: once you start to give in, you find yourself sucked in more and more, feeling strangly compelled to do more and more things that you wouldn't have expected yourself to do (and that certainly don't jive with the rest of your surrounding culture). Responding to God is the first step on a journey you have no idea where it will end.
Labels: 1 Samuel
posted by Christian at 10:00 AM
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