Pouring Out Our Souls Before the Lord Preached on Sunday, November 14th, 2021 at Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:4-20 In those days, Elkanah and his family used to go, year by year to worship at the shrine in Shiloh, where Eli was the priest in charge. They made sacrifices and ate the roasted meat, and celebrated. It was a holiday, and families would gather there. Children, who saw one another each festival time, dodged between the tents playing hide and seek and tag. The adults sat and told stories around the camp fire. When the time came for Elkanah to marry, he brought his lovely young bride, Hannah, to Shiloh. She was his beauty and his love. Soon they would have children too. Boys, to continue the family name. Girls to help Hannah with the chores and to birth new generations. Times were good, life was good. But the sons and daughters they hoped for did not arrive. Elkanah gave it some time, but it wasn’t wise to wait too long. After a couple of visits to Shiloh, with no sign of a baby, he decided to take another more fertile wife, to continue the family name. It was only expected. It was to fulfill their dream. No reflection on Hannah, of course. He loved her too. Penninah was ideal for the purpose. She popped out babies year after year. It should have been perfect. He had the one he loved, and the fertile, voluptuous one. Sister wives: what could be better? But it wasn’t so much. Penninah picked on Hannah, taunted her. And Hannah got upset. She stopped eating, she became depressed and withdrawn. One year, they all came, to Shiloh as usual. Fewer families were there by now. All the old priest, Eli, could do was keep watch by the entrance to the tabernacle. Rumor had it that Eli couldn’t control his sons, the ones who would take over from him. They didn’t care. They took meat from the sacrifices, but they didn’t fulfill their responsibilities. There were other, unspeakable shenanigans too. It was happening all over the land, people were forgetting about the Lord. They were doing their own thing. Eli’s energy was spent, he had nothing left to devote to God. The tabernacle became run down, the worshipers were few. This was the year that Hannah hit rock bottom. She had had it with Penninah’s taunts and Elkanah’s shallow comforting. Late one night after the feasting, when the rest of the camp was sound asleep, she crept into the tabernacle. She didn’t see Eli squatted on the stoop by the entrance, keeping watch. The feelings of despair and brokenness had built up inside her over the years. There was no safe place she could go to let it all out. She couldn’t let Penninah know how much her bullying hurt. But there was One who could hold all the despair, the pain, the emptiness. It was the Lord. Silently, trembling her body jerking hysterically with the sobs, Hannah poured out her soul to God. Finally, she tried to bargain. If God would give her a son, she would dedicate the child to the Lord’s service. Eli stirred from his post, angered. What was this desecration? Hadn’t things gotten as bad as they could be? Now there was a drunken woman, muttering and keening in the sanctuary. He got up as swiftly as his old bones would allow, she must be expelled from this place. Hannah refused to be sent out, accused of being drunk. She had been pouring her soul out to the Lord, and Eli had better listen. If he did not, he would miss one last opportunity for ministry. Fortunately, she convinced him: fortunately for Hannah, fortunately for Eli, fortunately for Israel. Eli reluctantly joined in her prayer, asking the God of Israel to grant her petition. The outcome of this petition? Hannah was blessed with a child, Samuel. True to her prayers, she dedicated him to the service of the Lord. Samuel enters the salvation story at a pivotal point in Israel’s history. He becomes a companion, serving alongside Eli. He brings new hope for Eli and for the temple. Samuel will hear God’s call and will become a prophet for all Israel. In time he will obey God identifying David as the future King, the one who would unite the divided kingdom and bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s think back to Hannah in the temple, pouring out her soul to God. Have you ever felt despair like Hannah’s: a barrenness of body, or soul? You may have experienced literal infertility. Or perhaps it is a job that you need, so that you can feel whole again. Has your marriage become barren and bereft? Do you have loved ones, like Eli’s sons, who have gone off the rails, with drink, drugs, or crime? Are you bargaining with God, or the authorities that be, for healthcare or rehab for you or loved ones? Have you received soul-draining news from medical tests? Do you fear you are losing you faculties, mental or physical? Do you fear the day when you will have to leave your home? This is this place, this sanctuary, where you can pour out your soul before the Lord! Perhaps you can’t let it out at home, or at work, or at school. Perhaps that bully, like Penninah, is always looking over your shoulder. But this must be the place, my friends, where we can be our real, authentic selves --- pouring out our souls before the Lord. There are other reasons why we may feel barren and bereft. We live in confusing times, not so different from the upheaval in Hannah and Eli’s times. We are exhausted, weary from COVID restrictions and the uncertainty of our times. Some are exhausted from taking precautions, others from pretending that everything is back to normal. Perhaps you are weary of the need to plan and then plan again, every family event, every trip, every meeting. Many congregations are struggling at this time of tentative re-gathering following a year of online worship. Their members have grown accustomed to watching services from home, and do not want to return. Others have found activities they would rather do on Sunday. The volunteer pools have dried up. Has our institution has become barren? Have the saints of our churches grown old, too weary for the task any longer? Perhaps, like Eli, we have become tired and dejected. We are witnessing a decline in the mainline Protestant church. Our churches, once fertile ground for growth, are drying up. At the same time, there must be many people desperate for a place to pour out their souls. At a time when sanctuary is so badly needed – have our churches become barren? Do we have nothing left to offer? As so many churches turning inward, are we missing opportunities to minister: just as Eli almost missed the opportunity to minister to Hannah? Have we lost our spirit of welcome for those who are seeking out true sanctuary --- abused women, homeless children, bullied teens, jobless parents, drug addicts, vulnerable LGBTQ youth? A few years ago, I learned something about ministering to people who are looking for sanctuary. I was serving as an intern in a city church that lives out an extravagant welcome. My supervisor was a young, truly authentic and faithful minister. Together we led an early Sunday service in an intimate side chapel. This service welcomed in many guests: some were tourists or young professionals just moved to the area. But others looked a little rough around the edges, having spent the night outside or in homeless shelters. The greeters and ushers would worry when someone appeared to be drunk. Was it safe to let them in? Would they cause a disruption? My supervising minister reassured the ushers. It was OK. If there was a disruption, we’d deal with it. He countered their anxiety with calm. We were there to provide a welcome. During the winter a woman I’ll call Ginny came to church. She was enthusiastic, colorful in dress and character, but a little “off”. She seemed unaware of her own behavior and loudness. She carried so many bags with her that she required an extra seat in the chapel. Ginny always sat up front, responding vocally and enthusiastically to the prayers and sermons. On one occasion I sat listening to the prelude. I was up first to give the Call to Worship, and welcome. Across the aisle, I realized Ginny was playing her Walkman at top volume, humming along. She was completely disrupting the lovely atmosphere. What should I do? Was there time to ask her to turn it down? How would she react? How could I do so without offending her? Before I could think any more about it, my supervisor quietly moved across the aisle and sat down next to Ginny. His body language was gentle and accepting, he leaned in to listen to what she had to say. They exchanged a few words and, she turned off her Walkman. He moved back across the aisle and whispered to me, “Liz, could you offer prayers for Linda, today?” The service began. Afterwards I thanked my supervisor, and asked how he dealt with Ginny’s situation. “Oh,” he said, “Ginny asked for prayers for her sister, Linda, last week, so I went and asked how she was doing. Then I asked if she would turn down her Walkman because the service was about to begin.” And so I learned a lesson … so simple, so authentic, so obvious! My friends, there are people in the world who need to pour out their souls, just like us. They don’t need much encouragement, just a sanctuary in which to do it. And when that happens God makes fertile what was barren. God has a history of doing that. We should not fear, it isn’t the first time that God’s people have felt barren and defeated. It seemed that way in the time of Hannah, and yet Samuel rose out of that barren place to lead the people toward the Davidic monarchy. It seemed that way as the Romans patrolled and circled Jerusalem in the first century. Yet Mary gave birth to Jesus, a promise of hope for the future. It may be that we, the church, are exactly where God wants us to be - ready for a new way of being church to emerge. We are reduced to pouring out our souls and we are reduced to listening, to those who would pour out their souls too. We are ready for a new authenticity, a practice of faith in which nothing is held in, nothing is held in. Let’s begin, by pouring out our souls before the Lord. Amen, Amen
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