Prayer : God, you have made the heavens and the earth.You have revealed your beauty in creation
and inspired the book that we are now about to study.Please help us now as we read together.
Take us deeper into understanding more about you and your love for all you have made.Amen
From the Titus
Arch in Rome that celebrates the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD
Samuel
1:4-20
In the
time before the monarchy, Elkanah is on his annual pilgrimage to the temple at
Shiloh. He has taken his two wives and Peninnah’s children with him. There he
participates in a sacrificial meal. God has made Hannah childless; in spite of
this, Elkanah “loved her” and gave her “a double portion” of food and drink.
“Her rival” Peninnah has taunted her over her barrenness for many years. In
spite of her husband’s love and considerate attitude towards her, she has
reached the point where she can take it no longer.
This
year, after the meal, Hannah goes to the entrance of the temple, where she
meets Eli, the priest. (The Jerusalem Temple was yet to be built.) She prays to
God and makes a vow: if God will grant her a son, she will make him a “nazirite”;
a person dedicated (consecrated) to God who will refrain from drink, and who
will not allow his head to be shaved. A first-born son was always dedicated to
God, but Hannah offers more.
Prayer was
usually aloud, so Eli (knowing that all have been drinking) thinks Hannah’s
silence in prayer is because she is drunk. She answers him very coherently. Eli
realizes his error of judgement, and intercedes with God on her behalf. She
trusts in God to grant her wish. After returning home, Samuel is born to her
and Elkanah. Hannah does fulfill her promise. When Samuel is weaned, she takes
him to Eli in the temple and gives him to the Lord. Samuel is God’s gift to an
oppressed woman; his life is God’s gift, and in return his mother gives his
life to God.
Questions for reflection:
Issues of reproduction and fertility are debated today. Abortion.
Contraception. Stem cell research: all these topics were raised in the recent
US Presidential race. Do you have a strong opinion on these topics? How does
your faith speak to these issues?
Consider
the pain of Hannah. Fertility issues can be painful. How can faith communities
respond with sensitivity to people with these struggles? How can we be helpful?
Have you
ever bargained with God? Made an offer in hopes that God will respond?
Samuel
2:1-10
Hannah is
leaving Samuel with Eli, but before heading home with Elkanah, she recites a
prayer of thanksgiving. But look at verses 9 and 10:
what do these verses have to do with Samuel? Scholars agree that an editor has
inserted a much later prayer into older material. Notice “king” in verse 10:
either this refers to the monarchy (which did not exist) or it is speaking of a
future ideal king, a messiah. But look again: note “enemies” “victory”,
“adversaries”.Hannah has at most one enemy,
Peninnah. In Hebrew poetry, an individual may speak on behalf of the nation:
here Hannah speaks on behalf of Israel. At the time, Israel was a small
struggling nation with powerful enemies. The editor makes a theological point:
God controls the destiny of humankind in every age the story of Samuel is an
example. Further, God reverses fortunes. The number “seven” in verse 5
symbolizes completion and perfection, so Samuel is a perfect blessing from the
Lord. Hannah is raised up but Peninnah is brought low. God can do this because
he is omnipotent; even the pillars on which the earth was thought to rest are
God’s.
Questions for reflection:
How many times in Scripture does a woman break into song or prayer in
thanksgiving? Hannah. Mary. Miriam...What occasions or events in your life
filled you with great joy, wonder, appreciation...?
Scripture
often mentions “enemies” Do you have an enemy? Does your country? Do you know
of someone who has “enemies”? What makes someone an enemy? How should we
respond in faith to someone who is an “enemy”?
Hebrews
10:11-14,(15-18),19-25
The
author has told us how much greater is Christ’s sacrifice of himself than the
annual sacrifices of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. Now he says that
what any priest offered daily in sacrificial ritual for the forgiveness of sins
was worthless, unlike Christ’s “single sacrifice” :
after Jesus died and rose, he became king. (Kings “sat down”, but priests
stood.) Since that time, he has been awaiting the final defeat of his “enemies”
.
(The author does not say who they are.) For by offering himself on the cross he
has “perfected” ,
completed, the removal of sin from those whom God has “sanctified”, made holy,
set apart for his service.
The
writings of the Old Testament, divinely inspired through the “Holy Spirit” ,
foretold this: Jeremiah wrote that there will be a new covenant, one in which
God’s ways will be written in peoples’ very being ,
and where God will, in effect, clean off the sin slate .
We have a new covenant ,
a new deal with God. Verses 19ff
tell of the consequences of the new covenant: since Christ’s sacrifice allows
us to enter into God’s presence (“sanctuary")
boldly, now that there is no longer a barrier (“curtain")
between the faithful and God, and since Christ is “a great [high] priest”
who has sacrificed for the Church (“house of God” ), we have three
privileges/duties: we can and must
· approach
God in faith with clear consciences ;
· “hold fast”
to our statement of faith (made at baptism), reciprocating God’s fidelity to
us, and
· stimulate
the expression of “love and good deeds” inothers.
Questions for reflection:
The fall of Jerusalem meant the end of the role for priests, the end of sacrifices
in the Jewish tradition. Christians still use language of sacrifice and blood
as we speak of our faith. How comfortable are you with sacrificial language? Jesus
died for our sins. We are washed in the blood of the Lamb. Are these phrases
ones you would use to describe your faith? What other imagery of language might
you comfortably use?
“Let us
consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds” How does living in
Christian community “provoke” us to good deeds? Should we provoke and pester
and cajole each other? What gifts do we share together that we cannot access
all alone?
“Not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another...”Even in the 1st century some people chose not to gather
in church. What “encouragement” is found in being together on a Sunday morning?
Mark
13:1-8
In verse 1 and 2
Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple, as the prophets Micah and
Jeremiah had done earlier...Did he mean it literally or figuratively? We don’t
know. (Both the Temple and the religious system were destroyed in 70 AD.) Then
he and his first four disciples visit the Mount of Olives – a place mentioned
in Zechariah Ch 14 v4
as being connected with events at the end of the era. They ask him: when will
the Temple be destroyed? How will we know that the end of the era is near?
Jesus gives them three indicators:
· false
claimants to being God’s agent of renewal will appear, claiming “I am he!” ;
·
international political conflicts
will occur, as will
· natural
disasters.
There
will be other signs too
The figure of a woman in labour (“birthpangs")
is also used in Jeremiah, Hosea and Micah.
Questions for reflection:
False Messiahs, war and conflict, natural disasters...these are the
signs that the end is near. Has there been a time in human history when these
signs were not visible? What events have been seen as portends of the end? What
has been named as a sign of the coming apocalypse?
The
temple was destroyed in 70 AD. This was a cataclysmic event for the Jewish
people, for their religious system and for the early church which made its home
in Jerusalem. What huge shifts, changes and cataclysms have you witnessed? The fall
of the Soviet Empire? Of apartheid? What else?
Both
Judaism and Christianity survived the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. The church
moved into the gentile world and the Jews moved from temple to Synagogue. As scholars
note that the Christian Church is going through a time of radicle change, do
you have hope for a new future?
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