Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
November 15, 2009
I Samuel 1:4-20; 2:1-10

Pouring Out Your Soul

Have you ever hungered for something so much that you could taste it? Perhaps it was for your parents’ approval or support? Or for someone to recover from illness or to come home from war? Or for a meaningful relationship? I remember being in the south of France a few years ago, where I lit a candle in a mountain chapel, praying for something I longed for.

And you? Have you ever poured out your soul?

In our lesson from I Samuel, Hannah was married to a man who loved her but she was barren, a humiliation and recipe for impoverishment in old age. Her rival, the other wife, had born him many sons, and she taunted Hannah unmercifully.

On the family’s annual trip to Shiloh, Hannah can’t eat of the sacrificial meal, so choked up with need as she is. So Hannah goes into the temple and pours out her soul. Watching her, Eli the priest thinks she is drunk, so desperate and passionate is her appeal to God. She asks for what she needs – and gets it!

Sometimes we do get what we need – our parents accept us, our loved one recovers, we meet the person of our dreams – and sometimes we don’t. But getting what we need means asking for it, and asking for it, means believing we are worthy of it.

Do you know how precious you are? That you are beloved children of God? Do you believe your needs are worthy of being met?

In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens has Oliver take his bowl back to the food line and ask of his keepers, who were starving the orphans to save money for themselves, “Please, sir, can I have some more? He was punished, of course, but Oliver believed he was worthy of adequate food.

In 1955 Rosa Parks’ feet hurt, and she needed to sit down on the bus – so she did. When she refused to give up her seat to a white man, she was arrested and jailed. Parks believed she was worthy of equal treatment under the law and challenged segregation.

On Monday I met a young man, let’s call him John, who received a foreclosure notice because the building he had lived in on the East Side of Providence for five year was being foreclosed by an out-of-town bank. John had always been on time with his rent and had even put a lot of his own money into fixing up the property. He believed responsible, hard-working citizens should not be forced from their homes, and he “poured out his soul” all the way up the line of authority.

When have you poured out your soul?

Hannah goes to the temple in loneliness, isolation, and despair and pours out her soul. She trusts that God will not find her worthless. In her brokenness, she is drawn to God and believes in God’s mercy. She asks for what she needs – her “womb to be opened” so that she can bear a male child. Her prayer is answered, and Hannah gives birth to Samuel, one of the most significant figures in the history of the people of Israel.

And then, in the second chapter of the text, we have “The Song of Hannah,” her prayer of exultation: “The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.” Hannah’s song is much like Mary’s song of praise when she realizes she is to bear Jesus: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly” – a reminder that we are about ready to enter the season of Advent.

And a reminder that God often turns the world upside down.

When have you poured out your soul? Surely God knows what we need – but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ask for a safe shelter for the homeless, for decent food for the hungry, for affordable health care for our children, for living work for the unemployed, for peace in the world.

When have you poured out your soul? Surely God knows what we need – but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ask our friends and neighbors to come to church, our members to return their pledge cards, our confirmands to serve on committees, our able-bodied to help with yard work, our long-term members to share their wisdom.

Jesus says, “Ask and it shall be given to you, knock and it shall be opened, seek and you shall find.” Surely, God rewards the proactive!

The wisdom in fundraising circles is that the best way to raise money is to ask someone to give it to you. Someone once asked the Rockefeller Foundation why they had given money to Brown University for a library but had not given money to Harvard. The foundation replied, simply, “Harvard never asked.”

God answers prayers – through teachers, doctors and nurses, social workers, friends and neighbors – often in unexpected ways, although not always in the way we might like:

Remember the portrait of Jesus in the Garden, praying before his arrest, tears on his face, drops of blood like sweat pouring off him, arms outstretched, “If it be your will, take this cup from me.”

But Hannah’s prayer is answered when she pours out her soul, and immediately she moves from sadness to joy, from barrenness to pregnancy, from prayer to praise and thanksgiving.

When have you poured out your soul and have had your prayer answered? And how have you responded?

Writing in “The Christian Century,” Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago, tells the story of an elder in the Trinity congregation whom he observed singing and praying in what he called “reckless abandon,” as if she were possessed. When Otis asked her about it, she replied, “I grab hold of worship so hard because it may be my last time!” And Otis wondered out loud, “What if we always worshiped, prayed, and sang as if it were the last time?" 1

The pattern is this: We believe we are worthy; we ask for help; we respond with praise – and action. So, Hannah, model of faithfulness, gives Samuel to Eli at the Shiloh temple to be a holy child. As a mother and grandmother, it was hard for me to read that Hannah, who had longed for this child, gave him to God for the future of Israel. But great blessings call for great sacrifice.

This week one of Kim’s colleagues turned 50. An old friend in New York threw a swanky party for her, and friends flew in from around the country to celebrate. The wine and fancy hors d’oeuvres must have cost a fortune. The birthday girl wondered aloud to Kim about sending some money to help pay for the food. Kim dissuaded her from doing so. Your friend wanted to do that for you; don’t embarrass her by sending money!

You see, the way we pay people back is by doing something wonderful for someone else, or “paying it forward” as the 2000 film proposed. When you can, when the time comes, do something special for someone – in little ways, such as paying the toll for the car behind you, or in big ways by planting trees in your neighborhood or by sending someone else’s child to college

It occurs to me that what the older generation has done for Edgewood Church is like “paying it forward.” They created a wonderful place where neighbors can come together to worship and work together – a place where people can be baptized and married, where they can make friends and raise their children, and where we can celebrate their lives when they die. And now it is this generation’s turn to “pay it forward.”

And so this morning, in this ancient text from I Samuel, we learn some important lessons: First, in your heart of hearts, know with certainty that you are loved by God, worthy in God’s eyes. God wants fulfillment for you, for you to “be all you can be,” to use the United States Army’s slogan, designed to get you to sign up.

Second, do not be afraid to pour out your soul, to ask for what you need. As one old hymn advises, “take it to the Lord in prayer.” God is interested in a relationship with us.

Finally, out of thanksgiving for God’s blessing, “pay it forward” for the next generation and all the generations to come.

May it be so!

Amen.

1. November 3, 2009, p.21.