4th Sunday after Epiphany “Faith and Faithfulness”
The Purification of Mary, Presentation of Jesus 1Samuel 1:21-28
February 2, 2025 (cpr25)
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,

There’s a connection between the Old and New Testament readings today; between mother Hannah, and mother Mary. God has told us Hanna’s story so that we will be strengthened by the example of her faithfulness, and in our hope in the Son that would be born of Mary. So, let’s review Hanna’s story. From 1st Samuel 1, we get a picture of her like this:

At the end of a worship service in a busy congregation, a desperate woman stayed behind to pray. With hands clenched tightly together, and tears streaming down her face, she was pouring out the bitter innards of her soul at the altar of God. Her plea was intense; even tho she was praying silently, her lips were moving to give form to her woeful thoughts. She was interrupted by her priest, Eli, who made a terrible assumption. He says: “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” (1:14).
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It seems that no one understood Hannah. That’s why she no longer smiled, and she refused to eat. Her husband loved her, but she could no longer hear his words of comfort to her. When he provided her with delicious food, she’d push the plate away & use the napkin for her constant tears. She was very alone in her heartache.
In general, people can be hard to understand = all of us. No matter how faithful we may be, we are often being pulled in different directions. This is the fallen nature of man; we all have an inner struggle others can’t see. Hannah’s deep depression wasn’t caused by too many cups of wine; but by her desire of a child. After years of being married, she remained childless.
One reason for being created female is to bear children; being fruitful & multiplying is an original command for husband & wife; our Creator calls children a great blessing because we participate with Him in a new living soul. (Ps.27) Back then, not having children meant not contributing to the larger community & nation for workers & solders. Back then, having children was especially important for that nation -chosen by God- to bring the Redeemer into the world. Hanna had tears because she was left out of all those things. To add to that, people tended to view barrenness as a punishment from God; that view was wrong, but it happened. It still happens. Hanna was snubbed & alone.
Hannah’s husband, Elkanah, in that culture, had another option: he had a second wife, so the household did have children. This was no real solution for Hannah tho; there was strife & jealousy. Peninnah was mean, & often reminded Hannah who was more important.
Not knowing what else to say, her husband said: ‘why is your heart sad? Am I not worth more to you than ten sons?’ (see 1:8). But husbands & sons are not the same thing.
Altho the Bible doesn’t detail it for us, it’s not hard to imagine the mess of emotions for Hannah == anger, jealousy, retaliation, giving up. To her credit, Hannah didn’t give in to those things, and after years of being mistreated & sad, with a mess of emotions pulling in many directions, she reached her limit. She went to the House of the Lord & dumped the whole thing on God’s doorstep. And she made a vow that day, a solemn promise: “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant, and remember me ….and give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.” (1:11).
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Hannah is an example of faith and faithfulness. Martin Luther was keen on emphasizing this mystery we find in Scripture: We are -at the same time- a saint and a sinner. And because we live in a sinful world, our minds are a battleground of conflicting emotions & desires between God’s things & our own things. God has Hannah show us what it means to be faithful in the midst of these struggles. For example: Your mind struggles when someone is unkind to you, or slanders your reputation, or makes unfair assumptions & blames you for your circumstances. In our day it’s called: ‘victim-shaming.’
One voice our minds will hear is Jesus saying, ‘turn the other cheek.’ But there are other voices telling us to retaliate in anger, return hurt-for-hurt. This turmoil may be from personal weakness, but we also have a natural sense of ‘justice’ or fair-play. How is life fair if an unbelieving immoral woman can easily get pregnant and then go murder that child by abortion; but a godly & faithful married woman cannot conceive & give life? Sin broke this life in many ways; it’s not fair. We can sympathize with Hannah.
Her issue may not be ours, but we all know unfairness. What is a person supposed to feel when the company downsizes, & they lose their job, along with their health insurance?
How should a person react when they get passed over for advancement by the boss’ good-for-nothing nephew or niece?
What about when inflation or taxes eats up our income, or the bills keep piling up and the companies won’t consider your difficult circumstances? How many examples are there: this world is unfair; good people suffer, and bad people prosper. How long, O Lord?
Despite it all, Hannah had faith; she trusted the God who is trustworthy. She sought comfort from God at His house in Shiloh. She didn’t pretend she was happy when she went to worship; she let the tears flow. When her priest falsely accused her of being drunk, she didn’t blow a gasket; she confessed what actually caused the tears. And when Eli spoke a word of blessing, she received it as a word from God himself. Hannah left that day believing the Lord’s face was shining on her, and that -somehow- He would be gracious to her. Because of faith she didn’t blame God, or others, or the world. She faced her inner battles, and she found peace at the Lord’s House. If she was going to drag all her burdens into God’s house, there was no reason to drag them out again when she left. Her smile and her appetite finally returned!

In all these things God made for us a good role model in Hannah. However, she wasn’t done yet. In fact, the hardest part was yet to come. It’s one thing to put up with unfairness & being picked on; it’s another to live up to a solemn vow. You know this – when you’ve tried it. God warns us to not be too quick to make vows before Him. (Eccl.5)
Promises are easy to make but often are hard to keep; because when the time comes, our old nature finds reasons to break the promise. But faith informs faithfulness. Despite the desires & emotions pulling her in the other direction, when the time came, Hannah gathered up a bull to sacrifice, and some flour & wine as an offering. She took the little hand of her son Samuel, the answer to her prayer, and she headed back to the Lord’s House. Can you imagine how hard it was to keep that vow?
But she did. She talked to the priest Eli, and then she let go of his little hand & trusted the Lord to care for Samuel, to protect him, and to use her son for His purpose = whether great or small. Hannah is an example of both faith and faithfulness. When we trust God’s promises, and manage to do His will when we’re being pulled in different directions by ourselves or the world, that’s what it means to be faithful.
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We know that thru Hannah God was carrying out a great plan of blessing on Israel; altho she couldn’t know that ahead of time. Great plan or small plan, she just trusted & obeyed the God of gracious plans.
Her son Samuel grew to become a faithful priest, a fair & righteous judge, and a true prophet who would call people to repentance & faith. Even more, God used Samuel as His right-hand man to inaugurate the kingdom of David, thru whom God would provide for all sinners His eternal Prophet, Priest, & King = Jesus.
Of that plan, Samuel was an important piece of the puzzle; but before Samuel, faithful Hannah was an important piece. God’s kingdom & saving mission is very vast; making you a piece with some value for faith & faithfulness toward others, whether your part seems big or small.
In the days of Hannah, there was a great need for this living faith in God. Most people had forgotten the God that delivered Israel out of Egypt; they looked away from His Law for holy living, and they ‘did what was right in their own eyes.’ They followed their own sinful desires. Even Eli, the priest, became careless & lazy, allowing his sons to be faithless & wicked as they assisted him. That time was 3,000 yrs ago; and we see the same selfishness & wickedness in our day.
Despite that, God still is able to work thru a faithful remnant of those who trust Him to fulfill His good plans. He tells us of Hannah, who is just one link in a long chain that stretches all the way back to mother Eve, and all the way forward to mother Mary. It took many births thru many faithful women to bring God’s plan to fulfillment in the Son of Mary, the only begotten Son of the Father; the world’s Redeemer, full of grace & truth.
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Hannah had faith, and she was faithful. Some in our world say that ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe.’ But that’s false. What you believe must be real & true; and who you believe-in must be real & trustworthy. Because Hannah’s faith trusted in the Creator who made a salvation promise, so she could be faithful to Him & keep her vow.
This is also how our lives in the Savior Jesus works: because the One God is our faith, so we are able to be faithful.
And God’s plan has followed a pattern from the very beginning. When the sin of Adam & Eve corrupted God’s perfect creation, God vowed that thru a woman, a son would be born who would undo all the damage they caused.
As the gates of paradise slammed shut behind them, God covered their guilty flesh with the skin of innocent animals; this covering was a foreshadowing of the life-blood-price that would be required for God to keep His vow of man’s redemption. In the Law of Moses, God provided the constant reminder of His vow & plan. So, that’s why Hannah took a bull to be slaughtered when she brought her boy to live & serve in God’s House. The blood of all the sacrifices of all the faithful of Israel served that same purpose = God’s promise would have a price.
Not only did Hannah bring the sacrifice for her first-born son, she fully gave her son in service to the Lord. Even more, God the Father gave His eternal Son into service by sending him into the world in human flesh. God kept his vow to us when his innocent Lamb was slaughtered by sinful man, and his holy blood was the atonement-price for the cursed creation. By his death, the sins of the world are taken away; by his resurrection, the gates to paradise are reopened to all who believe.
God’s gracious vow is not only spoken to you in words, but is even applied to you with water in His name. By your baptism, you joined Christ in a death to sin; in him is your forgiveness, and he has shared with you his righteousness. That word & that water has come to you in the person & power of God the Holy Spirit, and the faith you have is His gift. And with that gift, you are now called to live in faithfulness to your Savior, your gracious God.
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God’s good plan is to provide the news of this salvation needed by others thru his people. The need is great; we could say its even greater today than in Hannah’s day, because we are that much closer to the day of judgment. The world needs people of faith to be faithful.
When we bring our burdens to God’s house, when pastors speak the words God has given, when young & older are brought to be baptized, when parents keep their vow to raise them up in the faith, when God calls on us to acknowledge our sin and to confess the price God paid to forgive us, when our faith is nourished by that Word & Spirit in worship, …
… when we go out into the world and let the light within us shine by obeying His Word, by not returning evil for evil, by explaining the hope we’ve been given in Christ, when we pray for all people according to their needs, when we support the work of the church with our serving & offerings, …

…then, like Hannah, we are being faithful. By grace we are saved, thru faith; it is the gift of God. Then He prepares works for us, so that we will walk in them, being faithful & a blessing to others.
When you are faithful, you become one link in a long chain in God’s plan made long ago. The closed gate of Eden is linked to the cross, which is the fulfillment of the promise of the open gate to paradise.
Being faithful in the world is a hard thing to live. We are saints and sinners at the same time, so our minds are a constant battleground of conflicting desires, pulling us away from where God leads. But He sustains our faith in Him. Our faithfulness will cost us worldly things; But it’s worth it. What in this world can compare with the eternal riches of the Lord’s Heaven?
Amen.