The Regrettable Common Lectionary (RCL)

My faithful readers well know that my relationship to the holy men and women who edited the Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary is best described as fraught.

They have expressed the most laudable motives and goals. Things like “Presenting the great narrative sagas of the Hebrew Scriptures in sequential readings.” or “Increasing our awareness of women in salvation history.”

And then, when presented with a great narrative saga of the Hebrew Scriptures whose central character is a woman, they treat it with the same delicate finesse you’d expect of a cocker-spaniel puppy toward a newspaper.

The editors thought the story of Hannah & Samuel was important enough that they ditched the liturgical psalm in favor of The Song of Hannah, but then, they gutted the story.

The outline is like this:

Hannah is barren. She prays to God for a son and promises to give the boy to God if her prayer is heard. God grants her prayer and she names her son Samuel “Heard by God” because her prayer was heard. We are all good up to this point.

But here the editors chose to skip ahead to The Song of Hannah, which is a lovely song in praise of God - BUT this is not where the song goes in the story!

You see, there is a 7 verse gap.

What got lost in those seven verses? Everything.

The edited story goes:

Hanna Prayed – God answered – Hanna sings.

The real story goes:

Hanna Prayed – God answered – Hanna sacrifices - and after she sacrifices, - Hannah sings.

What does she sacrifice? Her son.

Having promised him to the Lord, Hannah keeps him only until he is weaned and then leaves him with Eli at Shiloh. And it is as she is walking away that she sings.

By pulling that punch, the editors are telling a fundamental lie about God. God is not a divine version of Amazon.com, not a delivery system for goods and services.  

God is Love, and love is all about relationship. God wants us to ask for what we want – Indeed he does! But He gives us what we need, specifically what we need to grow more and more into that perfection that is His loving will for us.

Hannah got her son, but not to keep. Yet, it is in giving him back to God that she understands true love. It is from that deep well of sacrificial love that The Song of Hanna springs.

+++

The full text of 1 Samuel 1:1 -2:10 is set out below, and I encourage you to read it here, because you won’t hear it in Church Sunday.

1 SAMUEL

Chapter 1

Samuel's Birth and Dedication

     ¹  There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

      ³ Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the LORD. ⁴ On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; ⁵ but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. ⁶ Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. ⁷ So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. ⁸ Her husband Elkanah said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?"

      ⁹ After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the LORD. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. ¹⁰ She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly. ¹¹ She made this vow: "O LORD of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head."

      ¹² As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. ¹³ Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. ¹⁴ So Eli said to her, "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine." ¹⁵ But Hannah answered, "No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. ¹⁶ Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time." ¹⁷ Then Eli answered, "Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him." ¹⁸ And she said, "Let your servant find favor in your sight." Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.

      ¹⁹ They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. ²⁰ In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, "I have asked him of the LORD."

      ²¹ The man Elkanah and all his household went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and to pay his vow. ²² But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the LORD, and remain there forever; I will offer him as a nazirite for all time." ²³ Her husband Elkanah said to her, "Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him; only--may the LORD establish his word." So the woman remained and nursed her son, until she weaned him. ²⁴ When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh; and the child was young. ²⁵ Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. ²⁶ And she said, "Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD. ²⁷ For this child I prayed; and the LORD has granted me the petition that I made to him. ²⁸ Therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is given to the LORD."

     She left him there for the LORD.

Chapter 2

Hannah's Prayer

     ¹ Hannah prayed and said,
"My heart exults in the LORD;
     my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies,
     because I rejoice in my victory.
² "There is no Holy One like the LORD,
     no one besides you;
     there is no Rock like our God.
³ Talk no more so very proudly,
     let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the LORD is a God of knowledge,
     and by him actions are weighed.
⁴ The bows of the mighty are broken,
     but the feeble gird on strength.
⁵ Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
     but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
     but she who has many children is forlorn.
⁶ The LORD kills and brings to life;
     he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
⁷ The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
     he brings low, he also exalts.
⁸ He raises up the poor from the dust;
     he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
     and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's,
     and on them he has set the world.
⁹ "He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
     but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
     for not by might does one prevail.
¹⁰ The LORD! His adversaries shall be shattered;
     the Most High will thunder in heaven.
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth;
     he will give strength to his king,
     and exalt the power of his anointed."