1 Sam 1, 2:1-11,18-21
Hannah
Hannah is married to Elkanah who is listed as a son of a son of a son. From such an introduction it is clear that sonship is really important in this story. But Hannah has no children while Elkanah’s other wife does. Elkanah seems content with this situation while Hannah is not. When she expresses her unhappiness he answered her in a manner similar to Jacob‘s response in an earlier story to his wife, Rachel. “Why would you be unhappy, am I not more to you than ten sons?” Patriarchal men just don’t get it.In the time before patriarchy both women and men had the option to have more than one mate. That all changed with the institution of marriage, when women were restricted to one spouse while men continued to have many wives and mates. Perhaps in the old days there was a lot less barrenness because women were free to mate with other men until successful at bearing a child. Back in those days women could ritualize their divine role with their supportive fertility rites together. Hannah may have been feeling the loss of those old ways, and the constraints and emptiness of patriarchal living. Ridicule from Elkanah's other wife was especially hurtful because it was so contrary to the support women gave one another in the old ways. It shows how pervasive and internalized patriarchy had become for some of the women. Hannah's husband could in no way ever understand? In such a culture what else was there that could fulfill a woman’s life without children?Hannah took her dissatisfaction to the one place where she knew she would be understood. In the temple she cries her heart and soul out to God without caring who sees or hears her. At a time when religious ritual was public, communal and sacrificial Hannah invents inward prayer. The temple priest, Eli, observes her behavior and chides her. He mistakenly believed that she was intoxicated. Hannah defends her self image and manifests a deep dependency upon God. She leaves the temple with the priest’s blessing, renewed peace, and a deep trust that her prayers would be answered.When she later celebrated her renewed faith with her husband she conceived a son. She named him Samuel. In keeping with her promise, when he was solidly weaned she took him to the temple, presented him to Eli, and dedicated him back to God. Hannah had other children afterwards but she always treasured her precious first child, Samuel. Each year she returned to visit her son and to bring him a fine new linen robe that she herself had made for him.Her recorded psalm is very similar to the magnificat that was recited many years later by another young mother, Mary, as she announced her pregnancy to Elizabeth. When God granted Hannah's prayer with the gift of motherhood it seemed to her that life’s original order was restored. Later God asked Mary to accept motherhood so that her son could restore life’s original order for all. A mysterious interplay between woman and the divine, the divine and woman goes on and on. It was in the beginning before patriarchy, since patriarchy, and in spite of patriarchy.
Her heart's desire: When Elkanah could not give Hannah a child she turned to God's partnership for creating new life.
Points to Ponder:
1. In Hannah's time bearing children gave status and fulfillment to a woman, the more children the more richly blessed. A husband was admired for the number of his offspring. Today women with many children are generally poor and often neglected, abandoned or abused by her male partners and society. What factors account for this shift in regard to children?
2. The bible is full of strange incidents and conversations between God and male figures that are recorded as marks of favor and faith. When Hannah prayed with her whole body and soul she exhibited her spiritual intensity with trance like behaviors. Eli interpreted this as drunkenness or seemingly drugged. In the freer lives of her foremothers women danced, sang, screamed and howled their spiritual yearnings. Later mystic women had often exhibited strange behaviors when conversing with God. Woman mystics were often labeled as mentally imbalanced. But like many other women mystics, Hannah would not back down or doubt her sanity. She defends her faith and her right to have direct conversation with God. She would not be restricted by the sterile prayer forms permitted to women in the temple. Are women today seeking to free themselves of sterile forms of prayer within our traditional religions? Or must women yet come to terms with being relegated to their silent passive role as only observers of religious rituals?
In her desperation Hannah finds her woman voice and stands up for her rights to be heard and for her own spiritual authority. How different could our religious tradition have been if Hannah’s spirit been fostered within us? Imagine the differences in liturgical development….if like Eli, priests, rabbis and ministers could allow the voices of women and indeed all the laity to be heard and blessed.
3. Hannah's dedication of Samuel to God and to the temple indicates that she considered her son more God's child than Elkanah's. He was her child to give, dedicating him was her decision to make, he was the result of her bargaining with God. At some deeper level she intuited that this child was special? She kept Samuel until she had weaned him, nourished him until he was fully ready to be entrusted to the temple priests. By her yearly visits she continued to oversee his continued well being and education by the temple priests. When women sense a special gift or talent in a child and nurture it, the world is changed. Did your mother see your specialness and nurture it? Do you see it in your child? How do you foster it? Do you diligently oversee the child's education, making sure that the temples of our time are nuturing and supporting that specialness? Parents in our time have entrusted their children to church leaders who betrayed them with sexual abuse. Could Hannah be a model of parental vigilence within the church and other formative institutions?
4. Hannah's later psalm reflects her understanding of her woman relationship with God and her vision of a world order that is broadened and reversed when God hears our prayers. Could believing in the infinite possibilities of this woman's prayer bring about the justice and peace we all yearn for? Her psalm parallels the Magnificat prayed when Mary admits to her pregnancy with Jesus. Would that all mothers prayed her psalm or the magnificat over their child each night before bed. Later the Beatitudes of Jesus parallel the prayers of both women. Spend some time to meditate on the similarities of the three prayers. One can see the influence of the two women's spirituality in the treasured uplifting words of Jesus. The beatitudes form the framework of our modern beliefs about social justice and peace. Certainly Jesus must have been aware of the origins of His beliefs. Why is it that Christian churches rarely make this connection? In what ways are Hannah's psalm, Mary's Magnificat, and Jesus' Beatitudes a rebuke to all patriarchal institutions? In what ways do they foster the work of liberation?
5. Jesus was a product of a long geneology of sons. His history was told and retold in these stories of fathers having sons. Yet we have no proof that Jesus believed in the primacy of sons, or had sons for that matter. His life begins with a question of whose son He was. How could that have impacted Him? In salvation history at least the importance of having a son seems to have ended with Jesus. Geneologies no longer seemed to be so important to New Testament and later spiritual writers. Instead of having His own son, Jesus became the son His people had been waiting for. For Jesus waiting was not where it was at. Today we read slogans that remind us that we are the change that we are hoping for. Like Jesus whatever we are waiting for, we must just be it. And how will that make all the difference in the world?
6. The Bible has many stories of women and men awaiting anxiously for the birth of a son. Where in this book of sacred writings is a story of waiting eagerly for a daughter's birth? Where can women find inspiring stories of being wanted into being? born into destiny? Whenever the women characters are introduced in scriptures they are already fully grown and waiting to be useful to God and men. What does it say to women if there are no infancy narratives of daughters? Though there is no evidence to believe that Jesus had a son, there is a long and mysterious tradition, and suppression of belief, (though always denied as "unfounded " ) that Jesus may possibly have had a daughter. (DiVinci code, the gnostic writings and a history of religious sects honoring Mary Magdalen in a special way, hint strongly to such beliefs.) If it had been true, this alleged daughter would have been the granddaughter of God. How favored can one get?
7. This woman story cannot be used as a model for feminism because Hannah desires are strictly conventional. She wants to do exactly what patriarchal society expects her to do, that is, bear children. Outside her mother role Hannah cannot see value for living. Oddly it is Elkanah who asserts that from his perspective an individual’s personhood has value even without the achievement of motherhood. One wonders if Elkanah himself could ever have realized how profound his proclamation of self-esteem was. It would take many generations before women could declare this first principle of feminism for themselves. When a man loves a woman for more than her biological purposes, then he too becomes a feminist. What so called women issues will disappear or be treated as simply human issues once men and women both can view human worth beyond biological criteria?
Hannah is married to Elkanah who is listed as a son of a son of a son. From such an introduction it is clear that sonship is really important in this story. But Hannah has no children while Elkanah’s other wife does. Elkanah seems content with this situation while Hannah is not. When she expresses her unhappiness he answered her in a manner similar to Jacob‘s response in an earlier story to his wife, Rachel. “Why would you be unhappy, am I not more to you than ten sons?” Patriarchal men just don’t get it.In the time before patriarchy both women and men had the option to have more than one mate. That all changed with the institution of marriage, when women were restricted to one spouse while men continued to have many wives and mates. Perhaps in the old days there was a lot less barrenness because women were free to mate with other men until successful at bearing a child. Back in those days women could ritualize their divine role with their supportive fertility rites together. Hannah may have been feeling the loss of those old ways, and the constraints and emptiness of patriarchal living. Ridicule from Elkanah's other wife was especially hurtful because it was so contrary to the support women gave one another in the old ways. It shows how pervasive and internalized patriarchy had become for some of the women. Hannah's husband could in no way ever understand? In such a culture what else was there that could fulfill a woman’s life without children?Hannah took her dissatisfaction to the one place where she knew she would be understood. In the temple she cries her heart and soul out to God without caring who sees or hears her. At a time when religious ritual was public, communal and sacrificial Hannah invents inward prayer. The temple priest, Eli, observes her behavior and chides her. He mistakenly believed that she was intoxicated. Hannah defends her self image and manifests a deep dependency upon God. She leaves the temple with the priest’s blessing, renewed peace, and a deep trust that her prayers would be answered.When she later celebrated her renewed faith with her husband she conceived a son. She named him Samuel. In keeping with her promise, when he was solidly weaned she took him to the temple, presented him to Eli, and dedicated him back to God. Hannah had other children afterwards but she always treasured her precious first child, Samuel. Each year she returned to visit her son and to bring him a fine new linen robe that she herself had made for him.Her recorded psalm is very similar to the magnificat that was recited many years later by another young mother, Mary, as she announced her pregnancy to Elizabeth. When God granted Hannah's prayer with the gift of motherhood it seemed to her that life’s original order was restored. Later God asked Mary to accept motherhood so that her son could restore life’s original order for all. A mysterious interplay between woman and the divine, the divine and woman goes on and on. It was in the beginning before patriarchy, since patriarchy, and in spite of patriarchy.
Her heart's desire: When Elkanah could not give Hannah a child she turned to God's partnership for creating new life.
Points to Ponder:
1. In Hannah's time bearing children gave status and fulfillment to a woman, the more children the more richly blessed. A husband was admired for the number of his offspring. Today women with many children are generally poor and often neglected, abandoned or abused by her male partners and society. What factors account for this shift in regard to children?
2. The bible is full of strange incidents and conversations between God and male figures that are recorded as marks of favor and faith. When Hannah prayed with her whole body and soul she exhibited her spiritual intensity with trance like behaviors. Eli interpreted this as drunkenness or seemingly drugged. In the freer lives of her foremothers women danced, sang, screamed and howled their spiritual yearnings. Later mystic women had often exhibited strange behaviors when conversing with God. Woman mystics were often labeled as mentally imbalanced. But like many other women mystics, Hannah would not back down or doubt her sanity. She defends her faith and her right to have direct conversation with God. She would not be restricted by the sterile prayer forms permitted to women in the temple. Are women today seeking to free themselves of sterile forms of prayer within our traditional religions? Or must women yet come to terms with being relegated to their silent passive role as only observers of religious rituals?
In her desperation Hannah finds her woman voice and stands up for her rights to be heard and for her own spiritual authority. How different could our religious tradition have been if Hannah’s spirit been fostered within us? Imagine the differences in liturgical development….if like Eli, priests, rabbis and ministers could allow the voices of women and indeed all the laity to be heard and blessed.
3. Hannah's dedication of Samuel to God and to the temple indicates that she considered her son more God's child than Elkanah's. He was her child to give, dedicating him was her decision to make, he was the result of her bargaining with God. At some deeper level she intuited that this child was special? She kept Samuel until she had weaned him, nourished him until he was fully ready to be entrusted to the temple priests. By her yearly visits she continued to oversee his continued well being and education by the temple priests. When women sense a special gift or talent in a child and nurture it, the world is changed. Did your mother see your specialness and nurture it? Do you see it in your child? How do you foster it? Do you diligently oversee the child's education, making sure that the temples of our time are nuturing and supporting that specialness? Parents in our time have entrusted their children to church leaders who betrayed them with sexual abuse. Could Hannah be a model of parental vigilence within the church and other formative institutions?
4. Hannah's later psalm reflects her understanding of her woman relationship with God and her vision of a world order that is broadened and reversed when God hears our prayers. Could believing in the infinite possibilities of this woman's prayer bring about the justice and peace we all yearn for? Her psalm parallels the Magnificat prayed when Mary admits to her pregnancy with Jesus. Would that all mothers prayed her psalm or the magnificat over their child each night before bed. Later the Beatitudes of Jesus parallel the prayers of both women. Spend some time to meditate on the similarities of the three prayers. One can see the influence of the two women's spirituality in the treasured uplifting words of Jesus. The beatitudes form the framework of our modern beliefs about social justice and peace. Certainly Jesus must have been aware of the origins of His beliefs. Why is it that Christian churches rarely make this connection? In what ways are Hannah's psalm, Mary's Magnificat, and Jesus' Beatitudes a rebuke to all patriarchal institutions? In what ways do they foster the work of liberation?
5. Jesus was a product of a long geneology of sons. His history was told and retold in these stories of fathers having sons. Yet we have no proof that Jesus believed in the primacy of sons, or had sons for that matter. His life begins with a question of whose son He was. How could that have impacted Him? In salvation history at least the importance of having a son seems to have ended with Jesus. Geneologies no longer seemed to be so important to New Testament and later spiritual writers. Instead of having His own son, Jesus became the son His people had been waiting for. For Jesus waiting was not where it was at. Today we read slogans that remind us that we are the change that we are hoping for. Like Jesus whatever we are waiting for, we must just be it. And how will that make all the difference in the world?
6. The Bible has many stories of women and men awaiting anxiously for the birth of a son. Where in this book of sacred writings is a story of waiting eagerly for a daughter's birth? Where can women find inspiring stories of being wanted into being? born into destiny? Whenever the women characters are introduced in scriptures they are already fully grown and waiting to be useful to God and men. What does it say to women if there are no infancy narratives of daughters? Though there is no evidence to believe that Jesus had a son, there is a long and mysterious tradition, and suppression of belief, (though always denied as "unfounded " ) that Jesus may possibly have had a daughter. (DiVinci code, the gnostic writings and a history of religious sects honoring Mary Magdalen in a special way, hint strongly to such beliefs.) If it had been true, this alleged daughter would have been the granddaughter of God. How favored can one get?
7. This woman story cannot be used as a model for feminism because Hannah desires are strictly conventional. She wants to do exactly what patriarchal society expects her to do, that is, bear children. Outside her mother role Hannah cannot see value for living. Oddly it is Elkanah who asserts that from his perspective an individual’s personhood has value even without the achievement of motherhood. One wonders if Elkanah himself could ever have realized how profound his proclamation of self-esteem was. It would take many generations before women could declare this first principle of feminism for themselves. When a man loves a woman for more than her biological purposes, then he too becomes a feminist. What so called women issues will disappear or be treated as simply human issues once men and women both can view human worth beyond biological criteria?
posted by Her Heart's Desire @ 9:02 PM
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