Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost; 14 November 2021; Proper 28B (RCL); 1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-8.
In our semi-continuous reading of the Old Testament, we now stand at the verge of the monarchy. Samuel will serve as the last of the judges and anoint two kings in succession: Saul and then David. In the deuteronomistic historiographical tradition, this will be the beginning of both the glory and the shame of Israel. Solomon will build the Temple, but also build shrines for the gods of his foreign wives. His united kingdom will reach its furthest extent, but the worship of foreign deities (and the concomitant unfaithfulness to YHWH) will sow the seeds of the nation’s destruction.
Hannah’s song reflects the pro-monarchy strand of tradition; the king will crush the nation’s enemies and bring prosperity to the oppressed. Interestingly, YHWH in this song becomes also a God of fertility. Perhaps this is inserted here at the beginning of the story of the monarchy to counter the worship at the hill altars (the asherim), which was clearly connected to a fertility cult (the holy women and men associated with those hill altars amounted to sacred prostitutes). In Hannah’s song, YHWH is both a god of war and a fertility god — a step on the road to monotheism. Notice that Luke plagiarizes Hannah’s song in writing the Magnificat. Who does that make Jesus?
I find myself more and more sympathetic to the Letter to the Hebrews author’s vision of Christian life. We participate in Christ’s eternal intercession with the Father on the world’s behalf, pleading Christ’s sacrifice for the benefit of others. His (?) imagery is graphic — we have entered into the inner sanctum through the curtain of Jesus’ flesh (sounds like a birth to me), and now stand in the presence of God with boldness, entreating God like a priest for the people. This suggests to me that the Prayers of the People ought to be rather more central to our eucharistic worship than they are. There we are standing at God’s altar, pleading for the world.
Jesus also speaks of birthpangs. Paul was certainly waiting expectantly for God’s righteous kingdom, and thought he might well see it in his lifetime. Of course, as things turned out, he did not see what he expected to see. Mark seems to be suggesting that even the destruction of the Temple is not the definitive eschatological event that some hoped for; it is just the beginnings of the birthpangs. To my mind, this has resonances with the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans; creation groans like a woman in childbirth, waiting for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God (who will presumably sit as judges over creation, fulfilling humanity’s intended role, establishing righteousness within the creation).
Does our eucharistic worship stand at the verge of a new thing? As we plead Christ’s sacrifice for the world do we share with Samuel at watching the old pass away for the new to begin, or with Jesus’ disciples, witnessing the destruction of the solid Temple for the revealing of a new world?