I recently had the privilege of introducing Maya Angelou who addressed a luncheon honoring Cecil Williams at Perkins School of Theology. Ms. Angelou, a world renowned poet, writer, and actress, is author of the best-selling book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and is perhaps best remembered for her poem, "On the Pulse of the Morning," which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton on January 20, 1993. As I listened to her eloquent and challenging address, I was especially inspired when I recalled how God had given her the grace to overcome the great odds against her. For example, I remembered that as a result of being sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend, she was a mute for five years of her childhood. She was further abused by others who called her a moron and an idiot. But she said that her grandmother told her all the time, "Sister, Mama don't care what these people say about you being a moron, being an idiot. Mama don't care. Mama know sister, when you and the good Lord get ready, you're going to be a preacher."[1] These words of her grandmother helped Maya Angelou to overcome the odds against her.
Like Maya Angelou, Hannah in our text was confronted with some great odds that were against her. Hannah was one of two wives of Elkanah. Peninnah, the other wife, had several sons and daughters. However, Hannah had no children because God had "closed her womb." This was indeed a situation of great odds against Hannah because in her day a woman's primary role was to bear children. It was the means by which a woman's status and worth were measured. Therefore, barrenness was a mark of disgrace.
The odds against Hannah were compounded by the fact that Peninnah made Hannah's life miserable by ridiculing and taunting her because of the differences in their families. Likewise, the well-intentioned pity of Elkanah further compounded the odds against Hannah. He tried to console her but he did not understand the depth of her unhappiness. Although she was his favorite wife in spite of her barrenness, that did not satisfy her need to have children for her own personal fulfillment.
In addition, the odds against Hannah were stacked high because, unlike Maya Angelou, she had no grandmother or any other family member who gave her words of encouragement. But in spite of the great odds against her, Hannah reached down within herself and did an amazing thing. We are told that "Hannah rose and presented herself to the Lord" (v. 9). In other words, she refused to let the odds against her get her down or keep her down! She rose up and went to the temple at Shiloh to present her case before the Lord in prayer.
She reminds me of my African American slave foremothers and forefathers who always found comfort and strength in worship when the odds were so greatly against them. They too were ridiculed and taunted and called everything but a child of God. But they did not derive their identity from the names their slavemasters called them. Instead, like Hannah, they rose and presented themselves before the Lord. To be sure, they stole away and they sang a song: "Hush, hush, Somebody's calling my name." And then they sang another verse: "It sounds like Jesus, Somebody's calling my name." This was a major resource that empowered them to overcome the odds against them, and it is our most major resource today.
Hannah prayed to the Lord and made a vow. She said, "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 ..." (v. 11). However as Hannah continued to pray she had to overcome the odds that were stacked against her in the temple worship. Maybe she got too emotional for the staid worship to which the priest Eli was accustomed in the temple. Maybe she became so filled with God's spirit that she shook her body too much for Eli. Maybe Eli thought she was praying so long that the service might go beyond one hour! Maybe she was not following the prescribed ritual! Whatever the reason, Eli the priest thought that she was drunk with wine and chastised her. He said to her, "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine!" (v. 14). In other words he was telling her, "You are out of order!"
Sometimes in the church today we fail to minister to those who have great odds stacked against them because we fail to look beyond our prejudices and rituals and see their real need. Bishop Noah Moore, Jr., often told of a woman who came to the altar during one of the worship services when he pastored the Tindley Temple United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He said that the woman's clothes were torn. Her hair was not combed and her eyes were red and bloodshot. Assuming her to be drunk with alcohol, he said to her: "Daughter, you know better than to come to church drunk like this." She said, "Pastor, please let me pray. You don't understand. I had to fight my husband in order to get out of the house to come to church and I will have to fight to get back in. But I had to come here this morning to get the strength to make it another week."
We never know what people are going through when they come to worship. Thank God that Hannah did not accept Eli's misreading of her situation without speaking up and voicing her concern. And thank God that Eli accepted her response. He said to her: "Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him" (v. 17).
With those words of benediction the story reaches its God-given conclusion. In spite of the odds against her, by the grace of God Hannah will bear her son. After her son Samuel is born Hannah keeps her vow to the Lord. She says: "For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord" (vv. 27-28).
If Hannah had not risen up and turned to the Lord she would not have overcome the great odds against her, and neither will we. This is the same God who told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child in their old age. This is the same God who called Noah to build an ark, even when no rain was in sight. This is the same God who told Joshua the walls of Jericho would fall if he led the children of Israel around it seven times. All of this was against great odds. But Isaac was born. The rain did come. The wall did fall. And Samuel was born to Hannah and Elkanah. Hallelujah! God is able!
1. Maya Angelou, I Dream A World, Portraits of Black Women, p. 68.