1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

Christmas 1- Year C

Footnotes are often where the action is. Note verse 20 where the NRSV text reads, "the gift that she made to the Lord" and the footnotes with an alternative reading of "the gift that she asked of the Lord."

If we play a bit with the footnote the New Interpreter's Study Bible notes a going back to Samuel's name in 1:20. Saul's name is also found within the letters of "Samuel" which has led some to consider this to have been a beginning birth story for Saul (like the Christmas story is for Jesus) to respond to the question, "Where did his greatness come from?"

They go on to note that this is an ironic situation for the "people" in turn "asked of" Samuel for Saul when he was the leader they needed, not Saul.

We run into some of that same irony with Christ and Christian. People are always looking for something beyond what is already available to them - loving grace. Here Christians have to keep justifying our existence in terms of the limits of the Christ of the Bible and so few can see that even greater things than Christ's are available through Christians.

I'm sure this kind of thinking makes folks just a little skittery and anxious about heresy. The point here is that you are in good company - Samuel was rejected, Jesus was rejected, you are being rejected because of the openness to new life you bring. So, hang in there, literally and figuratively, there are bigger things to be. Here in Christmas is a foretaste of Easter.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/december2003.html

 

 

It is so easy to miss important people - parents miss children, kings miss wisdom, priests miss women.

How would you like to be repaid for someone else's gift? Those who have the power to get away with this, love it. You work - I'll take the profit!

And if you were on the other end of the game? I'll work - you take the profit. How about then?

After announcements of good-will to all we find we are back in a patriarchal setting where one benefits from another's passion and insight. Elkanah is repaid by what Hannah bore - gifts and children. And Hannah's payment is the pleasure of the bearing?

In this scheme we can justify Rachel's weeping as Herod's right. We need to ask what needs to change that we can look to a day announced, but not yet here, when elaborate justification gives way to simple justice and protection for growth.

- - -

linen ephod
swaddling clothes
a little robe

wrap round
little samuel
little jesus
little me

protecting
larval stages
transforming
priest to prophet
prophet to
the usual suspects
of me and you
and you and I
as we continue
to grow in
wisdom and stature
a favorable journey

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

 

 

Yes, it is good to know that Samuel and Jesus grew in wisdom and favor with G*D while also increasing their stature and years. Life-long learning is a good thing. This is good iconography - attributing all good things to our heroes (like Tiger Woods before his tumbles in the hay and from advertiser gold). What we are often missing is the balancing material elided from this passage. It is helpful to hear what not to do as well as the generalized things to do. It helps sharpen our moral judgment.

Remember again the sons of Eli as a contrast to Samuel. Whether or not you buy G*D's desire to kill the sons of Eli, thus blocking their hearing, their understanding of the difficulty of sticking to a better way, their living for themselves alone was about to come tumbling down.

Simply hearing how wonderful the wonderful are doesn't give much guidance about following. And simply hearing how there are consequences for actions doesn't keep us from pushing boundaries.

Together we can keep encouraging and correcting one another to find those practical steps to move from where we are to a better spot. Blessings to us all as we continue to work with one another that our births might not just promise good to come, but actually be continually trained in that direction.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

 

 

Presumably an experience of a surprise such as G*D incarnate in creation is not a once-for-all moment. An infant that is not stillborn, grows - hopefully in relationship to G*D and Neighb*r as well as in stature and girth.

While yet in Christmastide, within the proverbial 12 Days of Christmas, we hear about the imperative of growth. Our tendency may be to revere the traditions of Christmas when the challenge before us is that of reinventing it beyond rote.

Samuel grew. Jesus grew. And you? Or, put another way, have you stopped? How do you know?

Here’s a thought experiment for you. Instead of considering atonement to be about the cross, what if it is about a manger? To grow up “blessed by G*D and popular with the people”, as The Message has it, are we not talking about an at-one-ment? Evaluate this proposition: Atonement is incarnational, not crucifixional.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-1-year-c-1-samuel-218-20-26.html