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Samuel 1:4-28 and Mark 13:1-8
As a student of religion, I find myself
sometimes borrowing ideas from other faiths.
Lately in my own life, I have been thinking a lot about the Buddhist
principle of non-attachment. It is our attachment,
our desire for things, which leads us to suffering. In my own life I have been trying to let
things go, I have been consciously thinking about non-attachment in the way I
approach the world. In Christian idiom I
think we would call this the practice of “let go, and let God”. It is no wonder then that I found this theme
in our readings for today.
Our reading from 1st Samuel
is one of the few scriptural narratives that features a woman. Like other readings in this genre, it centers
around the birth of a child that will be of historical significance to the
nation of Israel. Hannah’s son will
anoint Saul and David, ushering in the monarchy. But before there is a child, there is the
longing for a child.
Hannah is one of the two wives of
Elkanah. Her rival for his affections,
Peninnah is a fertile woman and has plenty of children to give her worth in the
world. Hannah is barren, a sign of curse
and despair in ancient times. Every year
as the family travels to Shiloh to make the yearly offering, Peninnah teases
Hannah and she becomes more and more depressed.
One year, full of anguish and longing,
Hannah takes her case directly to God.
She presents herself before the Lord in the temple and prays fervently
to God. Her greatest desire is for a
male child, and she promises God that if a child is given she will return the
child to God. Eli the priest sees her
weeping and muttering and assumes she is drunk and causing trouble. She pleads her case to him as well and he
finally sends her away in peace.
At this point Hannah returns home and
she truly is at peace. I believe that in
offering up her greatest desire to God, she is now able to let it go. She has become unattached to this great want,
this great longing, and now it no longer causes her suffering. In a miraculous turn of events, the Lord
remembers Hannah and she does bear a son, Samuel.
For several seasons Hannah and Samuel
sit out the yearly trip to the temple.
She raises him until he is weaned and even though she has the strong
mother’s bond with him, she is ready to let him go. She brings him to the temple along with
several special offerings. She reminds
Eli who she was, that the Lord has answered her prayer, and that she is ready now
to offer the child to God. Hannah leaves
Samuel at the temple, saying, “he is given to the Lord.” From this point on she will only visit him
once a year, when the family goes to make the offering, and each year she will
bring him a small robe that she has made.
It is hard for any mother to imagine
leaving her child at the temple to serve the Lord. I believe it is an offering many of us would
be unwilling to make. Hannah has reached
a level of non-attachment that I am not ready for. Just as she was able to leave her longing for
a child in the hands of God, she is now able to literally leave the child in
God’s hands. The Lord will bless Hannah
with other children, but nothing will compare to this amazing sacrifice.
Our reading from Mark is also all
about letting go. The disciples are with
Jesus outside of the temple and they cannot help but marvel at the beauty of
the place. What large and wonderful
stones, what an amazing building it is, what a beautiful place to worship and
enjoy the presence of God! Jesus immediately
takes things to a dark place declaring that the whole structure will soon
fall. It is hard for us to imagine what
this would have sounded like to the disciples.
The temple was the most holy place; it was literally the home of God on
earth. How could Jesus be talking about its
destruction? It is frightening and it
doesn’t make any sense.
The disciples take Jesus aside to try
to figure out what he is saying, and to try to talk some sense into him but he
will have none of it. Soon he is off
describing the end of the world. It is
wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes and famines and plagues. It is the end of the world and somehow Jesus
says it is the beginning. I am certain
the disciples were frightened.
I have to admit that I too am
frightened when I think of the end of the world. All those apocalyptic movies like Mad Max and
The Road and The Book of Eli are too scary for me to watch. I’ve never seen it in real life, but the way
the system breaks down in movies and books is always really frightening, and
other people are always the thing to be most afraid of.
Of course I am not the only one who is
afraid of the end of the world. There is
a whole culture out there dedicated to end times preparedness. Stock piling food, and water, and weapons has
become a way of life for many Americans.
Even Ted Koppel has a new book out about the end of the world. In his book “Lights Out” Koppel explains the
risk the United States is at for a cyber-attack that would knock out our power
grid. Folks in some areas could be
without power for up to two years. Or
there could be EMP attack that would knock out all items that contain an
electronic chip – which is basically everything. It would be the end of the world.
Koppel suggests preparing by
stockpiling food and as a parent I find myself wondering if that would be a
prudent move. Maybe I should invest in
some freeze dried macaroni and cheese. But
maybe this is just a desire to try to hold on to my old way of life. I start thinking about my neighbors and
everyone else. I feel like I have
friends I could rely on, that we could help each other. I think I am ready to throw my lot in with
the group. I think I am ready to help
create some new system that would provide care.
Maybe it’s naivety. Maybe it’s
just a willingness to let go of the old way of life, and to witness new birth. Whatever the future is, I trust God to be
there.
Jesus encourages the disciples to be
unattached to the temple, unattached to their religion, even unattached to the
very world. Jesus implies that
everything will change and as followers of his, we need to be willing to let
everything go. We read last week that
God is alpha and omega, life and death; and in the midst of being everything,
God is also making everything new. I
want to be able to let go and let God, I want to be able to enter that future,
whatever it may be.
Which brings us to the subject of stewardship. It is time to consider our pledges, it is
time to consider our commitments to the church, and I am wondering what I am
holding on to all this money for anyway.
Am I trying to sustain a way of life I don’t need? Am I trying to store up for a future that may
or may not come? Who knows, maybe the
end of the world will be tomorrow, the bank will close, and I will only have
the money I have in my pocket. Won’t
make any difference then, will it?
Last year we talked about tithing and
I told you that our family was stepping up to a tithe over the next several
years. This year we have given a half
tithe, 5%. Last January it was really
difficult to write those weekly checks, not knowing if everything would shake
out in the end. $53 a week seemed like
an awful lot of money to just give away.
Now that it is November, I am used to writing those checks. I don’t even think about it anymore. I just regularly let that money go and give
it to God. I think we will step up to 7%
this year. When I consider giving up
everything at the end of the world, it seems easy to give up a few more dollars
each week. Compared with losing my whole
way of life, it is easy to let that money go and to give it to God.
So, what do you think about this idea
of non-attachment? The Buddhists say
that attachment to money, to longing, to desire leads to suffering. Hannah is able to let go of her longing for a
child and then to offer that very child as a gift to God. Jesus suggests that the end is coming and that
we should be willing to let everything we know go, as that is the beginning of
new life, new birth.
Where do you see attachment in your
life? What desires are you holding on
to? What things are you holding tightly
in your grip? Where in your life is God
calling you to loosen your hold on things; your hold on dreams, your hold on
possessions, your hold on money? How are
you being called to let go . . . and let God?
May God help us to trust this morning. And may God help us to let go. Amen.
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