It wasn’t until I heard (again) the I Samuel reading at 10am this morning that I realized that this sermon about “building confidence” was powerfully portrayed in Hannah who truly “finds her voice” – I Samuel 1. Hannah finds a voice as she firmly tells the old priest Eli that he is wrong in his judgement of her. And, again, Hannah finds a voice as she (not her husband Elkanah) names the gift of their son… Samuel. This is a powerful woman at last given confidence to find her voice.
The sermon text (sadly not over affected by the revelation above) is below the sermon audio. Ah well, better next time…
Sermon preached at Trinity Church, Newport RI
Sunday November 18th 2018
The Reverend Alan Neale
“Building Confidence or She Finds Her Voice”
In the movie “European Vacation” the hapless cyclist (played by Eric Idle) is hit several times as Clark Griswald (played by Chevy Chase) tries to become acquainted with roundabouts and driving on the “wrong side”. As the hapless cyclist is hit often so each time his injuries become worse and, each time, his apology becomes more profound with the memorable phrase “Oh it’s only a flesh wound”… though he were not responsible at all.
The humor here is largely fueled by the image of the British as being constantly self-deprecatory, persistently overly apologetic and just generally lacking confidence.
Now whether this image is actually true or really just propounded as a means to engender sympathy… well, I leave that for you to decide.
Lack of confidence is a phenomenon that can be crippling, paralyzing, destructive. It was said of the poet Thomas Gray (by Arnold Bennett) that “he never spoke out”… “here, Bennett tells us, lies the secret of Gray’s limitation… so modest in public that the thoughts that arose in him never got full utterance, the possibilities of his genius were never fulfilled.”
“He never spoke out…” a sad silence borne of a withering lack of confidence.
We are suspect of the over-confident and tend to be attracted by the reticent and yet it is confidence that marks our heroine Hannah and confidence that is urged upon us by the writer to the Hebrews.
Four times in the demanding, tortuous, detailed Letter to the Hebrews the writer urges his/her readers to be confident…
3:6 We are God’s house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.
4:16 Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
10:19 Therefore, my friends we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus.
10:35 Do not abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.
Week by week, you hear the Celebrant introduce the Lord’s Prayer with these words (or similar) “As our Savior Christ has taught us, so we are bold to say… Our Father…” – bold to say, confident to say.
I believe that it is deep in the heart of God that each of his creatures should experience a confidence, a boldness to enter His presence not as a fearful child entering the study of some Victorian paterfamilias but rather as a lover entering into the presence of the beloved.
And yet the spiritual life is replete, rife with examples of those whose lack of confidence create a craven rather than upright spirit, a downcast rather than expectant countenance, a heavy rather than a happy heart.
And why? Three reasons occur to me for now…
The first, we carry the burden of our sins rather than the joy of the Savior’s forgiveness. Confidence towards God lies not in the silly belief that we have done nothing wrong but rather in the firm belief that… as for God, it is His nature to forgive. So we read today, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more”. So we read today “we are cleansed from an evil conscience.”
The second, we carry the burden of our limitations rather than the lightness of God’s creative power in our lives. The poor and wretched Hannah in our story from First Samuel was weighed down by her experience of barrenness, made all the more wretched by the progeny of her companion Peninnah. But confidence, boldness, is instilled in Hannah as she reflects upon the creative, life-giving, situation changing power of the Lord… listen to her Song (so similar in so many ways to the Song of Mary)… “Bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength; the barren has borne seven but she who has many children is forlorn” and so the song of praise continues.
And the third, all too often we listen to the discouragement and negativity of others. With the venerable nature of his age, with the apparent wisdom of his experience, the priest Eli almost slays Hannah with a word and, like the Apostles in Acts 2, dismisses her as a drunk. But, thank God, unlike the poet Thomas Gray, Hannah has the confidence, the boldness to speak out. “Beware of rumors, “says Jesus; beware of the voices of discouragement often carrying the most weight as they come from within.
Friends in Christ, you and I are urged, encouraged, maybe even provoked, by the Spirit of God to approach God’s presence with confidence and boldness… speaking from the depth of our hearts our hopes and fears, our concerns and dreams.
I believe God’s heart aches to move us so that of us it will be said, “She/he spoke out… to the Lord” in the pattern and spirit of Hannah. AMEN