Sermon – 1 Samuel 1 Family Stewardship

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – 1 Samuel 1 Family Stewardship

November 15, 2015

Today is Stewardship Sunday. We talk about stewardship every week as we present our gifts, tithes and offerings. Stewardship begins with the premise that everything is created by and owned by God. God provided us with this church, your home, the beach, the food we enjoy, the water we drink, the money you have invested, and the air we breathe. God also made us. And as a consequence of creation God continues to own everything he made. We were put here on earth to manage creation for God.

This is the opposite of what most of the world thinks. Most of the world believes that they own what they have. The first word out of the month of most children is “mine”. And most people continue to think that way throughout their lives. We tend to divide the world into what we own and what others own. But the Bible teaches us that this is incorrect. We really don't own anything. God owns it all. We are stewards. We are managers who care for God's creation.

This is why it is important to worship every Sunday, attend Bible studies, and read your Bible every day. The Bible is the instruction manual from God teaching us how to care for the creation the he made and he owns. Today we will turn to scripture and hear how one family dealt this idea of stewardship. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

1 Samuel 1:1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.

Elkanah has come from an aristocratic family. He is a Levite, a leader in his church. He is a wealthy land owner and can support two wives and a large family. The fact that he has two wives indicates, as we saw in Ruth, the importance of having sons to carry on one's name and inherit one's land. Possibly his first wife could not have children so he had to marry anther to ensure that he would have son. Possibly he inherited his brother's land and was required to marry his brother's widow to perpetuate his brother's name. Whatever it was, Elkanah now has two wives to support, and one has children while the other has none.

Elkanah's approach to stewardship is to give what scripture demands. Undoubtedly he has already given a tithe, 10% of his crops, the biblical minimum. Now he and his family are making the annual pilgrimage to Shiloh for a great festival. Elkanah is required to bring with him a young bull or a couple of lambs to be sacrificed for the festival. We are told that he does all that he is required to do by God's law, but he goes beyond this. Elkanah has a concern. His wife, Hannah, can't get pregnant. And so he increases his offering beyond what was required hoping that God would bless her with children.

This is how we, in the church, usually approach stewardship. We give what we think is required and then we add a little more if there is something we want God to do for us. But Elkanah is making the same mistake we make. He thinks that he owns his wealth and his land and his family. He thinks that he can do whatever he pleases with what he owns. But this is false. In reality God owns his money and his land and his family. Elkanah is a steward who is to use his money, land and family to achieve God's purposes on earth. God owns everything. Elkanah has been blessed with wealth, land and family to manage for God. God expects that Elkanah will use what he has been given to achieve God’s purposes on earth.

Let's turn now to Elkanah's wife Peninnah and see how she approaches stewardship.

6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

Peninnah is a woman. She cannot own land. And so she is under no obligation to tithe. Her husband is responsible for the tithe and festival sacrifice. But she thinks that she owns her kids. She made them, didn't she? And since she successfully created children doesn't she have the right to unmercifully tease her rival who cannot? Of course not! Peninnah doesn't own her children. She didn't make them. God owns her children because God created them. Peninnah's responsibility is to raise her children in a way that honor's God. And teaching them, by her example of unkindness toward Hannah, is not the way to do this.

Peninnah is an example of how most people approach the idea of stewardship. They deny God's ownership and claim to own their things and families. When people think this way they see no reason to give to God's church or God's mission in the world.

We see this here in Ocean City. Our overall budget for church operations is around $160,000 per year. We have around 80 members. So the average member gives around $2000 this year. When you factor in the giving from the summertime visitors, the average member gives much less than $2000. Unless this is a very poor church, and I think not, our giving cannot possibly even rise to the level of a tithe, 10% of our income. So our giving is less than the biblical minimum. We are not even at Elkannah's level. We must be down with Peninnah somewhere.

Let's now turn to the third person in this family, Hannah.

9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house.10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

18 She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

The only thing Hannah has is a husband. She is unable to own land and make money. She has no children. If Elkanah dies she will have nothing at all. She has nothing to offer God at the shrine of Shiloh, except her worship and prayers. Evidently she is the first person to pray to God silently. Eli thinks this is so odd that he accuses her of being drunk. But Hannah is not drunk, she is praying for a son and wants God to hear her prayer.

In her prayer Hannah acknowledges that any child that God might give her does not belong to her. A son from her womb is not her's; it’s God's. And so she promises that if God blesses her with a son she will not keep him. Rather he will be used for God's purposes. Hannah realizes that she is not an owner, but a steward of God's creation. She is to care for a son as he grows as an instrument of God's purpose. We are told that Hannah's prayers were answered.

We come to church, like Hannah, filled with our own needs. We pray to God, like Hannah, requesting his blessings. And so, like Hannah, we should acknowledge that all we have is owned by God and must be used for God's purposes.

If we were to do this the implications would be enormous. The church could hire a children's pastor who would go out into the community to reach the children and families who live here. We would expand the 1:00pm Praise and Healing service by forming a complete praise band where younger people would feel more comfortable in a contemporary service. We would be better able to care for the poor here in Ocean City. And we could better support missionaries all over the world. All this would happen if we believed, like Hannah, that all we have is owned by God and therefore we are stewards, tasked with using his creation to achieve his purpose.

Let's now fast forward to the next year and see Hannah's offering to God.

21 When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 22 Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”

23 “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

24 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 25 When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, 26 and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord.27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.28 So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

And so Hannah has satisfied her vow, she paid her pledge. She promised God that if he blessed her with the son, he would be raised in God's service. And he was. The great prophet Samuel was born to Hannah who offered him up to God.

Everything we have is owned by God. We are stewards. As stewards we are managers of God's property. Our responsibility is to use God's property for God's purposes. This means that we support the church as God's primary mission in the world. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for all the blessings we have receive. We acknowledge that all we have belongs to you, and we promise to use what you have given us to manage, for your purposes. This we pray in your son's name and in your spirit. Amen.