Echoes of Hope

Many of the most powerful stories we tell have echoes in other tales. The reason that Harry Potter, King Arthur and Frodo are well loved is not just the power of the narrative, but the resonance they have with other stories of heroism, love and sacrifice – humanity at its worst and best.

As we draw near to the close of our church year, this week’s Old Testament reading has echoes throughout Scripture and elsewhere. Hannah’s desire to bear a child reminds us of Sarah and Abraham’s struggle to conceive, of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s late-arriving child, and of Mary’s astonishing conception. The story of birth is part of all of our lives, and many of us struggle in the attempt to become parents, or with our inability to do so.

Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, embody their faith differently. Elkanah has accepted the grief of their childlessness and cares for his wife as generously as he is able. Rather than annulling their marriage, he loves and affirms Hannah and doubly gifts her. Each time Hannah acts, Elkanah supports and encourages her – even when their son is dedicated to the Lord and removed from his care.

Hannah’s hope in God only grows, as she begs for a child, whom she will dedicate to God. Her weeping and anxiety reflect her faith that God can transform her circumstances.

The song of praise Hannah offers when her son is finally born is a precursor of Mary’s extraordinary Magnificat in Luke’s Gospel and reminds us how Miriam led the singing once the people of Israel had survived their escape from Egypt.

Perhaps most important is that the grief, hope and triumph in Hannah’s life resounds within our own lives. This is not just a story. It is something we all know. Our story is probably different to Hannah’s, but in the circumstances confronting each of us, we have struggled, we have prayed and we have rejoiced.

Hannah and Elkanah’s story is less about childbearing than it is about circumstance. In our world, bearing faith and hope in a climate of fear is challenging indeed. One of Walter Brueggemann’s prayers for Advent begins
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.

We have walked with Ruth and Naomi and Bartimaeus, and now Hannah, as they have articulated their hope in God, wresting life from despair. We are a people who are led by hope: that God has broken into the world in Jesus, that God is with us always, that death cannot hold Jesus and that life is God’s first – and completed – word spoken in love.

The conditions in which we live may not alter as radically as Hannah’s, but God’s promise is that we never tread this path alone. Emmanuel.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new.