How strange this text is for this preacher, at this place, in this time in the life of the Church. Did you hear where Hannah went to pray? At Shiloh! That's right, this is where we get our name; Shiloh. After the northern temple at Shiloh. We know about the temple at Jerusalem, but there was another one, for a time, at Shiloh. The town where it is said that God rested after creating the Universe. Shiloh which means "Tranquility".

But all is not tranquil at Shiloh, since Hannah is troubled; and if we are honest so are we. Hannah has no children, and she disparately wants to have at least one. My wife and I know the heartache, the endless waiting, the repeating disappointments when hopes are raised then dashed. The feelings of foresakeness by life and even by God, when a future with children is deigned.

To make matters worse, Elkanah, her husband, has married a second wife. In her culture this was permissible, especially when one's first wife produced no children. So Hannah lives childless, with a younger wife who is fertile; the younger wife's name even means "fertility". And to top it off, the younger wife hates Hannah. She mocks her for not having children; she is a rival, even an enemy of Hannah. Could life be much worse?

It could; did you notice her husband's feeble attempt at comforting her. "Am I not worth 10 sons?" NO your not!? And it's not about you Elkanah! He at least might have said, "Hannah, YOU are worth more than 10 sons to me."

The barrenness of Hannah is especially difficult when they make the trek to the temple at Shiloh for their yearly offering and worship. It obviously is a joyous family affair, with gifts and celebration. Times like this are often difficult for the barren, like Christmas with no children opening gifts in the morning, or New Years and not being able to share in the passing on of the tradition to the next generation. Hannah is so unhappy she will not eat or speak, and can we blame her.

Yet there is One she will speak to; One she will pour her heart to as she sits alone in the temple. There she goes to silently and determinedly to ask God for a son. She even makes a promise that she will dedicate her son as a Nazarite; as dedicated for special service to God. In her case, she promises to return a son for service at the temple. As she rocks back and forth, lips moving in prayer, she is noticed by Eli, the head priest who sees her and wrongly thinks she has come to the temple drunk. Poor Hannah, all this trouble, all this pain, then to be shamed at the temple by the head priest who thinks she is a babbling drunk.

But notices that Hannah does not rush out of the temple from embarrassment at her tear soaked prayers. Instead she tells the truth about her pain to Eli.

"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 . 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." 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.

I wonder about Eli and his mistake with Hannah. Why did he think she was drunk, rather than in grief and anguish? Often I have people apologize after worship for weeping, as if this is an unusual thing. Weeping is not unusual, since often I can see your eyes where perhaps others can not. But might I suggest that often we, and I suspect Eli, are not accustomed to seeing people rocking back and forth, nose and eyes red with grief over their suffering in life. How often do we respectable Church people pour out our grief at the state of our lives, our church, our world? Even our joyfulness was censored in the name of respectability. Did you know that 150 years ago, in many of our churches when the minister said something good and faithful in the sermon, people would cry out "AMEN", just like they do in many African American churches. This joyfulness was eventually discouraged as being disorderly and unrespectable. The people's joy was silenced, just as the truth-telling about their sorrow was also.

But ironically this is the kind of truth telling that God respects in a church. People who are willing to tell the truth about the misery of their lives. Tell the truth about how they miss those who have died, tell the truth about their unfulfilled dreams, tell the truth about their deepest brokenness; be it emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual. A people willing to pour out their sorrows, and also their joys, before the loving God.

How much more honest this would be than the chains of respectability that keep us from telling the truth. The truth that Jesus said would set us free.

I can not help but hear my own story, especially since three years ago my wife was grieved when hearing this story in worship. "Why had God not sent her a son like Hannah? She had prayed and cried, and asked, and longed for a child, but no child. She even went to a grief counselor for help because the pain was too deep. As for me, I did what most men do, they bury the pain only to have it emerge occasionally as a feeling of anger at the world, or even at God for the unfairness of the world. It troubled me deeply, and still does, that we live in a world where two people who passionately love children can not give birth or even adopt children.

And so you can imagine our Joy when we heard that we could adopt Adam in Saskatoon, and perhaps you can sense the devastation when we were told by his grandmother that he was being taken back. And since the grandmother needed to save face with her family did it by accusing us of wrong-doing. I remember my wife going white in the face and trembling, then feeling this deep grief well up inside me as a great sob that turned into a wailing. Not to the grandmother, but to God. All I could cry out for about a ½ hour was "God have mercy on us."

At the end, with no control over the situation, where else could I turn in grief. I realized then that I had no where else to turn as an adoptive parent. The adoption agency had no power to give us a child, the government had no power, our bodies had no power to produce children, only God could. And you know that, without our doing anything, God answered with Jameson. He is an unexpected miracle to two people who were in misery over the loss of Adam.

That is what Israel discovered about God, and what was confirmed on the cross of Jesus, that at the heart of the world is a God who is willing to hear the cries of those in misery. And that our future rests beyond our control. It is only when we face our deepest need that we become open to God's future.

This is where Shiloh is at, if we tell the truth. We long for children; yes we have children, but, I mean, we long that it's mission will have a future. We no longer have a strong core of volunteers, the endowment funds are drying up. Our building, despite to the best efforts of a few, needs more than we can provide. We no longer have a Sunday School, although we still have a youth group, although it is not as strong as a few years ago. Being an honest pastor, I suspect the talk is not whether we have a future but how long we have.

And yet, if this text about Shiloh is true, and I think it is, might we not cry out to God for a future? Should we not pour out our desires before God and ask, trusting in hope that God will respond. You see, the truth about Churches is that they often are the most faithful when they are in situations like Shiloh. Gone is trusting in full Sunday Schools, full pews, and full bank accounts; gone is self reliance and being able to plan our own futures. Where else is left that we turn to but to God's power to provide a future.

And like Hannah, and a host of others, it is when we get to "the end of our own ropes" and we have to "let go" and fall into an uncertain future or even what looks like our death, that God can begin to use us.

For Hannah, she was blessed with a child, Eli who's own sons were worthless gained a spiritual son, and the nation gained a spiritual leader. We know the son's name was Samuel, which means, "Ask".

Who knows, maybe God is waiting for us to ask how we might be used in God's plan to bless the world. Who knows, maybe we might even give thanks that when we realize that we can not "do church" the same way anymore. Who knows, perhaps God is ready to call us into a new future which we can't very well imagine, but that will be more joyful and fruitful, than any we could bring about by our own power. Jesus did say, "Ask and you shall receive."

Call to Worship
Come and pour out your hearts before the Lord of Hosts.
Come and tell the truth about your lives and the world.
Come and share in the grace of God.

Confession
You are the Almighty God who has done wonderous things. You made the universe set amongst the stars and filled our earth with a multitude of good things. You made us in your image and set us amongst all the animals to care for Your good creation. You gave us communities of family, friends, and nations that we might not be alone. You shared your wisdom that we might know how to live in peace.

As we aknowledge your power, we also confess that too often we human beings would rather trust in our own power. We turn from your ways of peace and justice thereby creating wars over differences in culture, nation, and beliefs. You know our human history too well, that even though there is more than enough, our misplaced desires and even outright greed unleash suffering on the poor, on the powerless, and on Creation itself.

Without You, we confess, we have no future, so we humbly turn to you for forgiveness, salvation, and renewed purpose.

Assurance of Grace
Where the world teaches us that if we really told the truth about our lives and the life of the world, that we would die of despare and hopelessness, Christ teaches us that the truth will set us free. For at the heart of our faith is the knowledge that when we confess the truth about ourselves and the world. Telling both the good and the bad, that it is then that God forgives us, saves us, and sets us on the path of reconciliation and healing. AMEN.

Offering Prayer
You have such a gracious mission, that the world might know of your reconcilling power through Jesus Christ, and that it might find new life in following him. Indeed, we confess that Christ is the light of the world, its very salvation, its very future.

We present this money as a sign that we are willing to be used for your mission. That we place our lives in your care, your grace, and your leading. We don't know what the future will hold, but through Christ we know You. We know that You are our hope, and we trust in You.