Inwardly Digest Love

I had one of those lovely unitive moments this morning. I was sitting in “my” chair, reading the Sunday paper and listening to “With Heart and Voice” (church music https://www.wxxiclassical.org/show/with-heart-and-voice ) on the radio. A famous hymn came on and I was immediately transported back to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin near Times Square in New York and the sound of that particular glorious hymn at the offertory on the occasion of my first service at the altar as subdeacon, probably in 1995 or 1996. I could feel the vibration of the music and sense the air thick with incense as the altar party (celebrant, deacon, subdeacon) cense the high altar. It is a very dramatic moment in the Mass, although not the climactic moment of consecration. Rather, it is a prelude to the eucharistic canon. Well, you see the effect just thinking of it has had on me. As I heard the hymn begin I put my paper down and looked out at the Douglas firs surrounding our home. I could have sworn they were swaying gently to the music. They looked almost as though they, too, were engaged in the act of censing the high altar.

And, of course, they were and are, as nature is always engaged in the act of praising God by bringing God’s love always to the fore. The trees protect us and nurture us and are very much a part of the social fabric in this part of Oregon where we live very close to nature at all times. It was a reminder to me that living in creation and walking in love are very much the same thing. We are meant, indeed we are called, to live in harmony by walking in love as part of our inward spiritual sense, second-nature I guess is another way of putting it.  Well, we have been having a series of atmospheric river events (lots of rain) and have had a couple of dry days as a break so the reminders of nature are foremost at the moment.

Indeed so is the constant challenge of relearning how to walk in love in a pandemic now getting near the end of its second year. Remember, in the beginning, when we thought it would last a few weeks? Then, remember when we didn’t believe it could last two years? But here we are. My circle of friends has been discussing lately how to move forward, just how much to “resume” from the before times, how exactly to decide what is appropriate and what is safe and what is life-giving, all of which are parts of knowing what is loving.

The song of Hannah is the feature of our scripture this week. The story is found in 1 Samuel 1:4-20 and the song itself is in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. The song is the expression of Hannah’s joy on learning she has become pregnant after a life of infertility. Her son is Samuel, who will be the great prophet. Samuel is God’s gift in response to Hannah’s prayers. The song sums up the joy, indeed the love, in Hannah’s heart as she sings “My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in my God.”

The traditional story tells of Hannah’s oppression by her peers “year by year” because of her infertility. In desperation Hannah prays excitedly to God in the temple, silently, her lips moving, and the priest taunts her for being drunk. Hannah replies that she has “been pouring out” her soul and the priest replies that God will grant her prayer. Hannah bears a son, names him Samuel, because “I have asked him of the Lord.”

A twentieth century setting of the song is found in the women’s music hymnal Voices Found: Women in the Church’s Song (New York: Church Publishing, 2003). That hymnal was one product of the project called “Women’s Sacred Music Project” (http://womenssacredmusicproject.org/lady-chapel-singers/ ). My husband was very active in that project and I was connected to them as well through our common life at St. Mark’s Church in Philadelphia. The Lady Chapel Singers were participants in my ordination, and sang the Song of Hannah “I have Borrowed Him” at the offertory on that occasion (149 words and music by Linda Wilberger Egan). A full circle of love lifting up the Holy Spirit in my life.

What I see now in the story of Hannah is how long her vexation and anxiety was before she poured out her soul to God. What I see now is that once she shifted dimensions from anxiety and vexation to loving God her life turned around. Indeed, not only Hannah’s life but the continuing revelation of God’s work in the world came from the pivot when Hannah shifted dimensionally into the love of God. It is not just that Hannah loved and then received. It is that Hannah’s dimensional shift into a position of inward loving, loving as second nature, had impact way beyond her own life. Her love negated and ended her oppression, her love shocked and educated the mansplaining temple priest. Her love brought forth a prophet whose own love wrote the history of the revelation of God’s action in creation. Hannah’s love points the way for us.

In this week’s passage from Mark’s Gospel (13:1-8) Jesus speaks of an “end still to come,” telling his followers to look past earthquakes and famines and wars because they are “but the beginning of the birthpangs” of the coming of the kingdom of love. This is the “already but not yet” eschatology theologians write about.

What we miss in this passage is the idea that we are being told that outward signs are not the pivotal points in creation. What we need to understand is that these moments are in our hearts, as indeed it was in Hannah’s. We need to see that walking in love must be not only second nature but the very path to how we dwell in creation—including in society. We must (as the collect says) “inwardly digest … embrace … and hold fast” the power of love incarnate.

Indeed the signs always have been all around us. Indeed the trees dance with praise to God. Indeed we need to reengineer life daily. The power we all have been given in Christ is the knowledge that love is always the answer.

Proper 28 Year B 2021 RCL (1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10: 11-14 (15-18) 19-25; Mark 13:1-8)

©2021 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.