Jack McKinney

Pullen Memorial Baptist Church

November 19, 2006 – Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Text: 1 Samuel 1:4-20

Predetermined Teetotalism and Other Family “Gifts”

Have you ever noticed that knowing someone’s family background can explain a lot about present behavior? To clarify what I mean, consider this hypothetical scenario. Imagine that a few weeks from now you are at an office Christmas party. As the awkward evening drags along, suddenly Bob from accounting jumps up on a table and starts juggling several swords while simultaneously blowing fire from his mouth. Now in addition to everyone being grateful to Bob for jumpstarting the party, there will be a buzz around the room as people exclaim, “I had no idea Bob could juggle swords and blow fire at the same time. I thought he was just good at long division.” But just as you begin to wonder if this is a miracle unfolding at your office Christmas party, someone leans over to you and says, “You know Bob’s parents were circus people.” And in a flash it all makes sense. Knowing how Bob was raised instantly explains what you are witnessing.

And so it goes with all of us. I am a diehard Texas Longhorns football fan not because I ever attended the University of Texas, but because my father did and took us to games when I was a young boy. I can explain to you how to ride a horse or rope a cow, not because I have done either of those things in the last 30 years, but because some of my earliest memories were riding and roping on my father’s farm. Like all of you, there are unusual bits of knowledge I have or skills I have acquired simply because of my story of origin.

The Bible is filled with family histories. At Christmas we read both of Jesus’ stories of origin. The one from Matthew is a little scarier than the one from Luke. Moses had a great story of origin. His mother put him in a reed basket and set him in the river to save his life, and then he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter. I guess if you are going to be sent down the river as a baby you couldn’t do much better than to be found by the King’s daughter.

One of the more interesting biblical accounts about a person’s family background is found in our reading this morning. 1 Samuel begins, quite naturally, with Samuel’s story of origin. Now I know Samuel doesn’t rank up there with Jesus or Moses in terms of Q quotient for biblical characters, but he is an important figure in Hebrew history. He was the religious leader for the Israelites before they had a monarchy, and it was Samuel who anointed not just the first king, Saul, but also King David when David was still a boy. Samuel was regarded as a powerful and wise spiritual leader, and by knowing how his life began, it is easier to understand how he rose to such a prominent religious position.

The text we have heard focuses on Samuel’s mother, Hannah. There are numerous reasons to feel compassion for this woman. Hannah is trapped in a patriarchal system where men were allowed to practice polygamy. (Just as an aside, the next time a married man says to you that we can’t have same-sex marriage because it deviates from the biblical norm, ask that man when he plans to have his next wedding. Because the biblical norm was for men to have multiple wives and treat them all like second-class citizens.) Hannah not only is a victim of this awful system, but her husband’s other wife is, how shall we say, not Miss Congeniality. The source of Hannah’s suffering at the hands of the other wife is centered on the fact the other woman has children and Hannah does not. Poor Hannah not only grieves her inability to give birth, but she is also the casualty of a terrible theology that says God has made her barren. The whole story is simply one tragedy after another for this unfortunate woman.

And, so, we are told that Hannah goes to the temple and prays with such emotion and anxiety that the priest thinks she is drunk. But she explains it is not liquor that has worked her up into this state, but her passionate desire to have a child. And she so longs to give birth that she does what many people do in times of great need and sorrow. She strikes a deal with God. She promises that if she has a boy she will make him a Nazirite. Nazirites were people of unusual religious devotion who were distinguished by their refusal to cut their hair and their absolute avoidance of alcohol. And, as the passage tells us, at the end of this emotional saga Hannah does indeed give birth to her son, Samuel.

Now there are a number of interesting things to note about this story, but since the purpose of this passage is to explain how the famous Samuel got his start in life, let’s focus on that. And what I notice is that before this man is even born his career has been chosen for him, his hair style has been determined, and his chances of making it in a fraternity are undermined because he is never going to have a drink. Hannah’s own suffering and longing cause her not only to set the child on a predetermined course, but she even gives the child up to be raised in the temple under the care of the head priest. Who Samuel turns out to be can only be understood if you know who his parents were and how desperate his mother was to have a child.

And I wonder if Samuel was glad that his life was set on such a firm course from the beginning? Surely only getting to see his mother once or twice a year after she gave him to the priest to be raised must have been hard. And while the long hair thing may have seemed pretty cool in his teenage years, the absolute ban on alcohol probably felt unfair as he got older. But what was he going to do? His mother had made a promise to God and his life was profoundly shaped by that promise.

We are not so different than Samuel. Oh, our stories may not be as colorful or dramatic, but the ingredients are the same. We were dealt a hand early in life in terms of parental love or lack thereof, a secure home life or lack thereof, and a myriad of other influences including, possibly, a faith tradition. And though the great American myth is that we are all rugged individuals blazing our own course in life, the truth of the matter is that we are a dealt a hand in the beginning and we spend the rest of our years reacting to those cards. If those early influences were healthy and full of love, we likely will play the cards we were dealt with pleasure. If our story of origin is filled with pain and trauma, we may discard those cards as quickly as possible.

But to be honest, it’s really not as simple as I have just described it. In fact, one of the greatest problems in our society is that few people ever stop to consider if the influences handed down to them were healthy or not. All around us we see evidence of people perpetuating destructive patterns because they assume this must be the only way. Two episodes from this week illustrate what I mean.

The News and Observer ran a fascinating insert on Friday written by Tim Tyson about the Wilmington race riot of 1898. That horrible event not only resulted in the deaths of a number of black citizens in Wilmington, it helped change the course of North Carolina politics. Elite white leaders of the day, including the publisher of the N&O, Josephus Daniels, fanned the doctrine of white supremacy in a way that resulted in a coup in Wilmington and the end of a coalition government made up of whites and blacks. Two things struck me about Tyson’s history. First, the architects of this murderous rampage were not illiterate rednecks but some of the leading figures in our state at that time. White supremacy was natural to them and had been passed down from generation to generation. The other thing I noticed was that this inherited violent racism was undergirded by a religious faith that was certain God ordained for white people to rule over blacks. The argument was that the Bible mandated slavery and so it was God’s will for blacks to be kept under foot. And, in a twisted sense, the white supremacists were correct. The Bible does sanction slavery in many places. The reason that evil institution lasted so long in this country was because people could point to passages in the Bible where slavery was not only tolerated, but blessed.

The other event from this week I will note is that the Baptist State Convention finally got around to finishing the job it started with our church back in 1992. In that year Pullen and Binkley Baptist in Chapel Hill were voted out of the convention when we dared to affirm gay and lesbian Christians and state that all rituals of the church were open to people regardless of their sexual orientation. This week the state convention changed its membership criteria and said that any church that in any way says or does something affirming of homosexuality will be removed from the convention. I guess what that means is you can still keep black people out of your church and be in good standing with the Baptist State Convention; you can keep women out of your pulpit and the Baptist State Convention will call you godly; but if you dare say “Christ loves and welcomes all people into the church, including sexual minorities,” then you better start packing your bags. Let the witch hunts begin.

And what was the rationale the Baptists used this week for their ugly action? Well, the Bible says homosexuality is a sin so they had to do it. Setting aside the fact I disagree with the view that says the Bible clearly denounces homosexuality, let us note that the rationale for the Wilmington race riot and the rationale for the Baptist State Convention was the same. The Bible mandated the action and there was hardly any opposition in either case because these so-called “truths” had been passed down from generation to generation without question.

And about right now it may seem like I am picking off some really low hanging fruit by denouncing the racists in Wilmington in 1898 and the homophobia demonstrated at the Baptist State Convention this week. But my point is not just to mock the obvious cruelty and unChristian like behavior of these examples. I want us to note that the reason such behavior goes unchecked for so long is that people are reluctant to even question the sources of authority that hand them these patterns of thought. If momma and daddy believed this, and this is what they preached at the church, then who am I to question it? And if that sounds like an overly simplistic analysis, then let me tell you there are many wonderful gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in this church who still wonder if they are loved by God because their parents and their home church say the Bible denounces them. And all I have to say about that is the Bible has lot more good to say about slavery than bad to say about homosexuality, so maybe it’s time we dug a little deeper than “the Bible says thus and such.” The Bible says a lot of things that are disturbing and hateful, and the Bible also says we are all created in God’s image and that God sides with those who are most vulnerable and cast off by society. So it’s really not a question of what the Bible says; it is a question of what parts of the Bible we are going to believe.

The ongoing challenge for all of us is to keep choosing which of our early influences we will celebrate, which we will reject, and which ones we will simply make peace with because that is all that we can do. And that process never ends. The truest sign of maturation is the willingness to question what has been handed to us, whether that is a way of thinking, or a way of believing, or a way of behaving. Healthy homes, healthy communities, and healthy churches make room for this kind of questioning. What is dangerous, and destructive, is when the voices of authority say this is the way it has always been and you must accept it to fit in.

All of which brings me back to our story from Samuel and the way his life was charted from the beginning. I wonder if he ever cut his hair or took a drink? Who knows? Maybe he did and was glad he struck out on his own. Or maybe he didn’t because he considered his upbringing to be worth preserving. Whichever path he chose, I hope he really did choose it and not just follow mindlessly what had been handed him. Because mindless obedience can destroy a lot of lives, including our own. But the path to life is the one we courageously choose over and over again. Especially if our parents were circus people.