Pastor Dan Eddy

1 Samuel 1:9b-28

What makes a godly mother?

5-9-10 (Mother’s Day)

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I. The influence of a mother

He was not her blood son, but Sarah treated him as such. She encouraged his appetite for reading and learning, and that influence paid off in ways that affect our lives today. He always called her “mother,” even after he became famous.

As an adult, he supported her and would visit her every year or two. She influenced his legendary sense of humor. She was firm, but a kind-hearted woman who loved to laugh.

When he was 18, he was so tall his head nearly toughed the ceiling of his family’s farmhouse kitchen. Sarah repeatedly joked that, with his height, he could leave footprints on the ceiling. So unbeknownst to her he got younger boys to dip their bare feet in mud, held them upside down, and had them walk their feet across the ceiling. When “mother” saw the footprints she took a broom to his head, but he could tell she was very amused by it.

The “mother” who so influence her son to be a great leader was Sarah Bush Lincoln, the stepmother to the 16^th President of the United States.

When mothers act in godly ways, God blesses their children to do incredible things. Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was no different. Her selfless act described in our Old Testament reading from 1 Samuel 1 gives us a blueprint into what makes a godly mother.

Please pull out your sermon outline, and follow along as we fill in the blanks. As we look at Hannah’s attributes in what makes a godly mother, may the Lord affirm those for our lives today whether or not you are a mother.

II. Prayerful

The first characteristic of a godly mother is prayerful. This text shows that not only was Hannah prayerful but it shows how she was prayerful.

First, she bore all of her soul as she laid out her anguish, grief, and pain before the Lord. In others words, her prayers were honest and truthful. The sense from the text is that the intensity of her prayer grew. She laid out her troubles, turmoil, and the hardness of her heart.

And yet her request before the Lord was simple. She wanted to be a mom. This was not the first time she’s asked to be pregnant. She was praying that her will for a child matched God’s will to give her one.

Jesus promises you and me to ask anything in His name and it will be given to you. Asking in His name assumes we know God’s will, and when our prayer requests match His will, our petitions will be granted. How honest, truthful, and gut wrenching are your prayers before God? Do you bare all of your soul out loud? Do your lips, like Hannah’s, express your anguish to our Lord and Savior?

Remember the night before Jesus was crucified, He prayed too. He bore His soul before God to the point where Scripture describes His sweat as drops of blood. That was because He asked His heavenly father not to suffer and die; yet He still went through with it, because it was His Father’s will.

And that reflects the second attribute of being prayerful…while Hannah was honest and truthful in prayer, she was also humble, not demanding, not entitled, but was willing to make God an offer.

Verse 11 (NIV): “And she made a vow, saying, ‘O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon 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.’"

In other words, she will willingly to give the child back to God so He could make him a priest.

This is a critical point in understanding a prayerful attitude. Hannah was not all about “me, me, me. I want to be a mommy, and you have to make me one God.” She just didn’t want a child for the sake of having a child to fulfill her needs. She saw the bigger picture. She wanted her son to be God’s servant in a special way.

Perhaps she realized how much her Israelite culture, like ours, was turning away from the Lord. Worship of the one true God was in decline and was corrupted by the worshipping of other gods and the desecrations of His Commandments.

Praying in humility means we understand that God is not here to grant our every wish, even if we strongly feel He should. But when we are humble we begin to see we are one part of a larger community, and when we frame our honest requests toward God humbly, it’s amazing how easily we can love our neighbors as ourselves.

Our Lord and Savior certainly could have approached His suffering and death in a less than humble way. He could have gone to Cross with the attitude of “See what I am doing for you miserable sinners.” But He didn’t. In His humility He did not think of His role as the Son of God like He was entitled. He made an offer to His heavenly Father…the giving up of His life instead of yours.

When we act in humility then it’s really easy to see the next prayerful trait…and that is faithful. The act of trusting God with prayer is we ask and then we wait patiently for the answer no matter how long it takes, because patience means “long-suffering” not everlasting suffering. It means your suffering will come to an end one day.

And did you see how, even in her greatest anguish, the Lord relieved Hannah’s suffering? He did it through Eli, the priest. He saw her pain and in verse 17 pronounced God’s blessing on her: "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." The power of that blessing brought much relief from her great turmoil.

That’s what I hope happens here on Sunday morning when God uses me to bless you. When He uses me to bless you with forgiveness after you have agonized over your sins. When He uses me to bless you at the end of the service so you can take the relief He gives you here to go out there and take on the challenges of the nasty world.

I’ve seen this happen over and over at the Thursday night prayer services. People often pray out loud for weeks expressing great grief and anguish. They feel relieved when God blesses them, surrounded by their pastor and friends. After the service, they often feel great relief. And many times, weeks or months later, they will rejoice in the answers they received from their prayers. Whether it’s Charlie and how the Lord turned around his business from dying. Or Milt as his 12-year-old dog’s health improves. Or Sandi as she struggled with cancer. Or Barb in the battles she faced with her lymphoma. The Lord is here to bless you with relief.

But with any prayer prayed come actions on our part. Let’s see how Hannah acted on her prayer request before the Lord.

III. Prepares to give back

What makes a godly mother is she prepares to give back. With Hannah she went home, lay with her husband, got pregnant, had the baby, and weaned him before bringing him to give to the Lord.

Now in our modern culture we might think that Samuel was brought to the temple maybe just before or after a year, because that’s when most babies are weaned in our culture. But in ancient times, babies weren’t weaned until they were anywhere from 3 to 5 years old. And this is an important detail not to overlook, because we have several studies today that show how a child is raised and taught in the first few years will reflect greatly on the rest of their lives.

So Hannah was not trying to go back on her promise in giving up Samuel to God. In fact, Elkanah, her husband, was telling her to literally “Do the good in your eyes,” meaning do the will of the Lord. He wanted to make sure she remembered her promise to God as the Lord remembered His promise to her.

When we hear the phrase “remember me, Lord,” it’s not as though God forgets who you are, but He remembers that you are His child with faith in Him. And His remembering of you is always followed up with loving actions. For example, in baptism God remembers what His Son did on the Cross and in that remembering He give you forgiveness and eternal life through the water and the Word.

In Holy Communion Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” And in faith we remember what Christ did. And through the bread and wine of Christ’s real body and true blood, the Lord acts, strengthening your faith, assuring and confirming His love for you in that your life and forgiveness in Him still stands.

Even in the preparation…God blesses you in those ways here just as He blessed Hannah with those formative years with her son.

So when God remembers us and keeps His promises, we remember Him by preparing to keep our promises to Him. This means preparing to give back with worship and Bible Study, even when it’s tempting to do otherwise, because we know we are already saved… just like it could have been tempting for Hannah to keep the child she wanted and not give him back.

IV. Gives back with a thankful heart

But the day did come when Hannah gave back to the Lord. Now, many of you, including many of you moms, might consider it the day to dread. Giving up a son after you spent 3 to 5 years with him may be more gut wrenching than the anguish expressed in prayers to have him in the first place.

Hannah did not give back with a bad attitude, because what makes a godly mother is she gives back with a thankful heart. Don’t believe me? Go back and re-read our Introit for this morning. It was Hannah’s prayer of thanks expressed after she gave back Samuel to the Lord. “My strength is exalted in the Lord….I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord…there is no rock like our God. The Lord kills and brings to life…”
That sounds like a mother who gives back to the Lord with a thankful heart, and you know what…just like Sarah Bush Lincoln raised a fine son, so Hannah raised a fine son in Samuel. Just like Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery and united a divided nation, so Samuel took the less than faithful chosen people of God and turn their hearts toward repentance. Samuel was the prophet and priest who led the way. He prepared the nation of Israel for the great King David.

The Lord blessed Hannah and many others with a leader, so God’s anger would not burn against the Israelites in judgment. She and her people were blessed by God in unexpected ways because of her sacrifice. They were blessed spiritually and economically with peace and prosperity.

Another mother raised another Son who gave back. Mary gave up a Son, too. You don’t think God the Father used Mary to raise Jesus to do mankind’s greatest deed from the Cross.

She gave thanks with a grateful heart as our Gospel reading of the Magnificat showed. Mary’s influence as a mother affects your life today and for eternity. The good ripple effects of giving back with a thankful heart. As a result, God continues to bless you and me in unexpected ways.

So how is the Lord asking you, His godly, to give back with a thankful heart?

Like with Samuel and the nation of Israel, there is much work that needs to be done in this Holy City of Christ Lutheran. How is the Lord calling you to give back? And how will God bless you and us in unexpected ways?

V. Conclusion

With an honest, humble, faithful prayerful attitude, preparations to give back remembering God’s promises to us, and giving back with a thankful heart, there is nothing that can’t be accomplished through the work of Christ Jesus in this faith community.

Happy Mother’s Day…remembering what makes a godly mother is what also makes godly disciples in Christ Jesus. Amen.