The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
December 31, 2000
Vol. 3 no. 49

Everything But...
           For some of us a wonderful aspect of the end of a year is seeing come home all the young people we haven't seen for a spell. Young children magically shoot up in size, are transformed from infants to toddlers to young people. Those young adults back from university are the same, yet really and wonderfully different. We are as proud as their parents of what they are becoming.
           It is said of both Samuel and Jesus that they grew in stature and years, and in favour with the Lord and with the people. Not a coincidence that the two should be so compared.
           Most likely you thought Jesus is incomparable. Certainly, but that did not stop the Biblical authors from showing us that Jesus is walking in the tradition of the great people of Israel, and then some. Samuel was the person who midwifed Israel out of a tribal federation into a kingdom which took its rightful place among the nations. Jesus redeemed us from being a people oppressed in body and in spirit into heirs of a Kingdom in which we are eternally free.
           The Lectionary selection of the story of Samuel read this morning will sound fairly unremarkable. Samuel, the first born of Elkanah and "his favourite wife" Hannah, has been dedicated to the service of God according to the ancient order of the Nazirites. Each year the parents travel up to the temple at Shiloh and visit with their son, grown one more year in stature and maturity. Each year Hannah made a new robe for Samuel. Eli the priest blessed the parents for the offering of their son. Simeon the prophet would utter almost the same words of blessing to the parents of Jesus, just as Anna praised God for Jesus in the same way Hannah had given thanks to God for Samuel.
           Jesus is unique, incomparable, yet the Biblical witness is hinting that this does happen again in our families as well.