Scripture: 1 Samuel 2: 11-26 and Luke 2: 40, 52
Sermon: Saints and Scoundrels
Topics: Sinners, saints, Eli, Samuel, temptations
Preached: July 4, 2010
Rev. Mike Abma
1 Samuel 2: 11-26
11 Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, while the boy remained to minister to the Lord, in the presence of the priest Eli.
12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord 13or for the duties of the priests to the people. When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, 14and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself.* This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the one who was sacrificing, ‘Give meat for the priest to roast; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.’ 16And if the man said to him, ‘Let them burn the fat first, and then take whatever you wish’, he would say, ‘No, you must give it now; if not, I will take it by force.’ 17Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord; for they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt.
18 Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, ‘May the Lord repay* you with children by this woman for the gift that she made to* the Lord’; and then they would return to their home.
21 And* the Lord took note of Hannah; she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.
22 Now Eli was very old. He heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23He said to them, ‘Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. 24No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. 25If one person sins against another, someone can intercede for the sinner with the Lord;* but if someone sins against the Lord, who can make intercession?’ But they would not listen to the voice of their father; for it was the will of the Lord to kill them.
26 Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favour with the Lord and with the people.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD
THANKS BE TO GOD
INTRODUCTION
In the 1994 movie, The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins plays the main character – a banker named Andy who is charged with a crime he did not commit. He is sent to the Shawshank State penitentiary where he meets another prisoner called Red, played by Morgan Freeman. Andy and Red spend 20 hard and long years in that penitentiary. All the while it is run by a Bible-quoting, stiff-collared, brutal by-the-book warden named Sam Norton. What you discover, over the course of the movie, is that the warden is a crook. The warden uses the prisoners as a cheap labor-force, and that he has been getting generous kick-backs for years. Eventually the warden begins to use Andy’s skill as a banker to launder his money.
So things are backwards in this movie —
the saints are some of the prisoners on the inside,
and the scoundrels are the warden and his guards on the outside.
And it stays like this for so long because the warden has power — which he knows how to use and abuse.
SONS OF ELI — NOT KNOWING GOD
Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, were priests.
They worked with their father Eli in Shiloh,
where the tabernacle was,
the religious heart of Israel at this time.
They should have been the saints, the holy ones,
with the pilgrims coming to bring their guilt offerings
as the sinners and scoundrels.
But things are backwards in this passage.
The pilgrims,
Hannah and her husband Elkanah,
With their son Samuel are the saints.
And Hophni and Phinehas are the scoundrels.
There are rules in Leviticus regarding how priests were to be paid.
They were supposed to receive a specific part of the offering.
But clearly Hophni and Phinehas wanted more.
Call it ambition, call it selfishness, call it greed — call it whatever you would like to call it, but they simply wanted what they wanted, and they bullied their way into getting it.
It started with them plunging a fork into the boiling pot of the pilgrims who came to sacrifice at Shiloh. They took whatever big piece of meat they stabbed.
But this didn’t seem to be enough. The fat on the meat was supposed to be the first part of the offering to God. But before any fat was burned, Hophni and Phinehas demanded the choicest piece of meat. When people hesitated, they demanded. Give it NOW, they said, or we’ll take it by force.
Hophni and Phinehas were bullies.
They abused their position.
They misused their power.
And we know they took more than the best portion of people’s offerings.
They also took advantage of the women who were servants – housekeepers – around the tabernacle compound. They used and abused them.
Eli, their father, tried to talk sense into them.
“Why do you do such things?” he pleaded.
But they didn’t listen.
Read this chapter, and a case can be made for Hophni and Phinehas breaking every one of the ten commandments.
The way this passage is structured, the narrative goes back and forth between the sons of Eli and Samuel.
First it describes the scoundrels, the sons of Eli,
then it describes Samuel;
then back to the sons of Eli,
then back to Samuel.
Back and forth it goes between the scoundrels and the saints.
Back and forth it goes between those who have chosen the way of death,
and those who have chosen the way of life.
So what made the big difference?
Hophni and Phinehas grew up in a religious home.
They had learned about God and his will for their life since they were babies.
So what made them so different from Samuel?
Hophni and Phinehas are described as scoundrels — literally sons of Belial, or the sons of wickedness. In other words, they were deliberately evil.
Then it says they had no regard for the Lord.
Literally it says, they did not know the Lord.
Sure they knew about the Lord — they knew all about their religion.
But they did not know the Lord.
They did not know him.
For to know him is to love him.
And to love him is to serve him.
They simply used religion, like they used everything else in life:
to get what they wanted.
TAMING THE TEMPTATION TO ABUSE POWER
When I think of this holiday weekend,
this Independence Day weekend,
I think that at its noblest,
it stands as a witness against all those
who abuse whatever power, or privilege, or position they have.
It stands as a witness that power, privilege and position
must always be used with great care,
and Godly compassion.
And yet, temptations remain, don’t they?
The temptation remains
to manipulate,
or to pull strings
simply to get what we want?
The temptation remains
to raise our voices,
to be pushy,
to demand
all simply to get our way.
We may not have drifted into the territory of scoundrel,
but in our heart of hearts
we know we have drifted too far from the territory of saints.
So what can we do?
What can we do to check ourselves, stop ourselves?
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
You may know the name William Wilberforce — the great leader of the abolitionist movement in Great Britain. He was a politician. And as is the case with many politicians, he was tempted by power. When Henry Addington became the new prime minister, the word got out that Wilberforce was on his A-list for a Cabinet position.
The journals and letters of Wilberforce reveal that at this time of his life, Wilberforce was sucked into dreaming of power – he was intoxicated by ambition.
But his journals and letters also tell us what saved him from being sucked in.
Wilberforce remained a church-going Christian all his life.
Sundays were for him, a time to step away from all the political posturing,
a time to step away from all the power plays and back-room deals,
a time to simply worship, pray, and spend time with God.
Sundays were his day to remember what came first in life:
To know God,
To love God,
To serve God.
And so, one of his Sunday journal entries reads like this:
“Blessed be God for this day of rest and religious occupation
Wherein earthly things assume their true size.
Ambition is stunted.
Temptations are tamed.”
CONCLUSION
But what if our temptations are not fully tamed?
What if our ambitions are not truly stunted?
What if we find ourselves in that rut of going off to do our own thing, over and over again?
Do you know who Hophni and Phinehas remind me of?
They remind me of the Prodigal Son:
The son who did not care what his father said
The son who only cared about money,
and about pleasure
and about getting what he wanted.
Yet we know, from that parable,
that there is hope for all the prodigal sons and daughters of the world.
There is hope.
The hope comes the moment the prodigal son
realizes he is on the road of death rather than the road of life;
Hope comes the moment he turns his face in the direction of his father.
For all of us prodigals, or at least partial prodigals,
there is hope for us too.
Hope for us comes when we turn our face to our heavenly Father,
Hope for us come when we set our feet on the road of life —
And for us, that road is very specific.
That road is the way, the truth, and the life.
That road to the Father is only by way of the Son,
For the Son alone is the one who can intercede for us.
In fact,
he isn’t only interceding for us,
he is already telling the Father to get the feast ready,
to get the choicest portions prepared,
for his children are coming.
Amen
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