Content related to 1 Samuel

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1 Samuel 1:4-20

Proper 28B

As we inch ever closer to Advent and another new church year, the Lectionary introduces us to yet another woman who loomed large in the history of redemption.  In the contemporary climate of concern about women’s rights and the abuse of women, it is uncanny that the writers of the Lectionary should have long ago…

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1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49

Proper 7B

North American television might eat up 1 Samuel 17’s story.  It, after all, bristles with the kind of military might and imagery that networks like the CBC and Fox News make their living on.  They love to do close-ups on war’s most powerful human figures that are soldiers of one shape or another.  Even 1…

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1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Proper 6B

There’s almost always more going on than meets the eye.  Whether it’s at a cosmic or molecular level, we just can’t always see what’s really going on.  So, for example, the 1973 Watergate break-in initially looked like little more than a clumsy effort at burglary.  It turned, however, out to be part of President Nixon…

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1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)

Proper 5B

How many times hasn’t each of us thought if not said something like, “But everybody else is doing it!”?  How often have you heard children and young adults say something like, “Everyone else’s parents are letting them go!”?  After all, we like to think that if “everyone else” is doing something, it can’t be wrong….

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1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)

Proper 4B

At first glance, “the word of the Lord” hardly seems as “rare” in many parts of Christ’s Church as it was in Samuel and Eli’s family’s day (1).  After all, many who are reading this make at least part of our living proclaiming that word of the Lord.  American cable television providers still broadcast numerous…

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1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)

Epiphany 2B

Nothing quite grabs our attention like a voice in the night.  After all, it almost always signals trouble.  The voice may be that of a child from the next bedroom: “Grandma, I’m sick,” or a teenager’s cell phone: “Dad, I’ve run out of gas.” Sometimes, of course, the voice in the middle of the night…

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1 Samuel 16:1-13

Lent 4A

God is in the habit of graciously turning grief into joy.  Sometimes, however, the Lord does so in startling ways.  So those who grieve learn to stay on the lookout for God’s gracious comfort. The Old Testament lesson the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday begins in deep grief over the tragic character of Israel’s King…

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1 Samuel 9

Comments and Observations When preaching the story of Saul, we pastors have a hard time not beginning the sermon with the end in mind. We know where the story is going – we know who the man of God is and we know that by the end of the story the “message from God” (9:27)…

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1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

1st Sunday after Christmas C

Two Temples. Two Boys. One boy apparently lost. One boy apparently given away. But, of course, the one boy is not at all lost but is at home in the Temple doing his real Father’s work. The other boy is making his home in the Temple and slowly discovering what may well be the focus…

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1 Samuel 1:4-20

Proper 28B

It’s curious how often the purposes of God move forward not just despite familial dysfunction but sometimes even because of it.  We’ve got a load of dysfunction coming up in the Samuel story through the shenanigans of Hophni and Phineas—and Eli’s hand-wringing inability to do a blessed thing about it all.  But we’ve got nettlesome…

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