The Downtown Presbyterian Church

Sermons

Let Us Provoke One Another

1 Samuel 1:1-8, 19-28; Hebrews 10:19-25

Rev. Kenneth M. Locke

33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 16, 2003

Last Tuesday at our Brown Bag Bible Study one of the women was telling us about a former boss who used to deliberately provoke her. They worked in finance together and he used to say things like “You’ll never streamline that system. I bet you can’t make that run better.” She said it irritated her so bad she determined to prove him wrong and by golly she did find a better way to run the system and got a promotion for it. She was honest with us that if her boss had not provoked her she never would have worked harder and never would have gotten the promotion. She didn’t like it but now she’s glad he did it.

For most of us, “provoking” is something negative. That person’s clothes are too provocative. He provoked me into being angry. My parents used to tell me to stop provoking my younger brother. Peninnah provokes Hanna by taunting her for being barren.

But looking up “provoke” in the dictionary I found it means “to stir up purposely, to provide the needed stimulus.”

Thinking about this I was reminded of Bill Ballard. Bill was on the Theater faculty when I was in college and directed me in several plays. He was one of those directors who didn’t care how bad you were, he took you and made you better. He was kind and patient, gentleness itself. He always chose plays with large casts so as many people as possible could have a role.

On top of that we knew we could talk to him about anything: school, dating, what we were going to do after college. He was the idealized older brother many of us never had.

One particular play we did had a character who was always saying, “Confidentially, it stinks.” Every time he was on stage he found a reason to say “Confidentially, it stinks.”

Well, you know where I’m going with this. It was three nights before opening and the rehearsal had not gone well. Bill came out for the critique and his opening remark was “We can borrow a line from the play. It stinks.”

Let me tell you, that hurt. He wasn’t being mean he was being honest and we knew it. We knew he cared for us and it hurt him to come down on us. And we knew he was right. “It stinks.” It hurt, but more than anything else that night we needed to hear it. The next night we were much better. And on opening night we were very good indeed. Bill knew what he was doing. He was stirring us up purposely. He was providing needed stimulus to change. Bill was provoking us to do good.

Friends, do you have someone like that in your life? Is there someone you know and love and trust, someone to whom you’ve really opened yourself up and can be honest with? Do you have someone you’re praying with, studying your Bible with, growing in faith with? Is there someone who won’t hesitate letting you know when you’ve sinned? Is there someone who can stir you up to do more for God, someone who can help you grow in faith, stimulate your Christian life?

Is there someone in your life who is provoking you into loving and doing good works?

Maybe you don’t need much to grow in your faith. Maybe kind persuasion is all you need. But for me personally, and probably most of us, kindness and gentle encouragement are not enough. Growing in faith to the point of making the kind of sacrifice Hanna made goes beyond gentle encouragement. It’s going to take active provocation.

The story of Hanna and the birth Samuel is a difficult passage and leaves a lot of unanswered questions. In Hanna’s culture a woman without children, especially sons, was nothing. She was a financial burden to her husband and there was no one to care for her after husband died. How can Elkanah have the gall to suggest he is better than 10 sons? Who’s going to care for Hanna when he’s gone? You think Peninnah’s going to help? Elkanah is patronizing in the extreme.

And what about God? Did God really shut Hanna’s womb? Can God be bargained with the way Hanna bargains for a son? Would Hanna have tried bargaining if Peninnah had not provoked her first? Would any of us keep Hanna’s promise and send the boy to live with Eli? Samuel is her security, her protection, her place in life. Like the widow in last week’s lesson who gave her last two cents, Hanna is literally giving everything she has, everything she has, when she gives Samuel to God.

These are difficult questions and demand many sermons in their own right. But what is very clear is this woman who has nothing is giving much more of herself to God than most of us ever will. If you want a model for Christian commitment and giving you can stop looking. Hannah stands supreme.

The Christian life is about experiencing the blessings of God and those blessings come from growing in faith. If we are serious about growing in faith, and I assume we are, then putting ourselves in a position to be provoked into growing is something we all consciously need to do.

Handling each other with softness and politeness, gently encouraging each other, is about all most of us are comfortable with. But at some point growing requires pushing and pulling and prodding. Coaches know it, teachers know it, managers know it, you and I know it. None of us would hesitate to provoke someone into stopping drinking or going to the doctor if it was the right thing to do. As much as it would annoy the fire out of me I would appreciate someone I knew and loved provoking me into stopping a bad habit and growing in goodness.

We all need someone who can provoke us into loving more, praying more, forgiving more. We all need someone to tell us, “you need to turn your worries over to God. “You need to stop doing that bad thing before it hurts someone. “You’re not giving enough time, or energy, or money or attention to your duties around the church. “You need to quit trying to do that yourself and let God do it for you.”

Several years ago a minister friend of mine had his house burn to the ground. Destroyed everything his family had. He said he was inconsolable for months. Then one day his wife said to him, “You need to stop this. “You need to trust God and get on with your life. These are just things, serving God is what’s important. “You need to stop mourning and get on with giving your life to God.” He said he was annoyed by this. He was the minister, not her. But he also knew she was right. Out of love and kindness she had provoked him into growing in faith. And he said it felt good.

If growing in faith seems beyond your reach, if you despair of ever trusting God the way Hannah did and the way the widow with her two pennies did, take heart. The joy of commitment to God is available to all of us. But we need to find someone to help us. Find someone who will hold us accountable, find someone who can tell us the truth in love, find someone who out of loving kindness can provoke us into doing good.

“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” This is our calling as Christians. May we bless each other with loving provocation until like Hannah we too grow in faith, love and commitment to God. Amen.