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2: Prayerful Political Conversations · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at FindingGodAtWork.org.
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We're continuing with our new series, Take a
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Stand, Faithful Political Witness at Work.
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And in our first part of this series,
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we're going to look at that word, faithful,
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and kind of tease it out into four
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parts.
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So what does it mean to be prayerful,
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to be thoughtful, to be gentle, and to
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be courageous in political conversations and in relation
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to political issues as they come up at
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the workplace?
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So prayerful, thoughtful, gentle, courageous.
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So we're starting with prayerful.
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And I want to start with a story
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that might not seem like it's about politics
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at first.
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It's the story of a woman who was,
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to use the biblical term, barren.
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She was experiencing infertility.
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And she's in deep grief.
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And her response is a response of prayer.
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And we'll see in this story of Hannah
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from the book of 1 Samuel, how her
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prayerful response to her grief puts her at
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the center of God's redemptive political action.
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Her prayerful response to her grief puts her
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at the center of God's redemptive political action.
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Hannah is an icon for us.
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She's an example to imitate.
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And her story is an instance of God's
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faithfulness in the midst of political and social
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distress of many kinds.
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So let's go to Hannah's story.
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This is in 1 Samuel chapter 1.
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And I'll just be skipping around a bit.
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So her husband is named Elkanah.
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She is one of two wives, again, ancient
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Near Eastern culture, polygamy very common, and honor
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shame culture.
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And she had had no children.
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And so relative to her husband's other wife,
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she was experiencing shame and disgrace and scorn.
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So picking up in verse 9, once when
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they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh,
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Hannah stood up.
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Now Eli the priest was on his chair
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by the door post of the Lord's house.
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In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the
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Lord weeping bitterly.
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And she made a vow saying, Lord Almighty,
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if you will only look on your servant's
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misery and remember me and not forget your
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servant, but give her a son, then I
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will give him to the Lord for all
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the days of his life.
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And no razor will ever be used on
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his head.
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As she kept on praying to the Lord,
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Eli observed her mouth.
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Hannah was praying in her heart and her
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lips were moving, but her voice was not
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heard.
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Eli thought she was drunk and said to
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her, how long are you going to stay
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drunk?
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Put away your wine.
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Not so, my Lord.
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Hannah replied, I am a woman who is
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deeply troubled.
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I have not been drinking wine or beer.
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I was pouring out my soul to the
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Lord.
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Do not take your servant for a wicked
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woman.
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I have been praying here out of my
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great anguish and grief.
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Eli answered, go in peace and may the
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God of Israel grant you what you have
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asked of him.
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She said, may your servant find favor in
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your eyes.
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Then she went her way and ate something
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and her face was no longer downcast.
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Early the next morning, they arose and worshiped
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before the Lord.
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And then they went back to their home
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at Rama.
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Elkanah made love to his wife, Hannah, and
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the Lord remembered her.
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So in the course of time, Hannah became
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pregnant and gave birth to a son.
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She named him Samuel saying, because I asked
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the Lord for him.
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This is such a beautiful story.
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It has so many layers of poetic beauty
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and literary beauty and theological beauty.
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I'm really tempted to just like pivot and
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do a whole series about Hannah.
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But for the sake of our conversation about
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politics, what do we see going on for
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Hannah?
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This might not seem like it's about politics
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at first, but she's in a social environment
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where she's in a polygous marriage.
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She doesn't have a lot of personal agency
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in that culture outside of her status as
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a wife and potential mother.
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And we could pause and critique that culture,
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but that's not what we want to do
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right now.
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We want to enter into what Hannah is
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experiencing inside of that culture.
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So she's experiencing disgrace.
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She's experiencing shame.
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She's in competition with her husband's other wife,
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and she's also in great distress.
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So not only is she experiencing shame, she's
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experiencing grief.
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It appears that perhaps beyond the honor-shame
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dynamic, she also just has a deep desire
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for a child.
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Now Hannah's response to this deep desire is
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to go to the place of the presence
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of God, Shiloh, where the place of worship,
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the temple at that time was at Shiloh,
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and she goes and she pours out her
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anguish, weeping bitterly to the Lord.
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She's praying with her lips moving, but not
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with her voice.
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And then Eli, you got to chalk one
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up for pastoral insensitivity here, assumes she's drunk
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and calls her out about that incorrectly.
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She defends herself appropriately.
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Eli at least kind of makes a quasi
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-appropriate recovery and says, okay, may God bless
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you.
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And in the mystery of God using very
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flawed leaders, it seems that God honors this
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word of blessing that Eli says and uses
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that to bless Hannah and to give her
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a child.
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And so God takes this woman who's experiencing
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shame and disgrace and grief, and instead he
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gives her honor and joy.
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It says her face is no longer downcast.
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She has this honor of becoming a mother
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of a son and a son whom, as
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she has promised, she will give to the
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service of God at his temple.
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Okay, so what we see here is a
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moment.
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It's a family moment.
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It's a social moment.
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It may not immediately seem like a political
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moment, but it's a moment of God turning
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the tables.
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He's taking someone who's shamed and downcast, downtrodden,
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outcast, marginalized, socially powerless, and he's exalting them,
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honoring them, changing their circumstances, giving them what
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they need, giving them what they desire, making
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them shine with his beauty and his favor
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and his blessing.
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And this is something that we see again
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and again throughout the scriptures.
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This is one instance of what Dallas Willard
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in his great book, The Divine Conspiracy, calls
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the Great Inversion, that God exalts the humble
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and humbles the exalted.
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This is part of how God operates in
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the world.
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And this is a corrective to our human
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assumptions about who is truly well off.
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So every culture has different assumptions about who
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is truly well off.
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In this culture, there is an assumption that
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the wife who has children is well off.
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The wife who does not is not well
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off.
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In our culture, it might be a different
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assumption.
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It might be the highly educated person is
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well off.
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The person without a high education is not
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well off.
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In almost every culture, wealth and power are
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signs of who is well off.
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The truly wealthy, the truly powerful, those are
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the people that have the dollars and the
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political connections to get what they want, and
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those who are relatively poor or politically powerless,
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they, well, in human terms, they're losers.
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They don't have a say about what really
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happens.
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Their life is a life of grief and
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anguish.
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So that's our basic human assumption, right?
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But then God turns the tables.
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God exalts the humble and humbles the exalted.
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He does that for Hannah in this story.
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And then Hannah expresses this in very political
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terms, in a beautiful lyrical prayer of praise
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to God for what He has done.
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So this is the next chapter for Samuel
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chapter two, and I want to read this
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prayer and then kind of reflect on how
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we see this pattern of God humbling the
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exalted and exalting the humble throughout this prayer.
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So listen for that as I read it.
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Then Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices
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in the Lord, in the Lord my horn
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is lifted high, my mouth boasts over my
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enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.
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There is no one holy like the Lord,
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there is no one besides you, there is
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no rock like our God.
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Do not keep talking so proudly or let
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your mouth speak with such arrogance, for the
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Lord is a God who knows, and by
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Him deeds are weighed.
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The bows of the warriors are broken, but
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those who stumbled are armed with strength.
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Those who were full hire themselves out for
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food, but those who were hungry are hungry
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no more.
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She who was barren has borne seven children,
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but she who has had many sons pines
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away.
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The Lord brings death and makes alive.
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He brings down to the grave and raises
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up.
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The Lord sends poverty and wealth.
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He exalts.
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He raises the poor from the dust and
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lifts the needy from the ash heap.
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He seats them with princes and has them
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inherit a throne of honor.
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For the foundations of the earth are the
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Lord's.
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On them He has set the world.
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He will guard the feet of His faithful
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servants, but the wicked will be silenced in
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the place of darkness.
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It is not by strength that one prevails.
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Those who oppose the Lord will be broken.
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The Most High will thunder from heaven.
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The Lord will judge the ends of the
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earth.
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He will give strength to His King and
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exalt the horn of His anointed.
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Okay, so looking at this incredible prayer, let's
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look at who are the winners.
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The winners who we would assume are well
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off according to normal standard human evaluation.
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Well, Hannah mentions a few people.
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In verse 3, she addresses people directly.
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She says, do not keep talking so proudly
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or let your mouth speak with such arrogance.
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So often people who speak proudly and arrogantly,
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people who are boastful, people who brag all
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the time, because they have something to brag
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about, those people sometimes are winners in society.
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They've won something and they're bragging about it.
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Then she mentioned some other categories.
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She mentions the bows of the warriors, so
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people that have military strength or literal physical
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strength.
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She mentions those who were full, so people
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who, their bellies are full.
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They have food.
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They have access to the resources they need.
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So these are people who are economically prosperous.
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She mentions relevant to her own situation, she
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who has had many sons.
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So somebody, again, who is honored in that
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culture because she's brought forth sons in that
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patriarchal, polygamous culture, somebody who's highly honored.
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She gives some other examples.
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She mentions princes.
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Okay, so all of these folks are winners
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in normal human terms.
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We would normally think those people have a
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good life, those people haven't made.
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But what happens to those people in Hannah's
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beautiful prayer?
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Well, she says, do not keep talking so
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proudly or let your mouth speak with arrogance.
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For the Lord is a God who knows,
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and by him deeds are weighed.
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You might be bragging about something, but the
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Lord knows what's really going on.
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He's the one that's really evaluating your behavior.
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And then similarly, the bows of the warriors
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are broken.
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Those who were full hire themselves out for
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food.
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She who has had many sons pines away.
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Okay, now on the flip side, who are
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the losers in normal human evaluation?
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Well, those would be people who stumbled.
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They don't have physical strength.
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Those who were hungry, who, to use a
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contemporary term, face food insecurity.
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They don't know where their next meal is
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going to come from for them or their
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household.
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For those who are barren, again, relevant to
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Hannah's own situation.
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Those who experience poverty, those who are poor,
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those who are needy.
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What happens to all of these people in
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Hannah's beautiful prayer?
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It says, those who stumbled are armed with
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strength.
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Those who were hungry are hungry no more.
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She who was barren has born seven children.
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He raises the poor from the dust and
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lifts the needy from the ash sheep.
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He sits them with princes and has them
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inherit a throne of honor.
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Now, if you don't know the whole story
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of First and Second Samuel, what's going on
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in this prayer is Hannah is actually giving
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us a preview of what God is going
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to do, what his redemptive political action will
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be in the nation of Israel.
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Because this son whom she has born, whom
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she has brought to light and life, and
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then given to the service of the Lord,
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his name is Samuel.
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And he is the one by whom God
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will judge the house of Eli.
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So Mr. Insensitive, who assumed that Hannah was
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drunk, not only was he insensitive in that
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moment, but he also was very irresponsible in
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his spiritual leadership, particularly regard to his relationship
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with his sons and their oppression of people.
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God holds him to account.
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God humbles the house of Eli and exalts
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Samuel.
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This pattern that Hannah is talking about that's
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happened to her is going to happen to
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her son as well.
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He's going to be exalted.
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He's going to become the last and in
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some ways the most influential of the judges,
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because he's going to be the one that
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institutes the monarchy.
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But then even once the monarchy is instituted,
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God does it again.
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So Saul, the first king, he departs from
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the way of the Lord.
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He's humbled, and God exalts this poor shepherd
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boy David to become king.
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And Samuel is also the one who anoints
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David.
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So it's like we're getting this preview that
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God's going to keep doing this thing where
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he keeps turning the tables.
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He keeps exalting the humble again and again.
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It's going to happen in Israel's history.
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It's going to happen in a way that
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preserves his covenant purposes.
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It's going to happen in a way that
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ultimately leads to the anointing of Jesus as
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Messiah, the son of David.
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God's ultimate redemptive political action, the cross of
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Jesus Christ, comes in the same narrative that
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Hannah has stepped into because of her prayerful
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response to her grief.
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Hannah is stepping into the ultimate eternal purposes
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of God simply by coming to God and
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her moment of grief and prayer.
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So what can we learn from Hannah as
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we think about political conversations in the workplace?
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Well, like Hannah, we want to have a
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posture of prayer.
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Hannah stood up.
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She went to the temple at Shiloh.
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She came to the place of God's presence
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and poured out her soul to him, weeping
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bitterly.
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That was her first posture of response to
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this great grief and anguish in her life
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was to go to the presence of God,
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to go to the place of prayer.
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So our first response to politics writ large,
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to any political issue we might encounter as
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Christians, our first response is to be prayerful,
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to turn to God in prayer.
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And I think we can do that in
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three ways.
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We can go in prayer for ourselves, in
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prayer for others, and in prayer in the
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moment.
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So prayer for ourselves.
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Like Hannah, we may at times find ourselves
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in deep anguish and distress, and like Hannah,
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that may be embedded in the particular social
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and cultural and political context of our lives.
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And so if you ever feel like you're
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in that position of being politically powerless, being
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oppressed, whether it has to do with your
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interaction with the US immigration system, or the
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US criminal justice system, or the influence of
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the wealthy who don't always care about other
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people in the United States, or in some
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other small or perhaps even less overtly political
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way, you just find yourself in distress and
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anguish, because you are on the outs, you
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are in that category of people who do
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not have the good life, who do not
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have the power, who do not get what
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they want and what they long for.
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Let your posture be to go to Shiloh,
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to go to the place of the presence
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of God, to plead your case with the
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highest authority there is, God Almighty, to pour
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out your heart in deep distress and anguish
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to Him.
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It is normal, it is healthy to have
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a deep emotional response to a situation of
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injustice that you are facing.
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It is normal to feel grief, it is
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normal to feel anger.
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Let those deep powerful feelings draw you into
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prayer, to plead your case with God.
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You can do that for yourself.
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If, like me, you often find yourself on
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the other side of questions of privilege, where
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I do not have a lot of challenges
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vis-a-vis my immigration status, because I'm
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a citizen, I don't have a lot of
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challenges vis-a-vis the criminal justice system,
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or racial injustice, or other things, we can
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still enter into the deep distress and anguish
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of other people, including our brothers and sisters
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in Christ, who face these dynamics.
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I want to just read a brief quote
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from Richard Foster.
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This is from his seminal work, Celebration of
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Discipline, speaking about different kinds of meditation, and
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he talks about meditating on current events.
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So he says, there is a form of
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meditation that is to meditate upon the events
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of our time and to seek to perceive
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their significance.
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We have a spiritual obligation to penetrate the
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inner meaning of events, not to gain power,
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but to gain prophetic perspective.
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Thomas Merton writes that the person who has
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meditated on the Passion of Christ, but has
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not meditated on the extermination camps of Dachau
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and Auschwitz, has not yet fully entered into
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the experience of Christianity in our time.
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This form of meditation is best accomplished with
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the Bible in one hand and the newspaper
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in the other.
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You must not, however, be controlled by the
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absurd political cliches and propaganda fed us today.
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Actually, newspapers are generally far too shallow and
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slanted to be of much help.
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We would do well to hold the events
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of our time before God and ask for
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prophetic insight to discern where these things lead.
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Further, we should ask for guidance for anything
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we personally should be doing to be salt
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and light in our decaying and dark world.
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So what Richard Foster is guiding us into
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here is that regardless of whether we're personally
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experiencing these events, we become aware of them
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through the news.
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And if newspapers were shallow and slanted when
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he first wrote this over a quarter century
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ago, how much more so now in the
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age of social media.
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But we come to the news with a
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posture of prayer.
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We come with meditation.
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We ask God to give us insight for
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understanding events and understanding what our response to
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them can be.
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And we resist more superficial positions or cliches
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or propaganda that would push us into one
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camp or another rather than standing in the
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presence of God to discern what our response
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can be.
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Okay, so we can pray for ourselves, we
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can pray for others, and we can pray
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in the moment.
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So that time when you're praying out to
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God in anguish, that might be something that
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you do outside of the workplace.
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That time when you're reading the news and
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trying to discern what God's prophetic insight is,
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that might be happening outside the workplace.
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But then, when you're in the workplace and
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a political conversation starts, is your first response
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to have a silent quick prayer of welcoming
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the presence of God into that moment.
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You can pray in the moment.
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And this is again kind of going back
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to one of our earlier ideas from Dallas
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Bullard, on the spot versus off the spot.
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If you're doing the work off the spot
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in prayer for yourself, for others, when you
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read the news, when you've got your Bible
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on one hand, if you're doing that off
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the spot training, then on the spot in
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the moment when a conversation happens in the
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workplace, you will be prepared to enter into
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that moment prayerfully, recognizing that no matter what
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happens in that conversation, the center of all
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things is God Almighty.
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His kingdom is unshakable.
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And you can minister from a place of
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peace into the controversy at hand.
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We'll talk about that more in the episodes
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to come.
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Lord Jesus, thank you that you judge rightly,
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that you exalt the humble and humble the
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exalted.
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Thank you that you reveal the God of
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love who is at the center of all
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things.
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Show us how to humble ourselves before you
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so that you may lift us up.
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Show us how to pray for ourselves, for
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others, and in the moment, knowing that you
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are somehow gathering our feeble prayers and our
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limited understanding into your eternal redemptive purposes.
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Jesus, do your work in us as we
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do our work with you.
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Thanks for listening.
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Finding God at Work is a production of
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Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
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dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
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life.
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You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
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listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
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of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
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and Thursday.
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To get resources to go deeper with each
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podcast series, read our blog, and get info
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about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
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go to our website missioncentral.church.