“Hannah, the central character in our biblical text, is honored by interpreters as a woman of faith, patience, and kindness,” begins Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, Senior Pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. She continues, “Before we get to Hannah’s role in history we have this deep grief, her lament; we have her experience of injustice and wrongful accusation, her having to overcome social labels and assumptions to be taken seriously, for her voice to be heard, or her life to be given value and worth. She may be honored today, but in her own day, she was decidedly not.” In today’s texts, 1 Samuel 1:4-20 and Mark 13:1-8, waiting is the common theme. While waiting may be difficult, Gaines-Cirelli reminds us, “The only thing we know is that God is yet at work.”
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