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We’re continuing a sermon series today called “Aha Moments” where we’re looking at

stories of people in the Bible who had a sudden moment of clarity about God. It was like where

they had this moment of “Oh, now I get it. Now I understand.” These Aha moments helped

these people know God better. You and I can know God better by having understanding these

Aha moments. So in this series we’re going deep into the stories to learn what they can teach us

about having an Aha moment. The whole purpose of the series is to know God better.

Two weeks ago I shared the story of David, Bathsheba and Uriah. We saw how David

learned that God is a God of second chances. Last week Sarah Parker shared a story about the

Prodigal Son. Today I’m going to share the story of Hannah and the Aha moment that she

experienced when everyone was saying “no” to her dreams.

We’re sharing resources in this series. One resource is this brochure that is in the

bulletin. I’m helping each of us go deeper by writing a devotion on the story that we’re

exploring. If you use the devotion this week you’ll go deeper in learning the story of Hannah. In

the middle of this brochure is a place where you can take notes. I believe that God might say

something to you that you’ll want to write down and remember. On the back is a place for

prayer requests.

This week I asked this question on my Facebook page.

SLIDE When I say the phrase, “famous woman in the Old Testament,” what is the first

thought that comes to your mind. I was amazed at all of the responses I received—73 of them.

Let me read them to you. It will give you a flavor of who people believe is the most important

women in the Old Testament

………………

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There’s no definite answer to the question who is the most famous woman in the Old

Testament. It shouldn’t surprise you that my response to the question would be Hannah. It’s no

accident that Amy and I named our daughter, “Hannah.” She’s named after the biblical

character, Hannah.

I love Hannah because she had a dream and she never gave up on her dream. Even when

powerful people in her life discouraged her dream, she kept dreaming. Hannah’s dream was to

have a baby. She had an Aha moment because of her dream.

I gravitate to dreamers. This is the picture on the top of my Facebook page. Like John

Lennon said, I want people to imagine what life could be. It’s not Hannah’s particular dream

that grabs me, but her capacity to keep dreaming.

I want us to be a congregation of dreamers. If someone came up to you and said, “what

is your dream” what would you say. I hope that each of us can identify our dream.

What is a dream? I liked a definition that John Maxwell shared.

SLIDE

A dream is an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will and emotions,

empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it. John Maxwell

It’s this idea of being captured by something that is larger than us that is so energizing.

I’m not talking about daydreaming—I like day dreamers, but the dream I’m talking about is

different than a daydream.

I’m not talking about a pie-in-the-sky dream—a wild idea that has not strategy or basis in reality

I’m not talking about a vicarious dream—that is a dream we live through another person.

This dream I’m talking about is ours. It’s something we’re willing to devote our life to

living out. We’re willing to put in the hard work to achieve it. The dream captures us. We

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realize that our dream won’t happen overnight and we will experience plenty of obstacles. Even

when people say “no” to the dream we are not willing to give up on our dream.”

That’s a dream. A dream is something big. The dream that I’m talking about is so big

that we really only have one.

This past Sunday I went over to a fundraiser for Hope 4 Youth. They are an organization

that just got started a year ago. In one short year they have developed a drop-in center for teens

who are homeless in Anoka County. At the fundraiser on Sunday they shared that their dream is

to end homelessness in ten years among teens in Anoka County. In fact in one of the

presentations on Sunday someone wrote a letter in 2024 that described how life will look

differently in Anoka County because no teens are homeless.

I was completely captivated by that dream. I’m willing to participate in that. I’m willing

to put work into that. A dream is big, and it brings people in.

You might ask, “what’s your dream, Paul.” My dream involves this church, this

community of people that we call Chain of Lakes. My dream is that we are community of

people who are authentic and Christian. We’re real, genuine, and honest; we don’t hide parts of

ourselves with others; what you see is what you get; there’s no manipulation; we’re always

above board. Our authenticity is rooted in our relationship to Jesus Christ. Jesus was authentic,

and so are we. This authenticity is part of being a Christian community.

My dream is to be a place where strangers get to know each other. They become friends.

We can never have too many friends. Friends don’t just stay friends—friends grow to be

followers of Jesus Christ. We’re disciples. We can easily say that we’re disciples, we’re

followers of Jesus Christ. Because we are disciples we go out and make an impact in the world.

We work to end teen homelessness; we are willing to be mentors with kids at an elementary

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school, we throw fundraisers for organizations in the community and give them the proceeds.

Because of our presence the community is stronger. There’s an impact

We take worship, prayer and participating in a small group very seriously. We are

constantly asking ourselves if we are growing in our relationship to Jesus Christ. And we are in

the world—not only to bring people to Christ, but to share his love and justice with people. We

help the hurting and are willing to confront structures that cause pain to people.

We do all of this by living out the Core Values of Hospitality, Relevance, Acceptance,

Outward Focus, Investing in future Generations, Healthy Disagreement, Joyful Love. We realize

that this is God’s Church.

You might say—that’s a lot of words for a dream. And it is. I can chisel all those words

down to two. The two words are extraordinary blessing. My dream is that people in this

community and especially people who are outside of our community will be blessed in an

extraordinary way.

Do you want to sign up? Through all the ups and downs of starting this church that has

always been my captivating dream.

Hannah had a dream. She continued to believe in her dream even when people around

her said “no.” She had an “Aha” moment about God. Let’s look at her story. I want to divide it

into four parts.

SLIDE Hannah’s tears

There were three characters in this part of the story—Elkanah, Penninah, and Hannah.

Penninah and Hannah were both married to Elkanah. They lived in Ramah. Every year their

family would go to the village of Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to God.

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This was a big deal for the family. This might have been the only time of the year when

the family left Ramah. They probably didn’t have special clothes, but if they did the family

would wear them.

Why did they go to Shiloh? At Shiloh was the ark. What was in the ark? The ark had

the tablets that God gave to Moses. We know of that as the Ten Commandments. People

believe that God resided in the ark. This was a very holy place.

When they got to Shiloh, Elkanah, as the head of the family, offered a sacrifice at the

entrance to the ark. It was goat’s meat or some other sort of meat. After the sacrifice the family

would enjoy a meal. The meal was made up of the sacrifice. Penninah and her children receive

a portion, and Hannah received a double portion.

Why did Hannah receive a double portion? She couldn’t have children. The story says

that she was barren. Elkanah loved Hannah and had compassion for her because she couldn’t

have children.

Why was being barren so significant? In the culture of that day a prime function for

women was to have children. Woman lived to have children. If a woman didn’t have children,

then that was a big problem for the family. Not only that, but people applied religious meaning

to not having children. The story said that God closed Hannah’s womb. Don’t take that literally,

of course. It’s not like God came and put a zipper on Hannah’s womb. I’m not even convinced

that God intentionally closed Hannah’s womb.

Let’s push into this. People placed religious meaning on significant events. The

language that we might use today is an act of God. We call natural catastrophes an act of God.

Take our snowstorm on Thursday. Was that an act of God? I know that part of us believe that. I

came to work on Friday and as I was coming to the entrance to the Lovell Building some of the

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people down the hall were having a smoke. When they saw me they pointed to the snow and

said, “you must have really made God mad.” We laughed about it.

I don’t believe that God intentionally causes snow storms. If we brought a meteorologist

in her that person could explain what happened. In the same way I’m not convinced that God

intentionally caused Hannah to be barren. A doctor could probably explain couldn’t do that.

Some would say that this was an act of God; God closed her womb.

What made this even more of a problem for Hannah is that Penninah taunted Hannah.

The story said that she provoked her severely; she irritated her. Penninah was mean. I think of

her as the evil step sister in Cinderella.

Every time the family would go to Shiloh, Hannah had to be reminded that she couldn’t

have a child. Hannah had a dream—she wanted to have a child. But her body didn’t let her have

a child. The people who were around her didn’t have compassion for her—they ridiculed her.

Elkanah was the only person who was identified as having compassion for Hannah.

She wept. She sobbed.

That leads to the second scene of the story

SLIDE Hannah’s prayer

After experiencing this criticism for years about what she was told that God did to her,

Hannah prayed to God. I find this remarkable. Hannah was told that God didn’t want something

for her, but Hannah refused to accept it. People probably told Hannah that it was God’s will that

she didn’t have a child. Hannah didn’t accept what some thought was God’s will.

You remember the story in the New Testament of the unjust judge. There was a widow

who came and asked for justice every day from an unjust judge. Eventually the judge gave her

what she wanted, not because the judge became just but because of her persistent.

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God is not an unjust judge. But we could have understood if Hannah viewed God that

way. Hannah (don’t you just love her) kept praying.

Hannah had a dream. This is what a dream will do. When we have a dream we don’t

accept what other people say or think. A dream is so captivating and important. The power of

the dream is more important than what others say.

Hannah prayed:

Say her prayer with me. Say it like you’re singing.

SLIDE

O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not

forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a

nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall

touch his head.

Hannah’s dream was not even for herself. Hannah was willing to give her son away as a

Nazirite. A Nazirite was a special class of person. Hannah wasn’t even going to benefit from

her own dream.

Which leads to the third scene of the story

SLIDE Hannah’s determination

As H prayed at the entrance to the structure that housed the ark, the priest Eli saw her.

Eli saw H’s lips moving, but nothing came from her mouth.

Eli never came across as a scoundrel in this story, but we learn later that his two sons

were scoundrels. We can deduce that Eli’s sons learned some of their bad behavior from Eli. Eli

tried to shame H. When Eli saw Hannah he said this:

SLIDE “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.”

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Eli had a lot of power as a priest. Hannah had no power as she couldn’t even accomplish

what women were supposed to accomplish. We could have understood if H had given in to what

Eli said even though she knew it was not true.

Hannah told Eli that she was not drunk. She said that she wasn’t pouring out a drink she

was pouring out her soul to God. .

H told the truth—even when the truth could have gotten her in trouble.

Which leads me to the fourth part of the story

SLIDE Hannah’s dream.

When Eli saw that Hannah wasn’t drunk he blessed her. “Go in peace,” he said and “may

God grant your petition.”

Hannah went back to Elkanah. The next day the two got up early and worshipped

together. Then they went back to their home in Ramah. The two knew each other. We know

that means they had sexual intercourse. Guess what happened. Hannah became pregnant. Her

dream came true. Despite all of the obstacles and impediments—her dream came true. Despite

all of the people around her who told her to forget her dream—her dream came true.

She had a son—we know of her son as Samuel. Samuel became one of the most

important prophets in the history of the Old Testament. He helped choose Saul as the first king

of Israel and then David as the king of Israel. Hannah’s dream had a long-term impact on the

world. Here we are almost three thousand years later and we’re talking about Hannah’s dream.

This is the lasting power of dreams.

It’s possible that one of our dreams could still have an impact in 3,000 years.

What’s the Aha moment? What did Hannah learn about God. God rewards dreamers.

Our dreams might not happen right away, we might experience a lot of resistance to our dreams,

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there will be days that it seems impossible for our dreams to happen, but if we stay faithful God

will reward our dreams. Hannah learned that. She eventually had three sons and two daughters.

Which leads me to a final story about dreaming. This past Thursday I had the privilege

of visiting with Lena Truong. We talked about her dad who passed away two weeks ago Friday.

When I came to visit her I asked her if she would tell me about her dad. After hearing his story I

asked and Lena gave me permission to share this story. Lena’s dad had a dream for his children.

He wanted them to have a good life.

They grew up in Vietnam. When the Vietcong took over the country Lena’s dad and

brothers had to escape. They left the country at night and went to a refugee camp in Thailand.

Lena and her mom stayed in Vietnam. A terrible war and difficult politics forced their family to

be apart from each other.

This went on for a while. Then a church in rural North Dakota sponsored L’s family to

come to the United States. This church had obviously never met them. But they believed in

Jesus’ teaching of welcoming the stranger. So L’s family was re-united in a small town a hour

west of Fargo, North Dakota. It was a long ways from Vietnam.

They started their life here in the United States. Lena’s dad worked blue collar jobs.

Because of his hard work and Lena’s mothers’ hard work Lena was able to go to the University

of Minnesota. She met James there. The two were married. She now had a good job, a loving

husband, and a beautiful little girl. Her two brothers and one sister also are living a good life.

One man had a dream for his family. He knew that he had to leave his family and his

home country to live out that dream. Now half a world away we are watching his dream come

true.

God rewards dreamers.

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Today we’re coming to celebrate Communion. Jesus had a dream for our own lives. He

shared it through his life, death and resurrection. Because of his dream we are given the gift of

salvation. We will live forever. This gift of salvation is meant for us as we live here on earth.

After you receive Communion today we’re going to have two prayer stations. You are

encouraged to come forward and share your dream. Then we’ll pray about it with you. If you

don’t know your dream, ask that God would make clear the dream for your life.

God rewards dreamers. This was Hannah’s aha moment. She learned something from

God. We can learn from her.