Book of Common Prayer

The Lord is King!^[a]

Sing a new song!^[a]

David wrote this song when he made the Philistine king think that he was crazy. He wanted the king to send him away.^[a]

God is great!^[b]

Elkanah and his family go to Shiloh

1 There was a man whose name was Elkanah. He lived in a town called Ramah.^[a] This town was in the hill country where Ephraim's tribe lived. Elkanah was the son of Jeroham. Jeroham was the son of Elihu. Elihu was the son of Tohu. Tohu was the son of Zuph. Zuph belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. ² Elkanah had two wives. One wife was called Hannah and the other wife was called Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah did not have any children.

⁷ This happened every year when they went to the Lord's house in Shiloh. Peninnah would cause Hannah to be upset. Then Hannah would weep. She would refuse to eat anything. ⁸ Hannah's husband, Elkanah, said to her, ‘Why should you weep and refuse to eat? Do not be so sad. I love you, and that is better than ten sons.’

Hannah and Eli

⁹ One day they had offered sacrifices at Shiloh. They had finished eating and drinking. Hannah stood up to pray to God. Eli the priest was sitting on his chair beside the door of the Lord's temple.^{[a] 10} Hannah was very upset as she prayed to the Lord. She could not stop weeping. ¹¹ She made a promise to God. She prayed, ‘Lord Almighty, you can see how sad I am. Please be kind to me, your servant. Remember me and do not forget me. Please give a son to me, your servant. If you do that, I will give him to serve you for all of his life. Nobody will ever cut his hair.’^[b]

¹² Hannah continued to pray to the Lord. Eli watched her mouth while it moved. ¹³ Hannah was praying quietly inside herself. Her lips moved but Eli could not hear her voice. So he thought that she was drunk. ¹⁴ He said to her, ‘Are you always drunk like that? Throw away your wine.’

¹⁵ Hannah replied, ‘No, sir, I have not drunk any wine or strong drink. I have much trouble deep inside myself. I have told the Lord about all my problems. ¹⁶ Please sir, do not think that I am a bad woman. I am praying like this because I am very sad and upset.’

¹⁷ Eli said to Hannah, ‘Go and let your mind have peace. I pray that Israel's God will give you what you have asked him for.’

¹⁸ Hannah said to him, ‘I will try to do what pleases you, sir.’

Then Hannah went away and she ate some food. Her face was not sad now.

¹⁹ Elkanah and his family got up early the next morning and they worshipped the Lord. Then they went back to their home in Ramah. Elkanah had sex with his wife Hannah. The Lord remembered what she had asked him for. ²⁰ Hannah became pregnant. Later, she gave birth to a son. She gave him the name ‘Samuel’. She said, ‘His name is Samuel because I asked the Lord for him.’^[c]

Hannah gives Samuel to serve God

²¹ Next year, Elkanah went to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the Lord, as he had promised to do. His family went with him. ²² But Hannah did not go as well. She said to her husband, ‘I will not go until the boy is older. When he can eat proper food, I will take him to Shiloh to give him to the Lord. Then he will live there for all his life.’

²³ Elkanah said to Hannah, ‘You must do what seems right to you. Stay here at home until the boy begins to eat proper food. May the Lord help you, as he has promised.’

So Hannah stayed at home with her son while he continued to drink milk from her breasts.

²⁴ When Samuel started to eat proper food, Hannah took him to Shiloh. She took him to the Lord's house there when he was still a young boy. She took with her a bull that was three years old. She also took a big bag of flour and a leather bag full of wine. ²⁵ They killed the bull for the sacrifice. Then Hannah took Samuel to Eli. ²⁶ Hannah said to Eli, ‘Please believe me sir. I am the woman who stood here before. You saw me when I was praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed that the Lord would give me a son and he answered my prayer. ²⁸ Now I will give this child to serve the Lord. He will be the Lord's servant for his whole life.’

Then Elkanah's family worshipped the Lord there.

Paul prays that they will know God more and more

⁹ Because of all that, we have not stopped praying for you, ever since the day that we heard about you. We ask God that his Spirit will make you truly wise. He will help you to know clearly what he wants you to do. You will understand his true message. ¹⁰ Then you will be able to live in a way that the Lord wants you to live. Everything that you do will please him. We pray that all these good things will have good results. We pray that you will know God better and better. ¹¹ God rules from heaven with great power. We pray that he will make you strong with every kind of strength. Then, when troubles come, you can still be patient and strong. ¹² You will be able to thank God, our Father, and be happy. God has prepared good things for his people to receive in heaven. Because God has included you among his people, you will also share those good things in the kingdom of light. ¹³ God has saved us from the dark kingdom where Satan rules.^[a] He has brought us into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves. ¹⁴ God's Son, Jesus, paid the price for our sins and made us free. Yes, God has forgiven us.^[b]

Who God's Son, Jesus Christ, is

¹⁵ We cannot see God. But Jesus Christ shows us completely who God is. Even before God made anything, Jesus was already there as God's Son who rules everything. ¹⁶ When God created everything, it was his Son who did it. His Son made everything that is on earth and in heaven. He created everything that we can see, as well as the things that we cannot see. He made rulers and leaders. He made everything that has power and authority. God gave his Son the authority to create everything, so that his Son would receive praise. ¹⁷ God's Son was there before anything else was there. And now he causes everything to continue in its proper place. ¹⁸ The church is like Christ's body and he is its head.^[c] He is where it all begins. As God's special Son, he was the first person who became alive again after death.^[d] As a result, Christ is first and most important in all things.

¹⁹ God chose to put his nature in Christ completely. ²⁰ He decided that Christ would die on the cross as a sacrifice. In that way, God would bring all things back to himself. Then everything could live in peace with God. That includes everything on the earth and everything in heaven.

²² Long ago, God gave Moses rules for his people to obey. One rule told people how to become clean after a baby was born. The time came for Mary and Joseph to do this. So they took the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to show him to the Lord.

²³ This is the rule which the Lord gave to his people: ‘The first male baby born to a woman belongs to me. So you must bring him to me. ²⁴ When you do this, also bring two special birds for the priest to kill.’ So that is what Mary and Joseph did.^[a]

²⁵ At this time, a man called Simeon was living in Jerusalem. He was a good man and he obeyed God. He had waited a long time to see the special person who would save Israel's people. The Holy Spirit was with him. ²⁶ The Holy Spirit had told him, ‘You will not die yet. You know that the Lord God has promised to send his Messiah. You will see him before you die.’ ²⁷ Now the day had come. The Holy Spirit told Simeon that he should go to the temple. Mary and Joseph were bringing the baby Jesus to do what God's rule said. ²⁸ Simeon went to them. He took Jesus and he held him in his arms. Then he thanked God. He said:

³⁴ Then Simeon asked God to be good and kind to Mary and to Joseph. After that, he spoke to Mary, the mother of Jesus. He said to her, ‘God has chosen this baby. Many people in Israel will become worse because of him. And many of them will become better again because of him. He will be like a sign that points to God. But many people will speak against him. ³⁵ This will show their secret thoughts about God. This will make you very sad, too. It will seem like a sharp knife is cutting into you. That is how sad you will be’.

³⁶ A very old woman called Anna was also there in the temple. She spoke messages that the Holy Spirit gave to her. She was the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher.^[b] She had lived with her husband for seven years and then he had died.

³⁷ After that, she had lived alone until she was 84 years old. Now she never left the temple. She stayed there day and night to worship God. She fasted and she prayed.

³⁸ At that moment, Anna came to where Mary and Joseph were standing in the temple. When she saw the baby, she thanked God for him. Then she began to speak about him to other people there. Many people were waiting for God to make Jerusalem free. These were the people that she spoke to about the child, Jesus.

³⁹ When Mary and Joseph had done everything that God's rules said, they returned home. That was in the town of Nazareth in Galilee. ⁴⁰ There the child grew up. God was good and kind to him and he became strong. He learned many things and he could understand them well.