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\section{Preamble}
\noindent
Readings:
\begin{itemize}
\item 1 Samuel 2:1-10
\item Luke 1:46-55
\end{itemize}

\noindent
Speaker: Neil Brown.

\noindent
Date: 22nd August 2004.

\section{Introduction --- How can we know God}

A question  to consider: How can we  know God?  He is  so much bigger,
and purer,  and Holier than us.   As the Heavens are  higher than that
Earth, so are  his ways higher than our ways, as  he tells Isaiah, and
even that comparison  does not really do the  difference justice.  His
very being transcends everything that we are.  So how can we know him?

We can  read the bible, God's word.   And we can hear  from people who
claim to  know him.  And  that helps  a bit, but  it falls a  long way
short of really knowing Him.

I  am particularly  conscious of  the  difficulty of  getting to  know
people through  my acting  on selection committees  at my  work place.
The task is  to choose the best applicant for a  job and the available
resources  are a  pile of  written  application, and  a few  half-hour
interviews.   The written  applications provide  at best  a  very poor
perspective on who the applicants  really are.  Even the interview ---
which is  a long way  better than an  application --- still  leaves me
feeling a lot of uncertainty as to what each person is really like.

Yet in  contrast to  that difficulty in  getting to know  someone, and
particularly in  getting to know God,  we see two ladies  in these two
readings who seem  to have a real insight into the  nature of God.  It
is not a complete insight, a complete understanding.  But as far as it
goes,  it  does  seem  genuine.   They  are  bubbling  over  in  their
excitement  for  their  God.   ``My  heart rejoices''  and  ``My  soul
glorifies'' are the words they use.  This is not an understanding that
they got from reading God's resume.  There is something more here.

\section{Review of Hannah and Mary}

What both these  ladies share, and what is clearly  the source of this
overflow of joy,  is a recent experience of God.   Not just a powerful
sermon that they  have heard.  Not just a  particularly challenging or
encouraging passage in the bible, though those certainly have value in
themselves.  But  a genuine, personal  experience of God.  That  is, I
think, what it takes to really  start to know God.  This should not be
surprising as it is exactly the  same with people --- it isn't until I
actually start  working with  someone that I  find out all  the things
that the interview process missed.

Hannah, in our first reading, has recently had a long hoped for child,
a baby boy.  As I discussed  last time I had the opportunity to preach
up here,  Hannah felt a deep need  for a child, but  she couldn't have
one.  She brought her need  before God while worshipping at the temple
one year and God told her, through the priest Eli, that she would have
her request.  The next  year she did not go up to  the temple, for she
had a young baby to care  for --- her prayer had indeed been answered.
When the boy was weaned, she  presented him at the temple and gave him
into service there.  She was clearly very aware of God's having worked
in  her  life  very  directly  and  very  recently,  and  out  of  the
understanding that this touch gave  her, she sings his praises in this
little Psalm.

Mary is in a similar,  though not identical, position.  While she does
not yet have a  baby to hold, and though she had  not been, as far was
we can tell, hoping  for one --- she was not even  married --- yet she
had been  promised a child by  God, and it  was a child that  she knew
full well was to be a great  blessing.  A blessing not only to her but
to the whole world and the whole of creation.

Mary  undoubtly knew  that God  has promised  to send  a  saviour, and
probably was  aware that it was  about time for that  saviour to come.
With that  knowledge, she had  been visited by  an angel who  told her
that she had been chosen to bear that saviour, she had been encouraged
by her  cousin Elizabeth who was  also blessed with a  child from God,
and she was soon to have  the most special child there ever was.  Much
like Hannah,  Mary had had a  direct, personal experience  of God, and
out of that experience came her worship, her adoration, and her praise
of the mighty God.

But what is there in these  two passages for us?  Both Mary and Hannah
has received a special knowledge  of God by having their lives touched
by Him.  But we do not,  by reading these passages, get the same touch
and the same  knowledge.  We could examine the songs  to find what God
is like in  the eyes of these  young ladies, and by doing  so we might
have  a somewhat  better  understanding  of God.   But  that would  be
missing the  point.  The point is,  as I see  it, that we too  need to
experience God if  we are to know him more  deeply.  We mustn't settle
for knowing God just through Hannah's eyes and through Mary's eyes, or
even through the eyes of Peter, Paul, David, Elijah, Job, Esther, Ruth
and many others we  read about in the bible.  We need  to know him for
ourselves.

What we can get from these  passages, is a sense of what an experience
of  God might be  like, so  that we  can seek  and can  recognise such
experiences.  For both ladies tell us something about how God works in
the world and  how he works with people.  If we  are active in seeking
God as Hannah was, and able to recognise and accept God's working when
it happens in our  lives a Mary was, we will be  more ready to benefit
from the working of God in our lives.

So from these  two songs, I want  to draw out two ideas  about how God
works, and  to encourage us all  to be on  the lookout for, and  to be
actively seeking, God's  working in us.  These two  ideas are that God
is powerful, and that God loves to change our circumstances.

\section{God is Powerful}

To say that  God is Powerful seems almost  trite.  Everyone knows that
God  is, or is  meant to  be, powerful.   For many,  his power  is his
defining  attribute.   That is  what  makes  him  God.  If  he  wasn't
powerful, he wouldn't be God.

But it is still worth focussing on his power.  Possibly all the more
because it is such an obvious characteristic, maybe we don't reflect
on it as much as we should.

Hannah describes God's power like this:

\begin{verse}
    ``The LORD brings death and makes alive; \\
    he brings down to the grave and raises up. \\
    The LORD sends poverty and wealth; \\
    he humbles and he exalts. \\
    He raises the poor from the dust \\
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap; \\
    he seats them with princes \\
    and has them inherit a throne of honor. \\[2ex]

    ``For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's;\\
    upon them he has set the world.\\
\end{verse}
and Mary simply says:
\begin{verse}
    He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
\end{verse}

God  acts in  the lives  of people  in ways  that are  far  beyond us.
Though there  are those in  the world who  are in a position  to bring
death or life,  to send poverty or  wealth, it is but a  shadow of the
subtlety,  and the control,  and the  purpose which  God can  put into
those acts.

One of my favourite lines from the  Lord Of The Rings takes place in a
conversation  between Gandalf,  the wise  old wizard,  and  Frodo, the
young Hobbit.  Gandalf says:
\begin{quotation}
Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life.
Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in
judgement.
%% page 79
\end{quotation}
This is wise advice for Frodo  or for any mortal who cannot give life.
But it is not  relevant advice for God, for he {\bf  can} give life to
the dead.  This,  I think, helps draw the  contrast between our power,
which is deeply limited, and Gods, which is limitless.

But  how can  a belief  in, and  knowledge of,  His power  help  us to
experience him more?  It can help by preparing us to expect and accept
His acts of Power when they happen.

Last Sunday we as a church,  and many other churches, prayed for rain.
That afternoon  the rain  started and continued  for 3 days.   For me,
that was  quite exciting, and my  son  commented on  it at least
once too  - ``It's  raining Dad''.  ``Yes''  I said.  ``We  prayed for
rain and it's  raining'' he continued.  It is  exciting to be involved
in God's work.

Now had  I not prayed  for rain, would  there have been less  rain?  I
don't think so.

But  had  I not  prayed  for  rain, would  I  have  received the  same
encouragement?  No  I would not.  And  to those who don't  know God at
all and  weren't even aware  of anyone praying  for rain, the  rain is
just a  pleasant occurrence.  We  are all experiencing the  same rain,
the same mighty working of God.  But the more we understand his power,
are ready  to recognise his work,  and are actively  seeking his help,
the more we will experience God in that rain and the more we will come
to know Him.

If we  don't really believe  that God {\em  Can Do}, then we  won't be
genuine in asking, we won't take  risks in expecting, and we might not
recognise his works when they  come, saying ``That was a coincidence''
or ``It's too good to be true''.

We  don't need  to  expect God  to  show His  power  in overt,  public
miracles: I don't really want to have a baby, at least not in the same
way as  Hannah or Mary,  and I don't  particularly need any sea  to be
parted at the moment.  But we should expect God to do things which are
impossible for  us, but immediately relevant  to us ---  expect him to
give us patience  when at the end of our tether,  expect him to enable
us to pay the bill when money is short, expect him to find us a job or
help us complete an assignment.

Whenever  anything  happens  in  our  lives that  we  might  think  is
impossible,  whether it is  getting a  car-park when  in a  hurray, or
getting sick on the morning of  an important meeting, we can decide it
is just a co-incidence and continue on our way, or we can realise that
God is  was work,  rejoice that  he has touched  our lives,  and learn
about his nature through experiencing what he has done.


\section{God Changes People's Circumstances}

The second idea that I would like  to draw out is that God changes our
circumstances.

We know that  God is in the business of  changing people.  His purpose
for us is to make us more  like him.  To change us until we conform to
His image.  To make us more like Jesus.

And God certainly  has many different tools or  techniques that he can
use  to reach  in  our lives  and change  us.   But it  seems that  he
particularly loves to do it by changing our circumstances.

From Hannah's song we read that:
\begin{verse}
    ``The bows of the warriors are broken, \\
    but those who stumbled are armed with strength. \\
    Those who were full hire themselves out for food, \\
    but those who were hungry hunger no more. \\
    She who was barren has borne seven children,\\
    but she who has had many sons pines away. \\
\end{verse}
and from Mary:
\begin{verse}
    He has brought down rulers from their thrones \\
       but has lifted up the humble. \\
    He has filled the hungry with good things \\
       but has sent the rich away empty. \\
\end{verse}

I am often  tempted, when reading passages like  that, to imagine that
he is  punishing the wicked by  bringing them down,  and rewarding the
righteous by exalting them.  But while God does those things from time
to  time,  it is  not  the only  situation  that  he changes  people's
circumstances.   In these passages,  there is  no suggestion  that the
warrior,  the  well  fed,  or  the  rulers are  wicked,  or  that  the
stumblers, the hungry, the humble and the barren are worthy.

I believe  God changes peoples situations  not so much  because of how
righteous they are  or aren't, but because of how  it will further His
purpose for them.

Is this belief consistent with scripture?

Certainly some  changes wrought  by God seem  to have a  punishment or
reward aspect.

King Nebuchadnezzar was sent insane  for 7 years because of his pride.
Noah  and  his  family  were  saved  from the  flood  because  of  his
righteousness.  And there are plenty of other examples.

But God  also brings about change  that is not  consistent with reward
and punishment.

Paul, a  righteous man of  God, was sent  to prison and  eventually to
Rome to face Caesar .  Joseph also was imprisoned and enslaved, though
God meant  it for  good.  King Nebuchadnezzar  (again) was  allowed to
conquer  Israel  and  other  countries   and  it  wasn't  due  to  his
righteousness  but  rather  due  to  God's  purpose.   Certainly  many
prophets  had some  pretty bad  experiences  while serving  God as  He
commanded changes in their situation.

So it seems well supported that God does change peoples circumstances,
and he does it for his own purposes  at least as much as he does it in
response to our behaviour.

But does that  mean that we should run after any  change that seems to
be about  to happen in  our lives?  I  think certainly not,  though we
should not run away from them either.  We must always measure anything
happening in  our lives against  our understanding of God's  will, and
should seek through prayer and  action to avoid changes that appear to
be against  his will and  to encourage those  that seem to  follow his
will.

But we can not always expect such prayer and actions to work.  God may
be using the situation to help us experience him better.  Indeed God's
purpose in allowing  unpleasant changes may be precisely  for us to go
through the experience of wrestling with Him in prayer.

The life of Job is a  good example here.  All sorts of terrible things
happened to him --- he  lost his children, his possessions, his wealth
and even his health.  While this change was not directly from God, God
certainly allowed  it.  But Job  did not accept the  change willingly.
He  riled  against it  and  sought from  God  an  understanding and  a
resolution.  He  ultimately got  both I think,  but not until  God had
helped him to grow  substantially through experiencing the change, and
through wrestling with God over the change.

So if change  is happening, we cannot assume that  the change is good,
but we can assume  that if we respond as we believe  God would want us
to,  if  we face  it  not  with fear,  but  with  faith  in God,  with
excitement, and with  a desire to draw closer to  him, then whether to
change feels  good or  bad, we  will get a  greater experience  of God
through the situation and will come to know him better.

We  can  see  plenty  of   examples  in  the  scriptures  of  people's
circumstances being changed and God  using this to change them.  Maybe
one of the  most dramatic was Paul who was  blinded and made dependant
on a  hated Christian to  restore his site.   From then on he  lived a
different life and  he gradually grew into the life  God wanted him to
have - never reaching, but always pressing on towards the goal.

Peter was taken away from his  nets and fishing boats and sent to tell
people about his Lord.  In this way Jesus made him a fisher of men.

David was first thrust into  King Saul's household as a musician, then
later thrust out  and hunted as an enemy of  the state.  Through these
changes, God helped him grow in knowledge and faith.

We too  will often experience God through  changed circumstances.  How
we respond will  determine how much better we get  to know God through
these experiences.

\section{Conclusion}

The experience  of God  is an  awesome thing.  I  believe that  we all
experience God quite often.

Sometimes we try to fight against  or avoid the experience if it seems
uncomfortable.   This  leads  to  feelings  of  stress,  helplessness,
discomfort.

Sometimes we take it for granted and think nothing out of the ordinary
has happened.  These  times we don't notice God  and gain nothing from
the experience.

Sometimes  we can realise  that God  has touched  our lives,  done the
humanly impossible, and maybe changed our circumstances significantly.
If we  have faith that  he is  Good, this can  lead us to  much deeper
understanding of him and we can rejoice in our saving Lord.

So I would  encourage us all to  be always open to what  God is doing.
To expect  him to  do great  things, and often  thing that  change our
situation substantially.  To rejoice  when those things happen because
we can know that it draws us closer to God.  And to seek always to see
him in all that happens and so to know him more deeply.

Shall we pray....
\end{document}