I wonder what the disciples were thinking when they asked Jesus about when his prophecy of the destruction of the temple would come about, and what signs they should look for. Such a massive building erected over so many years: Was there perhaps some scepticism in their questioning? How could it all be destroyed so completely?
We know that the temple was in fact destroyed some years later. The unthinkable did happen. The centre of their practice of faith, the place where heaven and earth came together, where God was most surely to be found, was no more. They should have asked another question: What will we do then? Where will we find God afterwards?
What do we do when what we had thought to be the centre of our world, the source of our security, is no more?
Jesus tells his disciples not to be alarmed when such alarming things happen. It is not the end, but a new beginning struggling to come into being. Jesus expresses it in terms of birth pains, which surely leads us to ask: What is coming to birth, in us, in our communities, in our world?
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews assures us that there is still a sanctuary, still a house of God, and that Jesus, through the great sacrifice of himself, has opened a new and living way into it. God has been liberated from the confines of the temple and dwells by God’s Spirit in and among God’s people as the mystical body of Christ in the world, and all are invited to enter into it, with confidence and trust in the faithful presence of God, with God’s laws of justice and peace shaping our hearts and minds and guiding our actions.
God is present even in our confused human struggle and pain. The story that leads to Hannah’s giving birth to the great prophet Samuel is a messy human story, full of anguish and strife, confusion and longing. Elkanah’s expressions of love for Hannah exacerbate the torment she endures from her rival Peninnah, who provokes her mercilessly.
In her deep distress, Hannah weeps before God. Eli, though a priest, misinterprets her praying. Hannah has the strength of character not to be silenced by Eli’s rebuke, but to engage with him and explain her situation. Perhaps Hannah had a sense of God having answered her prayer as she poured out her soul, but it is after Eli changes his rebuke into a blessing of peace, after that affirming human encounter, that she goes away with a lighter heart to wait for what she had asked for, what she most needed from God.
I think there is a sense in which Peninnah’s provocation drove Hannah towards God in her misery. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews wants us also to provoke one another, which is a startling choice of words. Rather than the usual meaning of deliberate conflict, the sense here is of relentlessly urging one another on to love and good works.
Peninnah provoked Hannah in order to irritate her and make her miserable. We are to engage with one another in a more edifying way, seeking to build up and not tear down. We are to encourage one another as we meet together, persistently helping one another to recognize the loving presence of God in our lives, and to respond to that presence with all the compassionate goodness and kindness of which God makes us capable towards all those we encounter in our lives.
We just might find heaven and earth coming together again as we do so, God’s will being done even in the midst of our confused human struggle and pain.