Sunday Toolkit — 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 18th October 2026

1. Encouragement

Some weeks the person leading worship has the easy job — a warm story, a simple song, nothing much to trip over. This isn’t quite that kind of week, and that’s alright. You don’t need to have it all figured out before Sunday; you just need to show up and be honest with the room.

If you’re feeling a bit unseen in the lead-up — like the preparation is happening quietly and nobody would notice either way — hold onto this: the quiet, unnoticed parts of getting ready are exactly where the real work of leading worship happens. Trust that. You’re doing something worthwhile, even in the parts nobody claps for. Go well.

2. This Week’s Reading

Old Testament — 1 Samuel 2:1-10 — Hannah
This is Hannah’s Song. She prayed for years for a child, was accused by the priest Eli of being drunk because her prayer was silent and desperate, and was finally answered with a son, Samuel. Now she’s brought him to the temple to dedicate him to God, just as she promised — and she opens her mouth and sings one of the most powerful songs in the whole Bible.
Read the full passage on Bible Gateway (NRSVUE)

“My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God… He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honour.” (1 Samuel 2:1, 8, abridged)

New Testament — 2 Timothy 4:9-22 — Claudia and Prisca
This is the very end of the letter — quite possibly the last thing Paul (or whoever wrote in his name) ever put to paper. It’s not theology, it’s a list: who came, who left, who’s needed before winter, and a string of names in the final greeting. Prisca gets a mention alongside her husband Aquila. Claudia gets one word, right at the end, just before the letter signs off.
Read the full passage on Bible Gateway (NRSVUE)

“At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me… But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength.” (2 Timothy 4:16-17, abridged)

3. What Richard’s Explored Before

In his own preaching: Neither of this week’s exact passages has been preached before — this is new territory for Richard too, on both readings. That said, Hannah herself isn’t a total stranger: on 14 January 2024 Richard preached on 1 Samuel 3 (the boy Samuel hearing God’s voice), and the service included a creative first-person “letter” from Samuel back to his mother Hannah, plus a physical Hannah statue brought along by a member of the congregation, Pam. Richard’s own line from that sermon is worth knowing: “Somewhere along the way, I changed from Samuel to Eli.” So Hannah has brushed past this pulpit before, just never had her own week until now.

2 Timothy has come up once: on 22 October 2023, the Sunday after the Indigenous Voice referendum result, Richard preached 2 Timothy 1:3-7 and said outright in the sermon, “I don’t think I’ve ever preached from 1 or 2 Timothy. I’m a Gospel kinda preacher.” That sermon was built around two hugs — one hopeful, one grieving — which is a nice reminder that a Timothy passage doesn’t need to be preached as doctrine; it can be preached as relationship, which is exactly what this week’s list of names already is.

In past liturgies: Spill the Beans, Words for Worship and L3 were all checked directly against both readings, by scripture reference where possible. None of them have anything filed for this specific pairing — worth knowing plainly rather than stretching a loose match into something it isn’t.

Where the congregation’s worship is currently sitting: The last month has quietly followed the same thread — Deborah trusted with authority nobody explained, Jael’s tent peg, Jephthah’s daughter’s grief, then Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi outlasting all three. This week keeps pulling that same thread: Hannah gets a whole song and then nearly vanishes from her own son’s story, and Prisca and Claudia get barely a line each on their way out of somebody else’s farewell letter. If there’s one thing worth saying out loud this week, it’s that how much space someone gets in the text isn’t a reliable measure of how much they actually mattered.

4. Resources

Spill the Beans, Words for Worship and L3 were all checked directly against this week’s readings, and none of them have a resource filed for this specific pairing. Said plainly rather than padded out: there’s no ready-made resource for this week, so whatever’s built for Sunday will need to come together fresh.

5. Songs

Used before? No record of either reading being paired with a particular song — since neither has been preached before, there’s no usage history to lean on here. Worth knowing rather than assuming otherwise.

From the congregation’s song list, worth considering:

There is a Line of Women — about as direct a match for Hannah’s Song as the list holds: a hymn tracing a line of women through scripture whose faith and courage carried the story forward, most of them barely named.
Not the Powerful, Not the Privileged — about God’s habit of choosing the person nobody expected. It was suggested a few weeks back for Deborah, and it fits just as well here for Hannah’s Song, with its raising up of the poor and the needy.
Shalom to You Now (TiS 778) — a blessing-and-sending song. 2 Timothy 4 is itself a kind of shalom at the very end of a life — naming who’s staying, who’s leaving, and blessing them all on the way.

6. Weblinks

A short list from Richard’s own “Websites I Use,” picked for this week’s themes:

Working Preacher — reliable, accessible commentary; has good material on Hannah’s Song and its echo in Mary’s Magnificat.
Textweek — a broad aggregator, worth checking for a wider spread of views on both readings.
Bill Loader — covers Old and New Testament texts and isn’t afraid of the harder corners.
Journey With Jesus — thoughtful, pastoral reflections, a good balance against heavier commentary.
Sacredise — liturgy-focused resources, useful for turning a reading into something usable in worship.

7. Pop Culture

Five songs for the lead-up to Sunday:

Nat Bartsch — “Forever, and No Time at All” — a quiet instrumental piano piece, written by the Melbourne composer during early motherhood. No words needed — it carries the same weight as a mother’s song for a child who is, briefly, entirely hers.
Brandi Carlile — “The Joke” — a song for anyone underestimated or laughed off who turns out to have the last word. About as close to Hannah’s Song in three and a half minutes as pop music gets.
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — “If We Were Vampires” — about mortality making it matter who shows up and who doesn’t, while there’s still time. Close to the heart of Paul’s list of names at the end of his letter.
Big Thief — “Change” — a gentle meditation on endings and what stays constant through them; a good companion for a passage that’s really a farewell.
Julien Baker — “Appointments” — about keeping going and showing up even when it’s hard, which is close to what both Hannah and Paul’s list of names are quietly doing.

Book: Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir by Stanley Hauerwas — the title isn’t decorative. Hauerwas’s own mother borrowed Hannah’s prayer from 1 Samuel and vowed that if she had a child, she’d dedicate him to God’s service — and told her son so. One of the most significant Christian theologians of the last fifty years exists, by his own account, because his mother prayed Hannah’s prayer over him. About as direct a “this text still works” illustration as you’ll find.

Film: A Quiet Passion (2016) — a biopic of the poet Emily Dickinson, whose quiet, private writing went largely unrecognised in her own lifetime and only found its true audience afterwards. A gentle, thoughtful fit for a week about voices that don’t get their due at the time — Hannah’s private prayer, and Prisca’s possible authorship of a whole New Testament book that nobody credits her for. Content note: it deals honestly with illness, grief and family conflict in its later stretches, so it’s a quieter, more reflective watch than a Sunday-night pick-me-up.

8. Notable Dates

A few things happening in the world and the wider church around this Sunday — handy for a line in the notices, a prayer prompt, or just to know what’s in the air.

15 October — Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, people of prayer. Teresa wrote about the interior life of prayer and once complained to God after a cart accident tipped her into the mud — “Then it is no wonder you have so few friends.” A lovely, very human companion for a week about a woman whose prayer was misunderstood before it was recognised.
17 October — International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (UN). A day calling attention to poverty and the dignity of people living in it — an easy, direct line straight to Hannah’s Song: “he raises up the poor from the dust… to inherit a seat of honour.”
18 October — Luke, witness to Jesus. This one falls right on the Sunday itself, and it’s a lovely coincidence: Luke is the “beloved physician” named in this very week’s reading — “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11). He’s traditionally credited with the Gospel most attentive to women’s voices, which makes a quiet, fitting bookend to a week already about whose voice gets remembered.

9. Final Word

One thing worth trying this week: somewhere in the service, leave a little room for quiet — even just a breath before a prayer, or a pause after the reading. Hannah’s whole story turns on a prayer nobody could hear. You don’t need to explain that to the room; just let the silence do a little of the work.

Whatever else Sunday holds — a list of names to read out, a hard reading to sit with, a room that needs someone steady up the front — may you lead the way Hannah did: trusting that what you’re offering matters, even in the parts nobody else can see. Go well. You’re not carrying this alone.