The Eve of the New Year Ebenezer Grace, mercy, and peace are now yours from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In tonight’s reading, “Samuel took a stone and set it up… and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Till now the Lord has helped us.’” Dear Christian friends, Word association: it happens to everyone. Word associations occur when you hear a certain word and that word causes you to think of something. For example, the word “mother” might remind you of a significant woman from your childhood. The word “chocolate” might make it difficult for you to think about anything else. (I’ll pause here to give you a chance to come back.) When you hear the words “High School,” you might warmly remember the glory days, or you might wish you could forget. These are word associations. This is what happens when certain words or phrases mingle with your memory. “Samuel took a stone and set it up… and called its name Ebenezer .” Most people associate the word ebenezer with an old miser from Charles Dickens story. We use the word ebenezer is so infrequently that Ebenezer Scrooge is probably the first thing—perhaps the only thing—that steps onto the stage of memory. Each of us should try to change that. We should attempt to re-train our memories so that the mercy and generosity of God our heavenly Father comes to mind for us every time we hear the wordebenezer. It is a Hebrew word. It means “stone of help.” You heard what use this word was given by our brothers: “Samuel took a stone and set it up… and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Till now the Lord has helped us.’” “Till now the Lord has helped us.” This is a much finer word association for us than Ebenezer Scrooge! Again I say it: We should so fix the definition of the word ebenezer in our minds that our God and His grace and His mercy come to our minds every time we hear the Word. Here is how you might get the job done: · First, start with a nice, large, clean sheet of paper. Write the word ebenezer right across the top of it in giant letters. If it helps, also write down Samuel’s meaning of ebenezer, as you heard in tonight’s reading: “Till now the Lord has helped us.” · Next, spend time thinking about the ways the Lord your God has helped you in your own personal life. Plenty has happened in 2013 alone, so you can begin with the recent past. Then dig a deeper. Pray that God would open the closets of your mind to remember. Think about your childhood and the fact that you somehow survived. Think about those teenage years of more enthusiasm and less sense. Think about the major events, stuff that might compare to the wondrous way our heavenly Father routed the Philistines in tonight’s reading. Work your way toward the little stuff, stuff you should have noticed before now, but did not. Then write it down. If you run out of paper, buy some more. The money will not be wasted! · Now re-orient and re-train your mind. Create new associations for the word ebenezer. Put your list on the wall beside your bed or in some other prominent place. Once, twice, three times a day, look at that list and allow that word ebenezer to burrow its way a little more deeply into your heart and mind. Push the Charles Dickens character aside and replace him with the events of your own life. What does the history of your life tell you? No matter how easy or difficult your life has been, the history of your life tells you this: ebenezer; “Till now the Lord has helped you.” This little exercise will do more than acts as a reminder of God’s abiding goodness and grace toward you. This exercise will also… · call you to regular repentance for your thanklessness and your shallow expectation toward God. By regularly remembering “till now the Lord has helped you,” you have improved your chances of feeling thankful and appreciative to your God for all that He has done. · increase your sense of expectation that the Lord your God will not forget you in the coming years, or withdraw His love and mercy toward you. By looking at the track record that the heavenly Father has established in your life, you will be able to reason according to the faith that no matter what happens—happy or sad, thick or thin—the Lord your God will continue His gracious ebenezer toward you. · allow you to think more deeply about your Lord Jesus Christ, along with the rich forgiveness of sins and the unassailable salvation that He has worked for you. Stated another way, by writing your list of “till now the Lord has helped you,” you will increasingly see that the Christian faith is not only about the knowledge that Jesus died on the cross for you. Yes, the faith is that! Yes, by Christ’s death all things are now yours! But look at your ebenezer list and see how God has worked out the details of Jesus’ death and resurrection in your own life. The death and resurrection of your Lord is so broad and so deep that it now empowers every single act of God’s grace and mercy toward you—those very acts (and more) that you have been able to write down on your list. This is what the Scriptures say: If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32) Or we could use Samuel’s slightly different words and still say the same thing: ebenezer; “Till now the Lord has helped us.” _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
