I don’t very often build a
sermon from a word in a hymn. But this morning, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Some
of you may have noticed that my sermon title today – “ebeneezer” – appears in
the second verse of today’s opening hymn. (The hymn is “Come, Thou Fount of
Every Blessing,” and the verse begins “Here I raise my ebeneezer; hither by thy
help I’m come.”) You might be wondering just what an ebeneezer is, anyway! An
ebeneezer is another word for a stone monument – a pillar that someone sets up
so that everyone who goes by can see it. But an ebeneezer isn’t just any stone monument. An ebeneezer is a
monument that recalls God’s help in a time of need.
The word “ebeneezer” actually
comes from two Hebrew words that mean “stone of help.” “Eben (stone) ezer
(help)” – “ebeneezer” – “stone of help.” Jacob set up an ebeneezer like that in
this morning’s story from Genesis (28:10-19). But… I’m getting ahead of myself.
To fully appreciate that ebeneezer, you need a little bit of background first.
It starts with Jacob and his brother Esau.
To say that Jacob and Esau
didn’t get along is a major understatement. It would be like saying that the
Hatfields and the McCoys weren’t the best of friends. Jacob and Esau took
sibling rivalry to a whole new level! As today’s story opens, Jacob is running
away from Esau to save his own skin. Esau has threatened to kill him because
Jacob stole a blessing from their father Isaac that should have gone to Esau. So Jacob is heading for his uncle Laban’s
place at Haran, nearly 500 miles to the north, on what is now the border
between Syria and Turkey. It was far enough away that Esau couldn’t get to him;
but it was also far enough away that Jacob was leaving his home far behind. Jacob
– the son who didn’t like to hunt or herd – the boy who liked to help his
mother in the tent – was leaving the only home that he had ever known, heading
towards an unknown future.
I wonder how Jacob felt as he
stopped to rest on that first night. I imagine that he was frightened and
lonely. He certainly didn’t know what to expect on his journey. What kind of
dangers would he run into? Would he have to fight wild animals or bandits? When
his food and water ran out, would he be able to find more? And, if he arrived at
Haran safely, would his uncle accept him; or would Laban send him packing right
back where he came from?
If you remember a time when
you started a new chapter in your life, I’ll bet that you felt a little bit
like Jacob. Maybe you started a new job, or moved to a new city. Or maybe you
were a brand new graduate! It’s exciting to be a new graduate… but it can also
be scary. Like Jacob, you know what the past was like; but you don’t know
anything about what lies ahead. You ask yourself all kinds of questions. Will
you be up to the challenges that you meet along the way? Will you meet folks
who are friendly and helpful; or will you long for the days of old familiar
faces? Will you be a success… or a miserable failure? Oh, yes – leaving the
past behind and starting on a journey into the future brings a whole new set of
questions!
And Jacob was leaving more
than just his home and his family. As far as Jacob knew, he was leaving his God
behind, too! In Jacob’s day, everyone believed that gods were territorial. You
worshipped the god where you lived! If you lived in southern Canaan, you might
worship Baal; but if you lived in Tyre or Sidon or Ur or Haran, you worshipped
a different god. Each area had its own god. I’m very sure that Jacob believed
that God – his god – had stayed in the
home that he left behind. We do that ourselves sometimes. Oh, we know in our
heads that God is everywhere and that God goes with us wherever we go. But are
our hearts convinced of that? When we move on to a new school, a new place, or
a new job, do we expect God to be there with us, too?
I’m not sure that Helen
expected God to go with her after her marriage broke up. (Helen isn’t her real
name; but her story is true.) When the dust settled after her divorce, Helen
moved to another state, and began attending a tiny church near her new home. The
church was nothing like the one in which she had grown up. There was hardly
anyone her age; the music was pathetic; the preaching had no point that she
could find; and they offered no programs to speak of. On the first Sunday that
she visited there, she wondered why she had bothered coming. If God was there,
he was very well hidden! But something told her to keep coming back. I’ll bet
that you’ve already guessed the end of the story. That little church offered
Helen a non-judgmental love that literally gave her food when she had none,
friends when she needed them, and refuge when she had nowhere else to turn.
Every day God helped Helen through the loving
church folks who offered what she needed.
On our journeys into the
future, we find God in places that we never expect. Jacob had that experience,
too. On the very first night of his travels, Jacob had a dream. In that dream,
he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and down on
it. At the very top of the ladder sat God – the God that Jacob thought he had
left behind. And then he heard God’s reassuring words: “I am with you, and will
watch over you wherever you go; and I will bring you back to this land.” When
Jacob woke up, he set up the ebeneezer that began my sermon – Jacob’s stone of
help. He set it up to commemorate God’s presence with him when he least
expected it. He had felt lonely and frightened and uncertain… and now, with
God’s help, he was reassured, secure, and confident. “Surely,” he said, “surely
the Lord is in this place, and I never even knew it.”
I don’t know if Jacob’s
ebeneezer is still standing in Israel. But do I know that there are plenty of
other monuments that witness to the God who appears to offer help when we least
expect it. One example is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, what we now call the
Dome of the Rock. According to Jewish tradition, it marks the site where
Abraham attempted to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, but was stopped by God himself
who substituted a ram for the sacrifice. A second example is the church in
Lourdes, France. Just over 150 years ago, a young girl in Lourdes saw a vision
of the Virgin Mary there. From that time to this, the water in its grotto has
been associated with miraculous healings. Much closer to home is St. Paul’s
Episcopal Chapel in New York City. St. Paul’s stands directly across the street
from the former location of the Twin Towers. On 9/11, it miraculously escaped
destruction when the towers collapsed. It became a place of refuge for
firefighters and police officers who were offered hot food, warm beds, and
trauma counseling, in addition to as many prayers as they needed. It remains a
place of witness to God’s presence with us, even in disaster.
Jacob’s story is actually our
story, too. It happens over, and over, and over again: we turn our faces to the
future; we leave our past behind; and we step out, not knowing what we will
find. When we travel through unfamiliar places, it’s hard to sense God’s
presence with us. But then, something happens – and we realize that, even when
we didn’t feel it, God has been there with us all along.
And so, I have some advice
for all you graduates this morning. You may be graduating from college, from
high school, from junior high school, from kindergarten, or just from another
year of life – my advice is the same for all of you. Don’t worry about the
future! Step out with courage! Don’t be afraid of the tough times – and there will be some. During those times, it
might feel like God is a million miles away! But he won’t be. One day, like
Jacob, you’ll look back at those times, and you’ll be amazed! You might even
put up an ebeneezer. Because on that day, you’ll say, “Oh, my gosh! God was
right there with me all the time!”
