Tuttle Road United Methodist Church

    Pastor:  Linda Brewster                                      Church Office:  207-829-3766                                 Organist:  Luann Lawler                  

    Phone: 207-807-2210                                      Church Secretary:  Carrie Jowett                               Choir Director:  Sarah Soule

    Email: lindabrewster2210@gmail.com           Office email:  secretary@tuttleroadumc.org          Custodian:  Wahneta Dahlgren

                                                                                     Lay Leaders: Marian Wilmot & Charlene Post

Raise mine Ebenezer

     While watching John Lewis’ funeral taking place at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, my husband asked me about the name of the church. He asked if I  thought it was named after a person. I replied that I didn’t think so, that I think it was named for the same Ebenezer as sung in the hymn Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing: “Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’ve come.” So this raises the question of what is Ebenezer?
    

1Samuel (4-7) was the inspiration for the hymn. The passages tell the story of the Philistines trying to expand their territory into the areas where the Israelites lived. During one conflict with the Israelites, they captured the Ark of the Covenant, and in the custom of the ancient Near East, deposited it in the temple of their own gods as a sign of inferiority of captured gods. Havoc began to fall upon the Philistines, and seven months later they decided they had better return the Ark. Clearly their god Dagon was no match for the Israelites' God. The prophet Samuel had called Israel together to pray that they would increase their faith in God, for many had wandered in unfaithfulness. They complied, and believed that God had rescued them. After the Ark was returned, Samuel took a single rock and set it upright and called its name Ebenezer, for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us,” (1Sam 7:12).
    

In Hebrew, Ebenezer means ‘stone of help’: eben-stone and ezer-help. Samuel wanted the people to remember from that day forth how God had responded when they came back to Him, that He had delivered them from their enemies. Ebenezer was their sign. Like the Israelites, we today are “prone to leave the God we love” as we get caught up in the chaos in this world. There are many toils and troubles that divert our eyes. Yet God is always as close as the air we breathe. He’s stronger than a stone and our ever present help.
     

The past, the present, and the future daily collide. The tension of unknowing the future troubles that will arise, and the ancient prayer of Samuel meet in grace in the present.  So let us “raise mine Ebenezer” (either metaphorically, or a rock in your garden or on the beach) and give thanks as Samuel did, that “the Lord has helped us”. God is indeed our fountain of every blessing. May we all “tie thy fettered heart to thee”, which is what I think was the people’s hope in naming the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Reflection: Does God’s faithfulness in the past give you hope today for troubles that may come tomorrow? Is your heart prone to wander as you get caught up in worldly things? Take a deep breath and acknowledge that God is as close as the air you breathed in.
Gracious God. Thank you for forgiving for those times when our hearts wander. And please help us to stay fettered to you always. You are our stone of help.

Amen. 

 

Weekly Events

Daily: The Lord's Prayer at Noon

Sundays: Worship at 9:30AM via our Facebook page

Saturday AA at 8:30AM & Tuesday AA at 7PM are virtual meetings until further notice.

Please visit us on Facebook every Sunday at 9:30AM as Pastor Linda leads us in a virtual, interactive worship service. (Find us on Facebook at Tuttle Road United Methodist Church.)