50 Years of Fellowship

history is complicated, and we all approach it and interact with it a bit differently

Fifty years is a lot to summarize. I am not sure how I could ever do that. In fact, I will let those memories and those stories be saved for the lunch that follows this service today. Perhaps our time here is better spent considering how history itself can be a complicated thing for us to always understand. Some memories hold special nostalgic meaning for us. Other memories of the past are perhaps not so pleasant, and we might wish we could shake those memories away, but somehow they seem to keep hanging on as well. There may be a handful of events in our past which one person may consider extremely important and formative, and another person may have completely dismissed and forgotten those same events because they did not seem important or formative at all. History is complicated, and we all approach it and interact with it a bit differently.

perspectives and experiences shaped by our different engagement and interaction with Fellowship Church’s history

So, I am not sure we can enter a day like this at Fellowship Church when we mark fifty years and assume everyone here in the room is somehow experiencing the same thing. A handful of the people here have been around for all fifty of those years. Others in the room have joined somewhere along the way and have no memory of the early years at Fellowship. And perhaps others are friends and family who have moved on to other places in life and have chosen to come and join us just for marking this occasion. For those people, old memories of Fellowship carry meaning but more recent events at Fellowship are not a part of their experience. You see what I am saying; we all come into this moment carrying different perspectives and experiences shaped by our different engagement and interaction with Fellowship Church’s history. It can be complicated.

Israel’s history is complicated too

For this reason, I chose for today a passage from 1 Samuel that might seem a bit odd at first as a story for marking this occasion on this day. But stay with me over the next few minutes and I think we might be able to draw some parallels between our own somewhat complicated history at Fellowship Church and a somewhat complicated history for the people of Israel.

1 Samuel 7:5–14 (NIV)

5 Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the Lord for you.” 6 When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” Now Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah.

7 When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. 8 They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

10 While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. 11 The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.

12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,  saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

13 So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. 14 The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to Israel, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

Israel’s history: both sin and obedience both confession and celebration both time of fighting and time of peace

In this one story we catch several glimpses of Israel’s complicated history. It involves both sin and obedience. It involves confession and celebration. It involves both a time of fighting and a time of peace. All the various ups and downs of Israel’s vast history seems to come into a microcosm of events right here in these few short verses. This is worthy of out attention today because it gives us a frame of reference from which to view our own history.

context: confession and forgiveness — ark of the covenant

past events include mistakes and sin which has brought times of struggle

It begins with confession. The story directly preceding this one involves the ark of the covenant. Israel had sinfully taken the ark into battle against the Philistines, and the ark was captured in that battle. The Israelites were never able to recapture the ark from the Philistines. Such calamity fell upon the Philistines while the ark was in their possession that they eventually decided to just send it back. It is after the ark of the covenant is received back that Samuel gathers the people at a place called Mizpah, and there Samuel leads them in a time of confession for their sin—particularly the sin of treating the ark of the covenant as an idol that would somehow magically give them victory in battle. They gather together and acknowledge that their past events include mistakes and sin which has brought upon them times of struggle.

reminders that we are all broken people who come before the Lord needing forgiveness

Every now and again I will hear a story brought up here at Fellowship of some event or series of events which took place somewhere in Fellowship’s history which are characterized as difficult times. There have been some hard times in this church’s history. And perhaps those are times people would rather not bring up and talk about as part of our anniversary celebration. Yet, those are times in our history which continue to be constructive for us. They are reminders that we are all yet broken people who come before the Lord needing forgiveness. And they continue to be reminders of what we may learn from mistakes of the past. There have been times in which we needed God’s forgiveness. And there have been times in which we needed to forgive one another. These are moments in history which keep us humble before God, which is a good thing.

past events include worship and celebration which has brought times of joy and friendship

reminders of God’s goodness which prompts our gratitude for God’s blessing

There is also a time of gathered worship in this story. The Old Testament ritual for worship involved things like sacrifice and burnt offerings. Our times of gathered worship and fellowship take shape in their own ways too. It is good to hold memory of worship and fellowship. There are some people who carry stories here going back to the beginning and tell about setting up chairs in a school gym for worship. There are stories of in-home Bible studies and small groups. There have been outings, camping trips, youth group events, and potluck lunches—just to name a few—which mark the journey of gathering for worship and fellowship with one another over the years. These are important moments in our history as well because they build up a response of gratitude. We are grateful to God for all the examples of blessing we see within our history.

past events include evidence of God’s leading which has guided people’s lives

This story we see in scripture today also includes a moment when God comes and intervenes on behalf of the people. When the Philistines come marching towards them for battle, it is God who steps in and turns the direction of that conflict around. These are important stories to remember as well. There will always be moments in which we look back and recognize the moving presence of God taking place. Our history includes events like that. I have heard my share of stories from people here about moments when something amazing takes place which was neither planned nor orchestrated by anyone here. And in those moments I hear people tell the testimony of how God steps in and does what only God can do to guide the path forward.

reminders of God’s faithfulness which affirms our identity in Christ

stories which continually keep us grounded and rooted in the gospel

These are important moments of our history because they remind us that God is active and present among the people of his church. They are moments when we remember that it is not we who take God along with us, it is God who takes us along with him. This is Fellowship is first-and-foremost God’s church; it does not belong to us. Our history reminds us that Fellowship Church is first-and-foremost the bride of Christ; that is our identity. These are the stories which continually keep us grounded and rooted in the gospel. It is a history which reminds us that we only are who we are because of Jesus. The only reason that the church exists at all is because God chooses to love his world; God chooses to redeem his people; Jesus chose to go to the cross so that the guilt of our sin is removed; Christ rose from the grave and defeated death assuring us that his perfect righteousness continues to completely cover us. Our history always finds its way back to being anchored in the gospel. We have stories of events in our past which remind us of this gospel foundation.

Ebenezer “stone of help”

I love what Samuel does in this Bible passage when all these complicated features of Israel’s history come colliding together in this one moment. He takes a stone and sets it down and gives it a name. Ebenezer. It is a Hebrew word which simply means “stone of help.” But Samuel’s explanation of this stone speaks volumes about the way in which Israel was to hold the memories of their history. And those same words speak to us here today as well about the way in which we can best hold the memories of our history. Samuel simply says, “thus far the Lord has helped us.” That one statement holds everything. It holds the struggle and conflict and difficulty of a troubled history. It holds the worship and celebration and gratitude of a joyous history. It holds the gospel truth of a history which affirms all the God has done on our behalf by his grace. It is a way of remembering history which frames the entire thing within the grasp of God’s covenant faithfulness. It piles all those memories up in that one thought; thus far God has helped us. Samuel makes no prediction of the future; he does not cast any vision of a strategic plan forward for Israel in that moment. He simply gives the people a good and proper way to hold onto a complicated history by stating a simple truth: thus far the Lord has helped us.

Samuel gives the people a good and proper way to hold onto a complicated history by stating a simple truth: thus far the Lord has helped us

Today, we can claim that same truth as a part of our story. And so, I invite people here to come forward a place a stone on the table. The stone which you hold is an individual piece of rock. When we take a place those rocks next to each other they stand as a testimony in which we declare our history is held within the grasp of God’s covenant faithfulness.