[AI translation] All over the world there are many stone monuments like the one we have just read about in this Word, memorial pillars of all sizes and shapes. Huge diadems, tall columns, impressive monuments, obelisks, sphinxes and pyramids. And tombstones of all kinds. All these stones - they speak. They have something to say. In fact, they are rigid words. The word is gone with the moment, but the stone preserves the word, preserves it, carries it on through time, for posterity.That's how Samuel set up a stone, high out of the ground for all to see. Such a stone monument is almost compelling to those who pass by, stopping the wayfarer, reminding him and encouraging him to continue his journey. But the stone that Samuel has erected is unlike any other such stone. Our stones, our obelisks, our pyramids, our tombs, sing the glory of men dead or, less often, alive. They are also rather vague in what they say, since there is nothing more variable than the glory of a man. What is glory for someone today can easily become a disgrace tomorrow. But Samuel's memorial stone proclaims the glory of God. Here is a man and behind him a people praising God with this stone. There is no doubt that the children of Israel fought valiantly, there is no doubt that the leaders of the people achieved great things, but of all this human greatness and merit, this stone says not a word! To God alone be the glory! All glory! Blessed be His holy name! Eben-Hazer! "The Lord has helped us so far!" The Lord!
Our journey now takes us past such a memorial stone of God, for the last day of every year is itself such a memorial stone, proclaiming the glory of God. I feel like a mountain climber when he stops for a while on the way. They have not yet reached the summit, they are not yet at the finish line, they know that they have a difficult road ahead of them, but they are not looking ahead, they are looking back, at the distance they have covered "so far". The road they have already travelled. And when you look back in this way, many experiences come back to you. It was not an easy journey! It was quite steep in places. And so much happened along the way. Yes: happy things too, happy events, it makes the soul smile to think back on them. But there were some difficult stretches, too. Perhaps even moments of peril, painful, sad experiences. Perhaps that's how Samuel thought back to the victorious battle they fought. And then he doesn't say: well, we have stood our ground so far! We have fought our way through all the difficulties, but he says: "The Lord has helped us so far!"
That is the greatest experience we have had in the last year of 1962, that yes, "The Lord has helped us so far"! Help: oh what a great thing it is when one needs it! And who does not need it? I once heard an elderly man, who was still quite well off, say. I don't think we should say that. Because at the very core of our being, we are all people who need help. Old or young, rich or poor, sick or healthy, they all need help. The help that God gives. Because, as we know from Jesus, without His will, not a single hair can fall from our head! In Him we live, move and are. His help sustains us, keeps us alive, lifts us up, even if we do not see it in special signs, even if we do not consciously ask for it, even if we do not believe it at all. If He were to withdraw His help even for a moment, existence would cease. Everything would be annihilated. With this stone, Samuel wanted everyone to become aware of God's help. So that people would think of him and bless the Lord for him. If only our hearts were grateful for it now: grateful, rejoicing, truly aware that yes, we owe everything to Him. To Him be the glory!
Samuel set up this pillar of thanksgiving between Mizpah and Shem, as we read in the description. It makes profound sense. Mizpah was a place of note. It was here that God so miraculously helped the people of Israel against the enemy. It was the scene of an event of such great significance that all Israel spoke of it. But we know nothing of Sin. Nothing special happened there. So when Samuel sets up this stone between the two places, Mizpah and Shen, he is thanking the Lord for all his help: for what they know and for what they don't know. The big and the small, the special and the ordinary. The things they marvel at, and the things they don't even notice. The things that everyone talks about, and the things that everyone has long forgotten. Samuel includes both equally in grateful remembrance. For Mispa and for Shen, he blesses the Lord equally! This is a serious warning that, along with the Mizpeh of our life's journey, we should not forget the Shem. We usually remember only the Mishpah with thanksgiving, those events in which God's help was manifested in some special, extraordinary way. In one place the Word says: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his good deeds." (Psalm 103:2) So neither of the little ones. What's big and what's small? "Nothing special happened!" we say when we come home at night. As if the fact that we could do our work all day, that we could stay alive and come home again in the evening, as if it were all so small, as if it were not some special gift. As if the fact that we are here again at the very end of a past year, the mere fact that we understood the end of this year, that the world has not turned upside down, is something that we can take for granted, or that we can take credit for, or that we have done something for. Oh yes, let us put that pillar of remembrance between Mispa and Sén, for it is indeed true: "The Lord has helped us so far!"
Yes, the Lord has helped us through every day and hour of this year. He has helped us to live for the living, to die for the dying, to struggle for the laboring, to suffer for the suffering, to rejoice for the rejoicing. His help has filled time and eternity for us. And this year, too, God's help has taken on a very concrete form, for He has sent into this world the greatest and most blessed help by which a human being is truly, completely and eternally helped: our Lord Jesus Christ! That is why this past year has also been a richly blessed year! Because the whole year was full of His grace, His love, Jesus' presence. We can truly say, "So far the Lord has helped us!" And now, let me draw your attention to the fact that we, the members of the Pasarét Congregation, at this Old Year's Eve milestone, can look back with such thanksgiving to God not only to the past year 1962, but to 25 years: as you know, it is a quarter of a century since the ministry of the Reformed Congregation of Pasarét was launched by the grace of God! At this juncture of the first 25 years of our congregation, we have done what Samuel did at the end of the battle: we have erected a memorial to the glory of our Lord. Not a stone, but a memorial tablet here in the church. This memorial tablet also proclaims what Samuel's stone proclaimed: 'Eben-Haezer! "So far the Lord has helped us!" A congregation was formed, a church was built, a small island in the whirlwind of life. A piece of the kingdom of God became visible, the people of God multiplied, new generations continued to sing the psalms that had died on the lips of the old, the light of the Word shone forth among men, souls were born again in the presence of Jesus, heavenly powers flowed into the world.
Perhaps each one of us could tell for himself what this parish has meant to him, what help he has received from God here. Some may have a particular memory of this help in their hearts: perhaps it was a communion, an evangelisation, a New Year's sermon, or the warmth of the fraternal community that became a decisive experience in their lives. But there were also "ordinary" Sunday services. If you count the mornings alone, our little bell rang more than 1,450 times to hear the Word. And how many problems the Word has solved here, how many wounds healed, how many tears wiped away, how many lives restarted, how many sins cleansed - who can list them all?! Yes: let this plaque here, at the end of the first quarter of a century, among the many Mispas and the many Shems, proclaim: Eben-Hazer! "So far the Lord has helped us!" Blessed be His holy name!
Let it not be misunderstood, it is not the glory of men that this plaque is dedicated to - God alone! His is the glory, ours is the blush of our cheeks. For yes, He has helped us, covered us with His wings and protected us in the storms of the years, He has done everything to make us truly His church! A family community bound together in love with Christ and with one another. A spiritual home where we truly feel for one another with the warmth of a brotherly heart. And how much have we become that in the last 25 years? A truly living congregation? Is it enough that there is some movement in our congregation, some people of faith, some meetings, some sacrifice, some fervour? But is this all that God has given us? The more these 25 years proclaim gratitude and glory to God, the more they accuse us, because in so much time, with so much grace, with so much of the Word, Christ should have been much more visibly manifested among us, and the Spirit of God should have been much more present among us. So that even sleeping souls would be shaken to life, hearts would be united, the whole life of the congregation would become attractive and blessed. But it is not so; it is as Jesus complains to the church at Ephesus, that we have abandoned the first love. The fervour is waning. We do not love Him at the very beginning of our love. He is not in the first place. So many things have come before Christ and His cause for us, even a Christmas afternoon rest or a visit, like the 25th anniversary celebration of the church!
Yes, the Lord has helped us so far, it is true - but we have squandered that help, we have not used it enough, we have not used it as we could have. The gracious Eben Haaser, which this plaque proclaims, obliges us to do much more! In short, to take seriously, even to the death, the hard words of the Word: "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and turn again" (Rev 2,5a). Repent! Submit yourself to the authority of Jesus, don't delay, don't try to explain things away, repent - and do the deeds you have just done: what the newly converted man does in the first fervour of love for the Lord and his brethren, honestly drawing the conclusion of an intense life in Christ. "But if not, I will come quickly against thee, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, if thou repent not." (Revelation 2:5b) In other words, if Jesus does not achieve his purpose with a church, if the flame that the "candlestick", the church, is there to carry and hold up is not burning - then what is the church for? It will not remain an ornament! The Lord will move it out of its place!
Yes, it is true: "The Lord has helped us so far!" But that is why we open our hearts much more to His gracious, renewing help! "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Rev 2:7)
Amen
Date: New Year's Eve 1962.