Today I spent an extended amount of time in church. This would not be unusual except that this is a weekday and, sadly, today's purpose for being in church was to attend a funeral. The service was beautiful to me, an outsider, and, I hope, meaningful to the grieving family.
As regular readers know, I have been known to have 'light-hearted' thoughts while in church. I've thought about Muenster cheese and asterisks during the recent past and, as of late, I've had two other questions posed to me to ponder. Questions which may or may not have serious answers. I do believe that God has a sense of humor and, therefore, will forgive me as I smile inwardly and outwardly when considering answers that possibly may be on the lighter side than serious theologians would prefer.
"What is an ebenezer?" is a recent question posed to me.
The answer that came immediately to mind was "the first name of Mr. Scrooge, the now immortal central character in Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol." But, because the question came shortly after singing a hymn with the text "Now I lift my Ebenezer", I was confident that my initial response was not theologically accurate. A number of other flippant choices popped into my head but I wisely kept them to myself.
Being the kind of person that stores volumes of useless information in my cerebral filling cabinet, I parked the question for future contemplation. That time for future contemplation came today and I was compelled by the Holy Spirit (I'm pretty sure.) to Google the word 'ebenezer'. (Isn't it amazing that the word 'google' has now become a verb?)
Sure enough, Google came through and I'm happy to report my findings for all of you who thirst for liturgical knowlege.
The following is a quote from Bob Prichard's web site house to house and heart to heart:
The phrase "Here I lift my Ebenezer", is the beginning of the second verse of the hymn "O Thou Fount of Every Blessing". This hymn.........stresses the joy of Christianity and the Christian's need to rely on the Lord. .......the phrase .......is chosen from Samuel 7:12 because it reminds God's people how He delivered Israel from danger......As a reminder of the great victory God gave to Israel, Samuel took a great stone and raised it as a memorial "between Mizpeh and Shen". As he raised it (the stone), he called the name of it Ebenezer (or stone of help).............When we sing "Here I raise my Ebenezer", we are poetically quoting Samuel, who raised the Ebenezer stone to remind the Israelites of God's help for them in their time of trouble.
The other question posed to me was "What do Protestants mumble as they partake the sacrament of Communion?" Since I've never uttered a word whilst taking Communion, I was without response to the query. But, this is good. It will provide me with greater focus during the next Communion Sunday. I will be on a journey of discovery and, therefore, will not let my mind wander to Muenster cheese or asterisks.
That is why my blog is titled:
Ancora imparo
