There are times in our lives when we experience holy moments, when God makes a vital difference in our lives, when God is close enough to touch, leaving fingerprints on our souls. I call these experiences as “Ebenezer moments”.
Our scripture takes us back to ancient Palestine approximately 1000 years before Christ. The Israelites were still fairly new in the Promised Land. They were attacked by the much stronger tribe from Philistia. Samuel, the judge and leader of the Israelites, cried out to God for help. God intervened in a miraculous way, enabling the Israelites to rout the Philistines.
With heart full of gratitude, Samuel set up a stone as a spiritual marker of this event. He called it “Ebenezer,” a word that means “the stone of help.” Thus, we read the word Ebenezer in some of our hymns today. It is a monument of remembrance of God’s mighty intervention.
As we celebrate 96 years of the ministry of Silliman University Church, we, too, can look back and see some Ebenezer moments–those times when this church felt strongly God’s presence.
In 1901, the American Presbyterian missionaries established the Dumaguete Mission Station. Seven months later, Dr. & Mrs. David & Laura Hibbard founded Silliman Institute — an Ebenezer moment.
Another is when Dr. Paul Doltz was sent to be the first Pastor of the Silliman Student Church in 1916, marking it as the time when the church was formally established.
Since the founding of the University, the faith component was always a part of the whole education of the students of Silliman University. Students were given the freedom to practice their own religious beliefs, and at the same time, were provided with opportunities to broaden their spiritual horizon and translate their faith into active commitments.
The tremendous growth of the Church in terms of its programs and membership can be another Ebenezer moment. Religious organizations were organized for the students and members of the congregation. It was through these organizations that the Church was able to effectively serve the spiritual needs of the students and where the students, in turn, were able to put into practice their faith and share their Christian experiences.
In 1940, attendance in the Sunday services at the Silliman Hall averaged more than 600.
And then on the Founder’s Day of 1941, the cornerstone for a building was laid — another Ebenezer moment. The building was started but was interrupted by the war. It was finally completed after the war in December 1949. The first service was held on the eve of the New Year.
During the Japanese occupation of Dumaguete, most of the Silliman community evacuated to the mountains of Negros. Yet, despite all the challenges they faced, the faith of the Christian community never faltered. Regular Sunday services and daily devotions were held, believing that God was with them all the time.
When the war ended, a new life for the Church started, marking another Ebenezer moment. Outreach programs were initiated on campus, in Dumaguete, and the surrounding municipalities.
Perhaps an important event that affected the Church in the 70s was the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972. Despite the prevailing tense atmosphere under military rule, the fellowship of the Church continued along with the regular services.
The changing of the pastoral leadership to Filipino pastors can also be an Ebenezer moment. The coming in of Bishop Pedro Raterta, Rev. Alexius Lopez, Dr. Processo Udarbe, Dr. Mariano Apilado, Rev. Reuben Cediño, Rev. Noel Villalba and others made a difference in the programs of the church.
You and I have our own personal Ebenezer moments with this church. I look back to those Galilean Fellowships where we had to go for study, fellowship, and a good breakfast; or those dormitory devotions especially the joint devotions with the girls dorms; or singing with the covenant choir and convocation choir.
Some of you who grew up here on the campus may have those kinds of moments in your Sunday School; or those times when you had CYF meetings at the Catacombs, strumming the guitar and singing Blowing in the Wind and Puff, the Magic Dragon; or participating in the IPR small groups.
Some of you like the Alcalas, Bokingos, Ratertas, Magasos, Taykos would remember the time when you started the Prayer clusters. And the Bantayan Prayer Group continue to meet and do outreach to this day.
Some may have felt God closely when you walked down the aisle on your wedding day. Or the time when you brought your baby to receive the sacrament of child baptism, or being received through confirmation as full member of the church or partaking together the Lord’s Supper.
Some who had been students may felt those Ebenezer moments when you, with your sweetheart, sat close to each other (since holding hands in public was not permitted) during the Wednesday prayer meetings, or the vespers on Sunday afternoons. All these and more were moments when you felt that God was there with you.
However, these Ebenezer moments are not just experiences to remember. They are there so we can thank God. That is why we are here to celebrate God’s goodness through all those years. But more than that, it will also empower us to new visions and to dream dreams. We are empowered to greater heights in our ministry.
One of the greatest missionaries, E. Stanley Jones, made a habit of returning from time to time to his home church and kneeling at the altar where he had first given his life to Christ. There he felt renewed.
Thus, coming together to celebrate the anniversary of the church is like going back to those places and time when the church felt God’s nearness, and were empowered by the Spirit of the living God to do new things. And many times, when we go back, we find a new, stronger faith than the one we had before.
It is an experience that is somewhat like that of a married couple who go on a second honeymoon, hoping to recapture the passion that brought them together in the first place. They discover, not the old passion, but a new love. The years that they have shared together, and the people they have become in each other’s company have given them new and deeper reasons to love each other; reasons the younger, less mature people they once were would never understand.
In our celebration, God will re-establish a relationship with us. It will be a new relationship; different from and deeper than the relationship we may have had earlier in life. God not only restores our faith, but God also restores our vision.
We may have some disagreements sometime. But that is okay. (It just raises the blood pressure of the church leaders, especially the pastors.) We believe that God will continue to journey with us, no matter what.
Bishop Earl G. Hunt Jr. tells a legend about Zacchaeus. You remember that he was the little tax collector and a thief whom Jesus spotted up in a sycamore tree. Jesus went home with Zacchaeus, and the former thief was soundly converted and transformed. Legend has it that Zacchaeus’ behavior afterward was so strange that his wife suspected insanity. Each morning, instead of going to work, he journeyed in the opposite direction with a spade in his hand and a water jar tucked under his arm. Finally, her curiosity drove her to follow him. She watched him go to the village well, and fill his jar with water, then out into a path that led to the old sycamore tree where he had his encounter with Jesus. He scraped away the debris at the foot of the tree, poured the water over its roots, and stood there stroking the tree with his hands. His wife came out of her hiding place and demanded an explanation. Zacchaeus said, “Here is where he found me. Here is where I met the Lord.”
Here in this sacred place is where we feel God’s presence very strongly. Here is where we met the Lord face to face through our fellow believers, or through the sacrament that we celebrate.
In the book by Jomao-as, Silliman University Church has indeed grown but not without trials and challenges. But through it all, the Church has weathered all the storms standing true to the claim that, indeed, “The foundation of God standeth sure.”
