God’s faithfulness: past (Pastor Dan Mueller)
I’ve been the Lutheran Pastor here for just under 2 years. During this time I’ve tried to listen to the stories. I get the sense these 150 years — and those preceding them — while filled with many joys, have not always been easy. It’s been a hard journey to this present moment.
I invite us today to pause and put ourselves in the shoes of those 56 pioneers who travelled and settled here in Walla. Let’s imagine ourselves in their shoes for a bit; walking the difficult path they’ve taken.
Imagine yourself as a Christian in an agricultural community in Prussia, east of Germany, some 170 years ago. The government has just passed laws that dictate how you are to worship. They have decided what prayers you will pray. What songs you will sing. What Bible readings you will hear. The Gospel you know and love allows freedom in these things. So after some years of heartache you make the hard decision to sail from Europe to Australia to worship freely. You arrive in South Australia only to discover the best farming land is occupied, and the remaining allotments are small and barely profitable. So you again make a hard decision, this time to travel six weeks overland in wagons and carts. Some days you don’t come across clean drinking water, so go thirsty. One of your group, Agnes Wenke, is 8 months pregnant. Can you imagine feeling every bump in the uncertain road? The women here might be able to imagine all too well! You finally arrive, but the area isn’t green like the scouts described, just brown and dry. It hardly rains for your first four whole months. Your provisions are depleted, so once a week someone makes the overnight wagon trek to Albury to purchase basic supplies. You begin to question the wisdom of your leaders.
Now despite these hardships and difficulties, the pioneers of this town resolved to call this place “Ebenezer,” which means “stone of help.” They trusted God would help them. They believed God to be faithful and trustworthy.
But here is the question: in the face of hardship and trials, troubles and uncertainty, how can we know God will help us? How do we know God is faithful and trustworthy? [Thunder clap.] I think what these pioneers knew, and what we too can continue to learn and embrace, is that God has been faithful in our past. God’s past actions prove him to be faithful and trustworthy.
Now perhaps some of us look back at our journey and question if God has indeed been faithful in our past. But we can so easily forget that our story is bigger than our own lifetime. See, our story didn’t begin when we were born, 150 years ago, or even 2,000 years ago. The Christian story has its beginning in creation, and then when God called Abram from his home in Babylon to embark on a hard and uncertain journey. Yet God was faithful and made Abraham the father of his people. Our story continued as we languished in slavery in Egypt. Yet God was faithful and rescued us, parting the Red Sea. In the wilderness, God was faithful as he led us to the Promised Land. As we were exiled to Babylon, God was faithful and Jerusalem was rebuilt. Even when Jesus (God’s very own Son) was rejected, innocently sentenced to death, and executed on a cross — God was faithful. See, God raised Jesus from the dead, proving that, even in the most difficult and trying circumstances, God is with you. Through your baptism you are connected to Jesus’ death and resurrection, and his story becomes yours. The only response we can make is thanksgiving! To join the writer of psalm: “Who is like you Lord God Almighty?! You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you” (Psalm 89:8).
I think this is why our forebears wanted to call this place “Ebenezer — the stone of help.” For they believed and confessed “thus far has the Lord helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12). In the midst of our hardships and loses, in the midst of our joys and wins, God has been with you. God has been faithful in your past.
God’s faithfulness: present (Pastor Luke Merriman)
God and his faithfulness is not something just relegated to the past. God is not trapped in the dusty pages of history. At times we might think God is something we focused on in Sunday school when we were a kid. Or an occasional Christmas or Easter when we were younger.
However, the truth is that God is also present with us right here, right now, today. St Paul says in Romans 8, ‘I am convinced that nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, …’ (Romans 8:38–39). There is nothing, not even time itself, that can separate you from God. You have nothing to fear in life or death, present situation or future worries, when God is present with you. Through Jesus, God is always with you: past, present, and future.
God is a present God — He walks with us, talks with us, helps us, and is with us all the time. What would it look like if we focused on God ‘present’ with us in every moment? The reality is that when God is with us, he changes us. Let me illustrate. You might have heard of the kids show ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’ on the ABC. The premise is simple: two bananas dressed in pyjamas chase around teddy bears all day. These two bananas are close friends, always spending time together, present with each other. They often have the same thought about a situation and say, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking B1?” “I think I am B2!” It’s the same with Jesus. When he is present with us we are transformed, our thinking and behaviour is transformed to be like him. Jesus asks, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking B1?” And we respond, “I think I am B2.” As God is present with us, he is transforming us into the person he created us to be.
God’s faithfulness: future (Pastor Dan Mueller)
God has been faithful in your past. God is a present God, faithfully with you right now. And you have certain hope that God will be faithful in your future. This does not mean the future will be exempt from trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or danger. Rather, we can be convinced that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus. This means that our future is secure, no matter what happens. So let us sing of the Lord’s great love forever. May our mouths make God’s faithfulness known from generation to generation. May we continue to trust in God faithfulness this year, next year, and forever! In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
