Ebenezer: The Stone of Salvation
Samuel 1 7:12
In 1886, just nine years after the end of Reconstruction, a new Baptist church was founded in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn district. Led by Rev. John A. Parker, the church was named Ebenezer, after a memorial milestone erected by the prophet Samuel to celebrate victory, freedom and salvation, mentioned in chapter 7 of the first book of Samuel.
American historian Ralph Luker wrote about the church’s origins that “first known as a "maids' church," Ebenezer still held its major Sunday service after the women of the congregation had finished Sunday morning chores in the homes of Atlanta's white folk.”
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was the grandson and son of Ebenezer’s pastors and he too joined his father as one of the pastors in 1960, bringing it world fame. According to the church’s website “Today, Ebenezer Baptist, with a congregation of over 6,000, continues to serve the Atlanta community in the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site under the dynamic leadership of Reverend Dr. Raphael G. Warnock–assuming the role of senior pastor in 2005.”
As the first African-American Senator representing Georgia - Warnock, like King, whose birthday and legacy will be celebrated in two weeks, is that rare combination of inspirational spiritual and political leader. They both take their cue from the man who gave their church its name - Samuel, son of Hannah, the prophet from Ramah.
What was it about the story of the Ebenezer stone that so captured the imagination of the founders of this famous, as well as many other churches?
It may have to do with the fact that the name shows up twice, in two completely different contexts. The first time, back in the 4th chapter of Samuel I, it is the name of a site of great loss where the decisive battle in which Israel had heavy losses and the Ark of the Covenant was taken hostage by the Philistines. This Ebenezer is supposed to be further down the plains, about a day’s walk from Shiloh.
But Ebenezer is named again, in today’s chapter, as a location recalling relief and redemption. After the ark is returned to Israel and housed in the remote hilltop of Kirtyat Yaarim, the next battle between the two groups ends up with Israel’s triumph. To mark the victory, Samuel sets up a monument:
וַיִּקַּ֨ח שְׁמוּאֵ֜ל אֶ֣בֶן אַחַ֗ת וַיָּ֤שֶׂם בֵּֽין־הַמִּצְפָּה֙ וּבֵ֣ין הַשֵּׁ֔ן וַיִּקְרָ֥א אֶת־שְׁמָ֖הּ אֶ֣בֶן הָעָ֑זֶר וַיֹּאמַ֕ר עַד־הֵ֖נָּה עֲזָרָ֥נוּ יְהֹוָֽה׃
Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Eben-ezer , “Stone of Help.” “Since until this moment,” he said, “YHWH has helped us.”
Why the two different locations and origin stories for the same stone?
Scholars and sages have come up with attempts to reconcile the two different accounts.
In The Kingship of God, Martin Buber came up with a fascinating take, suggesting that this stone setting moment offers a ‘decisive turning point in the history of Israel's faith.. Samuel’s ideal is the spiritual leadership that no longer relies on the presence of the ark as the symbol of God’s presence.. This is the birth of the new way of Israel’s faith.. Samuel was chosen to carry, during the days with no ark in Israel, the divine voice, as a prophet and not as a priest, with no oracle to guide him, but with pure faith.”
According to this read, the authors’ agenda was to depict the first battle, with Israel’s colossal losses, as a criticism of its leaders - Eli’s corrupt sons, as well as a rebuke of the people’s reliance on the ark - instead of focusing on moral and decent ways to worship and behavior. Even with the ark in their midst - Israel lost the war.
By the second time Ebenezer is named, the ark has been returned to Israel but it is not in the center of the religious or political drama. Housed up in the hills it is still worshiped but the focus is slowly changing, as a gradual paradigm shift of priorities - from the priestly to the prophetic, the icon-based to ideology focused. Samuel’s role as the last judge-prophet of Israel before installing a king would be to offer alternative models of religious fervor, national cohesion and political activism - transcending old ways to forge new paths. This approach may have resonated with the founder of Ebenezer, as it resonates with so many of us still today.
Yet another possible source for the choice of reclaiming the name of Ebenezer in modern Christian worship is its reference in “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, a beloved religious hymn composed in 1757 by Robert Robinson, which includes the verse “Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by Thy help I’ve come.”
Perhaps it’s this honest - if not historically accurate - fusion of loss and hope, marked in one stone, remembering two sides of one story, that keeps giving ‘The Stone of Salvation’ its resonance, meanings and importance - for so many more than the residents of ancient Israel.
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