Joshua 24:19-27
Recently, some of our members were in the churchyard examining the collapsed fence and the shed at the edge of the property. After some discussion with our neighbor, they determined the fence was ours to repair. They noted the trees overgrown, and some damage done by the heavy equipment that had been brought in to paint the church in preparation for our 200th Anniversary celebration. Now, the trees are trimmed, the old fence removed, and work underway to set a new fence along the boundary of our property.
The process we are undertaking to celebrate a most significant year reminded me of something called Beating the Bounds. It is an ancient custom that was largely practiced in England, and to some degree in New England, before there were accurate maps. Members and pastor of a church would walk along the boundaries of their parish to note repairs needed and verify landmarks to avoid disputes over the churchyard. The pastor might recite psalms and pray for the church’s protection while members sang hymns.
In some cases, people would use branches to swat local landmarks, which were often stones set in the ground. This physical act was a way of maintaining a shared mental map of the boundaries. Children were included so that the landmarks would be remembered for future generations. Those stones served as witnesses to the presence of Christ’s church: a holy place sanctified to the Lord, a people yielding their hearts to the Lord in worship and service.
Joshua was concerned about the sincerity of God’s people at Shechem, concerned that they were promising to serve the Lord while their hearts were not in it. So concerned was he that he drew up a renewal of their covenant with God. He set a stone as a witness to the boundaries of their relationship with the Lord, placing it under an oak near the holy place of the Lord, says the text, probably where Abraham had built an altar long before in honor of God’s covenant with him.
Samuel did the same thing in 1 Sam. 7:12, setting a stone to honor the Lord for delivering them from their enemies. He called it Ebenezer: Stone of Help.
These stones were perpetual signs, symbolic witnesses, to how God has been good to the people, protecting them, guiding them, providing for them, and calling them to faithfulness in obedience and service.
Perhaps this was what inspired Rev. Louderbough to choose Samuel’s Ebenezer for his Anniversary Sermon 125 years ago. Like Joshua, the stone was to impress upon the people their great debt of gratitude and their obligation to be true to and serve the Lord.
I did a Beating the Bounds of my own recently, wandering through the cemetery, reverently touching stone markers along the way. Rev. Louderbough’s stone rests beneath the great oak tree, a witness to his faithful service so many years ago. In a sermon preached earlier, in 1876, the pastor described it as “God’s acre, a spot doubly consecrated,” both for the original holy place of worship and for a final resting place for the saints under the shadow of the oak tree – probably the oldest oak standing in Salem after the fall of the famous Salem Oak.
And how do we bear witness to this double consecration? With stones – stones that mark the boundaries, stones of remembrance; with stone slabs and original bricks incorporated into the wall that marks the original Little Red Church of 1821. It stands as a witness to the covenant our ancestors made when they yielded their hearts to the Lord and set in that holy place a Presbyterian church.
Our faith ancestors Beat the Bounds as they prepared and repaired, prayed and sang as witnesses to the Lord’s goodness. The hymn written for the 100th Anniversary describes our ancestors who laid each stone of the church with care, “sustained by faith and hope and prayer”, so that in every way God’s goodness would show, letting nothing destroy our faith. Now, in this 200th year of First Presbyterian Church, each of us has the opportunity to Beat the Bounds again.
One way you can Beat the Bounds is through a Bicentennial Fund established by your Session. By giving to this fund, you say, “Yes, we are witnesses” to 200 years of faithfulness, service and obedience to Christ in this place. We also plan to set a “stone” marker in the churchyard, like an Ebenezer, dedicated to those who have and who continue to labor in love to address the spiritual life and physical needs of the church, with God’s help.
And of course, Beating the Bounds includes worshipping, praying and singing, hearing the Word of the Lord and yielding our hearts to Christ. These acts of faith maintain a shared spiritual map for future generations.
The stones of this church will witness against us if we are ever untrue to God after the Lord has been so good to us! Let God’s people say: We will serve the Lord!