Remember and Give Thanks
Remember and Give Thanks by Rev. L. John Gable
August 6, 2023
It is said that standing on the top of Mt. Nebo, in modern day Jordan, facing due west on a clear day you can see the entire expanse of the Promised Land. Looking south, the Dead Sea and the Negev desert. Looking north, the Sea of Galilee and Mt. Hermon in Lebanon. Looking west, in the distance, the Mediterranean Sea, and immediately below the Jordan River valley and the city of Jericho.
It was there that Moses stood with the Children of Israel at the conclusion of their 40 year sojourn through the wilderness. It was there that he retold them the story we now read in the book of Deuteronomy of how God provided for them as He led them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt to the land promised to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, centuries before.
He told them to remember and give thanks for the way God had heard their cries and answered them; how He raised up Moses and his brother Aaron to go to Pharaoh saying “Let my people go”, and how He sent the plagues to convince him. He reminded them of how God set them free, how the waters of the Red Sea parted and the way his sister Miriam took her tambourine and led the people in celebration, singing, “I will sing to the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and rider He has thrown in to the sea” and how the Lord continued to lead them with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. He reminded them of how they complained about the food in the desert and God heard their cries and sent water to drink, and quail, and manna to eat every day of their journey for forty years. God continued to provide for them, even their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out. How He had given them the Law, not only to guide them on their journey, but to guide them through life. God had been faithful to them, and now had brought them to the point of crossing over the Jordan River in to the Promised Land, saying, “Before you enter you should remember and give thanks.”
Some of the younger ones, those who had been born along the way of the journey, stopped him and wondered saying, “We don’t remember those things. We weren’t there. We weren’t even born yet.” And Moses answered, “Even if you weren’t there you need to know this story because this is our story. We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt and God heard our cry and set us free”, so remember and give thanks.
We can do the same, for we have a Tab story to tell of God’s faithfulness to us. Remember how in 1851 22 of us gathered and asked the Presbytery of Muncie to allow us start a new church in downtown Indianapolis for “the advancement of Christianity”, and they approved. We were then called Third Presbyterian Church and after meeting in the Temperance Hall for a couple of years we built our first building on the NE corner of Ohio and Illinois Streets, not far from the circle. Remember how in the 1883 we needed to call a new pastor and the one we invited said he would come, but only if we changed our name from Third Presbyterian Church to Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, so we said we would; but then by the time we got our name changed he took another call to a prominent church in Philadelphia. That pastor never came, but the name Tabernacle remained.
Of course you remember how later that decade we thought there were too many churches in the crowded downtown area so we moved all the way out to 11th and Meridian seeking new opportunities for mission and ministry. And then how in 1918 our new pastor Dr. Dunkel was out visiting young families out on the northern perimeter of the city in the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood and discovered that there were no churches offering Christian Education classes to the families here, so we purchased land and built a temporary building on the corner of 34th and Central to start offering classes. The very first day 254 children showed up and by the end of the first year 1000 and it grew from there. Believing that God was opening a great ministry opportunity for us here, we began building this magnificent sanctuary in 1921 and dedicated it in 1923, and by the end of that decade we built the connecting chapel and gym, because we weren’t yet done serving the children and families of this community. God has been faithful to this church family, so let us remember and give thanks.
In 1924 with a donation of just $50 we started a recreation program for the children of Tab and this neighborhood when the custodian kept finding kids playing in the coal bin downstairs. That program will turn 100 years old next year, and has 1500 kids playing in one of our sports this year, and 100,000 alumni. It is the model for churches across the country that offer sports and recreation as part of their ministry.
You remember how difficult things became in the neighborhood starting in the late 1940’s, the white flight to the suburbs leaving only a handful of churches and businesses in this neighborhood. We had some difficult decisions to make, “stay or go”, follow our members or redesign our mission and reinvent our ministry? We chose to stay, so in 1966 we adopted the Metropolitan Community Program Report and committed ourselves to being “a light for Christ in the metropolitan area.” That decision has influenced nearly every other decision we have made since. And God has been faithful, for that we need to remember and give thanks.
Remember how difficult things were during the 1990’s and early 2000’s? Declining membership and a revolving door of pastors? But don’t you also remember that during those difficult, chaotic years some wonderful ministries were imagined, birthed and launched? The Raphael Health Clinic, the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, the Unleavened Bread Café, the Mapleton-Fall Creek Community Development Corporation, the Oaks Academy and still others. God was faithful to us during those difficult years and we did good ministry then, and those ministries continue to this day. Remember and give thanks.
Fifty years after the decision was made to remain here in place and commit ourselves to the ministries God has given us here, the question was asked “Do we still believe that?” So, we spent a year answering that question and adopted the Vision Renewal statement in 2016 with three foundational principles: Greater Faith, Deeper Relationships and a Stronger Community. Since then new ministries have been imagined, birthed and launched.
Some among us have been part of the Tab journey for a long long time and others are saying, “I don’t remember that. We weren’t a part of Tab yet.” Perhaps not, but this is the Tab story, so now it is your story, it is our story, a story that needs to be told and retold over and over again, of God’s goodness and faithfulness and provision, so remember and give thanks.
I can’t help but think that Jesus and His disciples told stories as they walked the dusty paths of Galilee, that’s how they remembered them well enough to record them in the Gospels. Perhaps even on the night in which Jesus was betrayed they sat at the table and told stories. Remember the time, Jesus, when we were at the wedding in Cana and they ran out of wine and your mother told you to do something about that. We got a good laugh out of that one, but You did it, You changed the water in to wine, and it was good wine! Or how about that time You walked to us on the water and invited Peter to walk out to you. He got soaked, but he did it. Or the time you healed that lame beggar or the blind man? Or the time You raised Lazarus from the dead! Or the sermon You preached in the mount over-looking the Sea of Galilee, the one that began with the “blessed are you’s”, or all of the times You told us parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, like a mustard seed, a treasure in the field, the laborers in the vineyard, the wayward boy who returns home. How many times did You turn to us and say, “Do you understand what I’m telling you?” and we’d nod our heads, “yes”, but then turn to each other and shrug our shoulders saying, “no”. It is true, we weren’t there that night, but we remember those stories, don’t we, because they have become a part of our story, so we remember and give thanks.
I’m sure they laughed and they cried at the table that night, particularly when they got to the part of the meal when He reminded them that very soon He would be betrayed by one of them, and arrested, that He would suffer and die and then in three days rise again…a message they did not want to hear, so He demonstrated it for them.
Reminding them of the way God delivered the Children of Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt back in Exodus, He took the Passover bread and said, “Take, eat, this is My body, broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same manner after supper, He took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant sealed in My blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins, do this as often as you drink of it, in remembrance of Me.” Jesus is the Passover Lamb sacrificed for us, for the forgiveness of our sins.
Friends, our Lord invites us to come to this table, to eat and drink, to remember and give thanks.
(Service of communion)
When the Lord invited Moses to climb to the top of Mt. Nebo, He allowed him to look out over the entire Promised Land, but then told him he would not be able to enter in to it. Moses was finished with his part of the journey, but God would raise up new leaders to lead the people as the journey continued. A disappointment, perhaps, but at least he got to see it if not enter in to it. Dr. King used that same imagery when he preached his famous, “I Have a Dream” sermon. When Jesus spoke with His disciples He told them about a Kingdom yet to come, where the first would be last and the last first, where the lion would lie down with the lamb, where God would be honored and glorified. It was a Kingdom, not of this world, but of His making; a Kingdom already revealed, but not yet fulfilled. They could see it, but not yet. We too have visions and hopes and dreams for the coming of that Kingdom yet to come and Tab’s part in it, and God will continue to raise up new leaders to walk with you there.
The day I visited Mt. Nebo I was looking forward to getting to see the entirety of the Promised Land, from the Negev to the Sea of Galilee, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, but that day it was so hazy and overcast I could just barely see the bottom of the mountain. I was disappointed, of course, but then I was reminded of the promise Moses was given. The promise is still given, even though it is not yet fulfilled, because God, the Promise Maker, is faithful and true. As the Apostle Paul writes to the Philippians, “Of this I am convinced, He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.”
So, confident of all of the promises of God, past, present and future, let us remember and give thanks. Amen.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN