A Goodly Heritage
February 28 2021 Psalm 16 \u00a0 \u00a0
One of my pastoral colleagues asked me yesterday what I would be preaching about today. \u00a0\u201cA goodly heritage,\u201d I replied.
What does that mean? \u00a0She asked.
I told her that the word \u201cgoodly\u201d comes from Elizabethan English; it means considerably large, substantial:
The KJV of our Bible (1611) translates verses 5 & 6 of Psalm 16 like this:
\u201cThe Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup:\u00a0
6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.\u201d\u00a0
I\u2019ve been mulling over this verse in Psalm 6 as I recognize that I only have a few more days your interim pastor.
\u00a0When I first preached at FPC Peoria 5 years ago I never dreamed that I would be called as your interim pastor, never dreamed that I would spend five years in this role, never dreamed that I would steer the church through the pandemic, never dreamed that my friend and much admired pastoral colleague, David Hodgson, would step into the Zoom pulpit as I stepped out.
As we celebrated our 125 anniversary in April, 2017 I boned up for our anniversary celebration by reading \u201cThe First Hundred Years\u201d written by Juanita Comstock Trask. \u00a0It was written for our 100th anniversary in 1992. \u00a0 One of the stories there which really caught my eye was the ministry of our first pastor, the Rev. Henry Thompson. \u00a0The Rev. \u00a0Thompson \u00a0was a circuit rider. \u00a0His circuit \u00a0stretched from Casa Grande to Congress. \u00a0 He stopped here to preach twice a month. \u00a0 \u00a0According to Google, it is 121.1 miles between \u00a0between Casa Grande and Congress. \u00a0I can\u2019t even imagine what it\u2019s like to ride a horse for miles and miles in the middle of August. According to our church history the Rev. Thompson packed a six shooter along with his Bible. \u00a0A six shooter! \u00a0 \u00a0To discourage robbers? \u00a0To ward off rattle snakes? \u00a0 \u00a0 Actually I\u2019ve encountered a few snakes in the \u00a0churches I\u2019ve served and wish now I had known about Rev. Thompson sooner.
\u00a0After the Rev. Thompson left there followed a succession of pastors. \u00a0There have been 32 in all, some permanently installed, some interims, some stated supplies. I make 33. \u00a0 David, 34. \u00a0 \u00a0Over the years the laborers have \u00a0changed; but the work has gone on.
\u00a0And what shall say about lay people \u00a0who have made this church what it is today? \u00a0The original property owners of this property, Deloss S. Brown and Joseph B. Greenhut, \u00a0deeded five lots to the congregation for the princely sum of one dollar. And on those lots our historic sanctuary sits today. \u00a0A visionary woman, who truly is this church\u2019s founder, \u00a0Jennie Mann, \u00a0started a SS for three children. \u00a0All of them, all of them, had one thing in mind: to make \u00a0Christ known in the desert.\u00a0
\u00a0A couple of years ago this welcome message was placed in the narthex of Coventry Cathedral, the seat of Anglicanism in the British Isles.
\u00a0\u201cWe extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, widowed, straight, gay, confused, well-heeled or down-at-heel. We especially welcome wailing babies and excited toddlers. We welcome you whether you can sing like Pavarotti or just growl quietly to yourself. You’re welcome here if you’re just browsing, just woken up or just got out of prison. We don’t care if you’re more Christian than the Archbishop of Canterbury or haven’t been to church since Christmas 10 years ago. We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet and to teenagers who are growing up too fast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We welcome keep-fit moms, football dads, starving artists, tree huggers, latte sippers, vegetarians, junk food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems, are down in the dumps or don’t like organized religion. We’re not that keen on it either. We offer welcome to those who think the Earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell, or are here because Granny is visiting and wanted to come to the cathedral. We welcome those who are inked, pierced, both or neither.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down their throats as kids or got lost on the Ring Road and wound up here by mistake. We welcome pilgrims, tourists, seekers, doubters and you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like that welcome message. \u00a0I think it fits who we are as a congregation: open doors and open hearts to all who have been here for a long time, and for those who will for the first time today and stay for tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Goodly HeritageFebruary 28 2021 Psalm 16 \u00a0 \u00a0 One of my pastoral colleagues asked me yesterday what I would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}