Henrietta United Church of Christ
Rev. David Inglis November 1, 2009
All Saints Sunday; Stewardship 1: Building on Our Past
“Pioneers Who Blazed the Way”
Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-31, selections; The Message by Eugene Peterson
1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our connection to what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
7 By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land.
8-9 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going.
11-12 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed that the One who made a promise would do what he said.
26-28 By an act of faith, Moses turned his heel on Egypt, undeterred by the Pharaoh’s blind rage. He had his eye on the One no one can see, and kept right on going.
29 By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.
30 By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.
31 By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the [Hebrew] spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.
Sermon:
Did this amazing parade of faith-filled people stop when they stopped adding books to the Bible? No way! We could be in that parade too.
By faith, New England farmers loaded their belongings into covered wagons and journeyed to the wild frontier that we know today as Henrietta.
By an act of faith in 1811, members of the Pittsford Presbyterian Church gave an offering of $10 to “send the gospel to the Heathens”. They commissioned their pastor to ride a horse to Henrietta to preach to the “destitute people” who lived here.
By faith, those “destitute heathens” received God’s good news into their hearts, organized themselves into a church in 1816, and, with about 50 members, voted to build a log meeting house on Middle Rd. in 1818.
By an act of faith, little 9 year old Antoinette Brown was the only one who walked up the aisle when the pastor invited anyone in the congregation who wanted to receive Christ to come forward and dedicate their lives to serving him. The congregation was touched by this young child’s eloquence in expressing her faith, and she was voted in as a member right then and there.
By unshakable faith and invincible courage, that same Antoinette Brown went on to become the first ordained woman minister in the United States in 1853.
By faith, the congregation built a new frame building on the corner of E. Henrietta Rd. and Lehigh Station Rd. in 1832. But it was destroyed by fire 35 years later, in 1867. There was no insurance on the building.
Filled with faith and hope, the church unanimously decided to build a new church in its place, and dedicated it in 1869. By an act of faith and mercy, the church around the corner, the First Methodist Church, had graciously opened its doors to our homeless congregation while they were rebuilding.
Shortly after the new church was dedicated, the members unanimously approved this resolution:
Whereas on the 26th day of Jan 1967 our House of Worship was consumed by fire thus depriving us of a place of worship:
And whereas the Methodist Church in this place, regarding our calamity with Christian eyes, did from that time until the 16th of Feb. last share with us the privelege of their house; therefore be it resolved that we as a church desire to put on record some sense of our grateful obligation to these our brethren in a common faith. Resolved: That in the uniform courtesy with which we have been entreated by them we are pleased to see an indication of the essential unity of the household of Christ.
Resolved: that a copy of these resolutions duly signed by the Moderator of the church be communicated to the Methodist Brethren and that they be entered in the church records; and that we invite the Methodist people to worship with us.
By faith, this spirit of unity was made fully complete in 1916 when the two congregations merged, forming the Union Congregational Church.
By many acts of faith, that united church became a catalyst for faith, hope and love in this small farming community. Phyllis McHargue remembers baskets being put in the store around the corner for people to place gifts for families that were sick or people in need. The Women’s Guild sewed countless items for mission projects around the world, and sent cards, fruit baskets, baby gifts, plants, and often ice cream to let people know they were being thought of.
Phyllis McHargue and Shirley Miller remember the active youth group that often spent weekends with other churches’ youth groups, staying at a cottage on Silver Lake or the homes of the host church’s members.
By faith, Union Congregational Church strongly supported the creation of the new denomination, the United Church of Christ, from the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and Evangelical and Reformed Churches, and voted in 1959 to become Henrietta United Church of Christ.
In the 1950's and ‘60's, Henrietta was rapidly changing from a quiet rural village into a booming suburb. By faith, the congregation decided to embark on a bold building project–creating a larger modern brick building for the 20th century, even though it seemed beyond their means. Bob Stark chaired the Fundraising Committee. He remembers the congregational meeting where it was announced that they had finally reached their capital campaign goal of $60,000. He was invited to ring the church bell in celebration, but he was too overcome with emotion to do it himself.
By acts of faith, the church reached outside its own walls to impact the community around it. Our church dispelled neighborhood opposition to a group home for developmentally disabled adults across the street, and then hosted monthly square dances for residents of group homes all over the area. We also had a Sunday School class and even a handbell choir for those members. As Nancy Turner says, this helped set the stage for the inclusiveness we experience here today.
Some of our members were bothered by the way children were being treated by the daycare center that rented our building. By faith and lots of hard work, they created the Community Childcare of Henrietta, run by our members and community members, that cared for children from 1979 to 1999.
By acts of faith, Barbara and Mel Wither, followed by many others in our church, helped start and run FISH, which provides transportation to those without cars, and RHAFT, which provides food to those in need.
By acts of faith, our church helped sponsor refugee families, build Habitat for Humanity houses, organize CROP Walks, feed the hungry at Cameron Community Ministries, assemble school kits, health kits and disaster cleanup kits, knit shawls and premie caps for women and children facing severe hardship, and support countless local, national and global missions.
By faith, we created a youth pastor’s position in 2002, and in 2006 expanded it into the Associate Pastor position filled by Pastor Martha.
Now listen to how the author of the Letter to the Hebrews concludes his parade of heroes of faith that we read earlier.
Do you see what this means--all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running-and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. (Hebrews 12:1-2a)
So here we are in 2009, with almost 200 years of trail blazing pioneers and veterans of the faith from our own church cheering us on! May all of our living, all of our giving, all of our serving, all of our visioning, be built on this foundation of faith and inspired by their example, that we in turn may blaze new trails and cheer on and inspire the members of Henrietta UCC who follow us.