Rev. Dr. James Goodlet…Origin Stories

Sunday Worship - FPC LaGrange - August 23rd, 2026

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Cenophile. I don't get to watch as many movies as I did once upon a time in my pre-parenthood days, but when I can, I like to watch a good movie. I like to get an escape. I like to sit down with my Sour Patch kids and totally escape into whatever's happening on the screen. So much so do I love my Sour Patch kids that they were my groom's cake at our wedding. And one thing I've found fascinating, though, over the years of my film Fanaticism has been a fundamental shift in what appeals to people. Think about it for a second. Once upon a time, it was it was original films that just had one movie in a series. One movie in a series. This movie, and then you never heard from it ever, ever again. But then something happened. Then came the sequel. The sequel when one movie wasn't good enough. Star Wars. A new hope. You couldn't just leave it there. You had to have something follow it up. Because there was money, I mean, a story to be told. The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi. And along with that came more and more sequels in each and every genre. Comedies got sequels, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop. Horror movies got sequels. How many times has Michael Myers risen from the dead in Halloween? And I don't even need to talk to you about the superhero industry. Marvel. There are approximately 3,124 Marvel movies. And most of them are made up just up the road at the movie studio in Fayetteville. Sequels now, I will say, are by no means dead. They are, of course, very, very much alive. But there has been another shift that happened, and I really think it started in the 90s, in the late 90s. No longer did we only have sequels, but we had prequels. Prequels. I remember in 1999 when I sat in the movie theater in a packed house for Star Wars of Phantom Menace, which inaugurated the whole backstory of Anakin Skywalker. And if you don't know the rest of it, I'm not gonna spoil it for you. You could say, you could go back further, you could say The Godfather, the second part of The Godfather, had some prequel elements. It told the story of how Vito Corleone became Vito Corleone. But just think about all the prequels we have now. Harry Potter has prequels. I was watching Disney the other night. Cruella de Ville got a prequel. It's actually quite good. I commend it to you. Willy Wonka got a prequel. There are prequels everywhere, and sometimes prequels even get sequels. It's all very confusing. But it makes me curious. Why do we get prequels? I get sequels, they're continuation of a well-loved story, but what is it about prequels that intrigues and attracts the marketplace? Why are they so successful? Now I will say that members of our own household have delved into the Star Wars prequels, and I will say it's been interesting watching them piece together how different characters and different backstories link to the original three movies. And it's made me realize a very simple truth. Prequels tell this about ourselves. That we are fascinated by how people become who they are. We are fascinated with what makes people tick. We are fascinated by people's background, their formation, their origin stories. There's a 2021 article that's by a writer and leadership coach named Mirini de Zoizza. And she hits the nail on the head. This is what she says. We all have origin stories, and they matter. Origin stories are the places we were forged. We can have origin stories for any one aspect of our lives. We tell stories of how we met our partners. We tell stories of how we got into our careers or how we were inspired to follow a passion or a dream. We tell stories of how we failed and rose from our defeats. These stories matter because it helps us and others to understand how we came to be who we are now. It gives us a glimpse into the future of where we might be headed or choose to. It reveals and gives insight into our motivations for what we do and how we do it. I mean, think about it for just a second in your own lives. How many of you have asked in one way or another how someone came to be the person they are? How is it we might have asked, how is it that you became a doctor? How is it that you became a nurse or a lawyer? How is it that you became a teacher? Or where did you meet your husband? Where did you meet your wife? Where did you meet your significant other? Or not? Where'd you grow up? What's your family like? When did you make this decision, this big decision in your life, or that, and how did you come to that point? And in church world, how's your faith formed? Because we ask these questions because we are fascinated by people's origin stories. And each and every one of us have origin stories that make us who we are and remind us to whom we belong, of what got us to where we are, of why we act this way or that. And of how we came to believe what we do. Both of our scriptures, if you notice, both of our scriptures today in their own way are origin stories. Right? Look at Moses' story in Exodus. We learn that he was born amid the oppressive reign of Pharaoh. That's where today's story picked up. And Pharaoh wanted to put all Israelite sons to death via drowning in the Nile River. But Moses survives thanks to the clever planning of his mother and of his sister. And then he gets sympathy from all people, Pharaoh's own daughter. Now think about that just for just a second. This was a hostile and dangerous time in history for God's people. These people were enslaved. They were being murdered. Their innocent children were being slaughtered. And in the midst of that, there was resistance by Moses' mom and his sister and Pharaoh's daughter. And so what did they do? They put Moses in a basket. And the interesting thing about this basket is it actually shares the same Hebrew word as the word for ark. So they put Moses in an ark. And they float him down the river to Pharaoh's daughter. And she could not stomach watching another child die. And so that this man who would one day part the waters to help God's people escape Pharaoh was rescued from the waters, and he was a product of resistance. This man whose name literally meant drawing out would draw the people out from Egypt. Origin stories matter. And then there's Peter. This is a guy who had spent his life fishing. Now he was called to fish for people. This is a guy who just lost his faith when he was trying to walk on water. This is what we read is an incredibly pivotal point in the life of Matthew's gospel and in the life of Peter. Because it's here that Peter makes an explicit claim. I don't know if you notice, but it says, who do people, Jesus says, Who do people say that I am? And some, well, they they respond, well, some say you're you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah, Jeremiah, some, some say you're a prophet. And then Jesus turns it on them and he says, Okay, fine, but who do you say that I am? And Peter is the one who actually stands up and makes a claim. You are the Messiah. You are the chosen one. And Jesus looks at him and says, You know what? Your name means rock. That's what your name literally means. And you will be the rock of my church. Origin stories. Matter. Where people come from. It matters. Our roots, our names matter. They inform who we are. They affect who we become. They're the means by which God forms and creates us. And I think that we have to pay attention to our origin stories because I think there's a lot to learn from them. Let me tell you an origin story. One hundred and ninety-seven years ago. On March the twenty-first, eighteen twenty-nine. A few short months after the village of Lagrange was officially chartered. And shortly after that, Charlie Joseph's opened. The Presbyterians who lived in this vicinity established the Lagrange Presbyterian Church. The first place of worship actually was not located where we are right now. In fact, the Presbyterians and the Baptists once had a union church on the corner of Bull and Broom Street. Some of the establishing families, like the Camerons, as in Cameron Mill Road, were Scots through and through. Their ancestors left their homes abroad due to religious differences with the powers and principalities of the day. In fact, when we took our little pilgrimage to Scotland last year, we came upon the very battlefields where many of the Camerons lost their lives. They came over to LaGrange, naturally. But not all of them had Scottish roots. A lot of those folks moved from different places all over. You had South Carolinians, you had North Carolinians, you had different parts of Georgia. But I will tell you what's very clear about those early Presbyterians is that they were feisty. And they were persistent. And they may have been a little bit on the stubborn side. They refused to allow anything, a new country, a new county, a new city, to get in the way of establishing for themselves a church home. To the point that the church grew and grew and grew. And it soon came time that the Presbyterians said, you know what, we've got to build our own church building. And so they did so at the corner of Church in Harrelson Street. At what is now Pretty Good Books. Pretty good books bookstore once centered around a pretty good book. Then the Presbyterians pivoted again in 1919 when the 90-year-old congregation made the decision to move a block to the west at the corner of Lewis and Broad Streets. So it could build upon land that was bequeathed to the congregation by Laura Lloyd. Unfortunately, once they they built that church, just about 30 years later, the church burned down in 1951. And it forced the congregation to move for a time its worship services to LaGrange High School. In fact, I think some of you may even remember this. But even in spite of that, the church continued to grow. They moved back into this sanctuary. And they grew and grew and grew. And so they decided, you know what? We need to buy land in case we need to expand. And so they did in the 1960s, and they bought the land directly behind us, which was eventually developed in the 1980s with the construction of the gallant building. One of my favorite parts, though, I will say, of this church's history happened in 1973, when First Presbyterian Church, the congregants elected the first female officers in this congregation's history. Incidentally, during the same year that a different denomination was being founded over whether or not women should be ordained. And this congregation let their stance be known. Since then, this church has established two schools, continued to support important ministries, feeding over a couple hundred people every week, meeting with neighbors in the community, and most recently offering the second early childhood education teacher housing initiative in the country. Now, why do I say all that? Because origin stories matter. Many things may have changed over the years, but many things have also stayed the same. And here we are, nearly two hundred years after our founding, still refusing to allow anything, changing world, changing body politic, changing church, to get in the way of establishing a church home, and that will never change. We are still feisty. Lord knows. We are still persistent. We might even be a little stubborn, but we will continue to do what we have to do to let our stance be known as the people of Jesus Christ. Now we may have to establish new plans for how God is going to work through us, but it won't be the first time. And we may have to place our hopes and dreams in an altogether different arc than we were ever have expected and see what happens downstream, but it wouldn't be the first time. And we may have to stand tall amid the winds of disruption and be a rock and shore foundation, but it wouldn't be the first time. We will continue to be a church who from our very origin has sought to serve as an integral part of this community. And let me say one other thing about origin stories. In both the stories that we read today, God was faithful. Now I can stand up here and talk about the church till I'm blue in the face, but I also know y'all pretty well. And I know everybody in this church has been through something. Or is going through something. And that means God, listen to me now, will be faithful to you. No matter what it is, you're having the rest of the life. That's our origin story. The question is What part are we gonna play? What role will we play in the sequel of God's ministry? Because the origin of all origins is pulling us out, drawing us out into the world, y'all. Who do we say that he is?