Editor's note 03-02-23

By Fletcher Farrar

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Susan Phillips, pastor of Springfield's First Presbyterian Church, once heard Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton deliver an impassioned speech and noted to herself, "She can preach!" After the event she told Stratton, "You should come back sometime and preach at our Sunday morning service," "Invite me," said the lieutenant governor. She was invited and took the First Pres pulpit Sunday, Feb. 26, the first Sunday of Lent. The guest speaker used as her scripture the passage from Luke 1 in which the angel Gabriel tells Mary she is "highly favored" and "the Lord is with you." Mary was troubled and suspicious. "Why was she troubled? Maybe she had never thought of herself as 'favored,'" Stratton said. "When God says you are blessed, you are blessed indeed." Stratton cited ways Illinois is offering hope for all, such as, "Every child deserves a free education." She concluded: "Our strength is in each other. I am because we are. The only way forward is together." –Fletcher Farrar, editor