Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103290603
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Frances Stebbins
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
But you can't get from the happy voices of Palm Sunday to the risen Christ of Easter without going through a lot of pain, the Rev. Keith Ritchie told his congregation Sunday at White Memorial United Methodist Church.
Ritchie, who came to the village church on U.S.460 last summer, shared thoughts of "Unholy Week" with 88 worshipers. They left a lot of seats empty in the nave built about a decade ago with a growing congregation in mind. And, indeed, White Memorial does have many children whose parents have chosen the rural lifestyle that's part of the expanding suburbs of the Roanoke and New River valleys.
White Memorial is one of dozens of small United Methodist congregations in Southwest Virginia that are covered administratively by the Virginia Conference east of New River and the Holston Conference to the west.
Unlike the truly rural circuit congregations, in which one pastor may have to visit as many as five churches monthly, the Shawsville parish is strong enough to stand on its own.
With 170 members on its rolls, it is growing slowly. Many of its members commute up Christiansburg Mountain to New River Valley towns or east to jobs in metropolitan Roanoke.
Like the pastor - Ritchie reached full United Methodist ministerial status in 1988 - many at worship on the blustery but bright Palm Sunday were young.
Even before white-haired Verna Pearson began playing the familiar Faure anthem, "The Palms," as a prelude, children ran about the nave. The smallest wore headdresses that might have been rabbit ears or crowns, depending on whether bunnies or Jesus as king was being emphasized.
These children, like some who might have run before Jesus and his donkey on the brief triumphal entry into Jerusalem, eventually marched down the church aisle bearing palm branches. Ranging from about 3 to 11, they wore white robes with pastel bows about their necks.
Twelve of the 18 in the procession assembled in front of the pulpit to sing two anthems, "Rejoice in the Lord, Rejoice," and "Hosanna!" The congregation applauded their efforts as well as the adult offertory music performed by a fiddle and banjo duet of members Jack Hinshelwood and George Smith III.
They played two old Protestant favorites, "The Old Rugged Cross" and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."
White Memorial's adult choir of 15 men and women in red and gold robes is directed by Tom Adams. On Sunday, it performed several choral responses, including a benediction in contemporary style music.
But most of the service music Sunday was traditional and performed on an electronic organ.
Well-worn Methodist hymnals issued 25 years ago are in the pews. The opening hymn, "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus," dates from the early 20th century. The congregation sang more enthusiastically on two 18th century English classics, "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood" by William Cowper and "Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed" by Isaac Watts.
Their lyrics express a theology Ritchie used in his sermon to counter the materialism so prevalent at Easter.
In his 25-minute sermon, after most of the children had left the nave, Ritchie noted that what Christians commonly call Holy Week "is bookended within two joyful events." Within the "book" are Christ cursing a fig tree, cleansing the temple in anger and telling a story of wicked tenants, not to mention faithless friends, betrayal and crucifixion.
To bring home the horror and desolation of Jesus' death, Ritchie told a story from Jewish holocaust author Elie Wiesel's "Night." Two men and a child were hanged for "subversion," the book relates. As Wiesel and other concentration camp inmates were paraded by, someone murmured "Where Is God?"
The two men died quickly, the young pastor said, but the boy lived in agony for a half-hour, his eyes fixed on his persecutors.
At such times, said Ritchie, God is crucified again and again for people. He continues to suffer and to understand the worst kinds of suffering. That's what the Good Friday experience is all about.
If the Gospel is faithful to the life of Christ, believers cannot put the cross behind them, said Ritchie. "The resurrection does not undo the crucifixion."
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by CNB