Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9505020014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Five days after the Oklahoma City bombing with its senseless loss of life and resulting fear and anger, the two ministers of Blacksburg Presbyterian Church conveyed in sermon and prayer last Sunday both the grace and duty of Americans.
Marking the first week of the Easter season, the Rev. Dr. D. Cameron Murchison Jr., the preacher, and the Rev. Katherine L. Carpenter, his associate and the prayer leader, stressed that as God forgave those who crucified his son, people must not resort to more violence lest they make a terrible matter worse.
Neither minister mentioned directly the tragedy which took the lives of children and adults in random violence. But, in her prayer, Carpenter specifically asked a blessing on children, and the congregation made welcome one of their advocates, John Alexander, the recently installed executive director of the Presbyterian Home of the Highlands in Wytheville. Toward the end of the service, he made a 10-minute presentation on its work with temporarily homeless children and teens.
Murchison, preaching on a dreary morning to about 220 people, half that of the Easter congregation the previous week, read the story of "doubting Thomas" as an introduction to his 20-minute sermon on "Easter's Promise." In allowing the disciple who could not believe Jesus had really died and risen to have "proof," Christ both understood and forgave, Murchison pointed out.
After Easter, even the most devout person experiences a letdown in spiritual consciousness, the minister said. This translates into what has long been called "Low Sunday," a time to find reasons to do something other than come to church once again. The minister, with a certain dry humor familiar to his congregation, offered his own brand of forgiveness for that.
Christ's final appearances to his friends after the Resurrection assured them both of his forgiveness for their own human failings and his trust that they could carry on without him, Murchison said.
Forgiveness was an essential part of this commissioning. It is never easy but must be accomplished if hatred is not "to burn out our souls or nibble at our hearts," as the minister put it.
In forgiveness, one who has been wronged must first face the reality that a serious hurt has been done and that this implies a betrayal in some manner. The solidarity of a family or a nation has been broken leading to a desire for retaliation. But this tendency must not be followed, Murchison asserted; rather, an effort to understand why the hurt occurred must be made. It is through this effort that God begins the healing process. Often, the matter never is resolved in a personal encounter, but at least the wronged person will be at peace, able to live constructively once more.
Blacksburg Presbyterian, one of the town's older congregations, with a big building which has been added to several times, surprised this Sojourner with its liturgical touches. Clearly, though Easter had passed with its egg hunts and new spring outfits, "Alleluias" still rang out joyfully from the strong choir in the balcony with the pipe organ. White banners with more Easter greetings decorated the wall behind the pulpit and lectern, and the hymns in the 1990 worship book expressed the happy spring season, marred as it was by national tragedy and unseasonably chilly weather.
In denominations with a liturgical tradition, the "season" of Easter continues until Pentecost. Going back to the Christian church before the Protestant Reformation, such practices as observing penitential Lent and joyous Easter reflect the desire of many Protestant leaders to recover some of the best of earlier Christian history.
The baptismal font, for instance, sets in the center of the long nave to signify the centrality of entering the church as the body of Jesus' people. Other touches showing that the ordained and lay leadership is accepting of new trends in their denomination included, last Sunday, the recitation of a contemporary Affirmation of Faith in place of the traditional Apostles' Creed. The Kyrie, a three-fold petition for the mercy of God, is chanted, and the large choir, directed by Jack Barnard with James R. Bryant at the organ, presents several sung responses.
Last Sunday, about a dozen small children heard Murchison conduct a brief dialogue with visiting children's home director Alexander on why the church provides a home for the homeless. The youngest members depart before the sermon.
Both men and women serve as ushers and are about equally divided in membership on the governing board.
For a Sojourner, the bulletin at Blacksburg Presbyterian is helpful and complete. Greeters, a couple last week, help strangers find what they need. People in wheelchairs can enter the church easily, either using ramps or an elevator, and their chairs have an especially good spot for safety and maximum view of the pulpit and reading stand. Though pews are padded, there is no carpet on the stone floor to muffle the powerful tones of the balcony pipe organ.
Sojourner appears monthly in the New River Current. Its purpose is not to promote a particular point of view but to inform readers of a variety of worship styles.
by CNB