Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9406290089
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Frances Stebbins
DATELINE: WILLIS LENGTH: Long
Later Bowers, who is 76 and crippled by a bout with cancer several years ago, told me that he is finding more and more small churches meeting the requirement that ramps and rest rooms be provided for those who,like himself, find it safer and more practical to use wheel chairs.
"When my own church, Trinity Lutheran in Pulaski, went to a lot of trouble and expense to add a ramp on the back, I never thought I'd need it to get in," the retired minister observed. He also noted that there are some churches which advertise themselves as being open to all "and you can't get up the front steps."
With grace and humor Bowers conducted the morning worship at 11:15 a.m. after having been at the sister congregation, Zion in the town of Floyd, 90 minutes earlier. There for Communion he stood for part of the service, he said.
But at St. Mark he led worship from his chair on eye level with the 20 in the polished hardwood pews. Neither he nor the four-member choir was robed, and young John Garland, the only person under 25 present, escorted the supply pastor at the end of the service down the aisle in his jeans.
They're a warm and friendly group at St. Mark and spot a stranger at once though welcome is conveyed by introductions before the service and by handshakes rather than by singling out as a stranger. The score of folk there last week is pretty typical of attendance, Annette Weeks told me. She has been coming to the church for more than 50 years, and now carries on many housekeeping duties that make the old paneled nave shine and give off an indescribable scent of polish and sanctity.
Weeks also sings in the choir, sees that the altar is properly prepared for each service and often represents the tiny congregation in general meetings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with which St. Mark and Zion are affiliated.
Weeks, like some of the members, lives only a few minutes from the church. Others, like Don Henley, president of the church council, live in more urban places but maintain their ties to the country where they grew up. When Henley retires from his sales job in Pulaski, he plans to return to Willis for good.
Also an important part of worship is Vickie P. Shelor who not only plays Handel on the organ but gave the instrument to the congregation, Henley said.
Because Pingle, the regular pastor, serves the two congregations, he has worship at the larger Zion church in Floyd at 9:30 a.m. and goes 11 miles further south of U.S. 221 for St. Mark service at 11:15.
It's visiting time for a few minutes before worship as folks drift in. In last Sunday's congregation women far outnumbered the men. Henley showed me three education rooms in an addition on the rear of the old church; they can be expanded so that the fellowship area can accommodate as large meetings as are likely to be set up in Willis.
`We haven't any children for a Sunday school," said Henley sadly, echoing the reality of many small churches in slow-growth rural Virginia. Some new people move in, but they are less likely to be Lutherans than members of other denominations, he said.
You might almost say time is measured in decades in rural Floyd. When Henley mentioned Jim Coulehan, the lay reader for the day, he spoke of him as a newcomer. Actually, Weeks reminded him, the Coulehan family from the North has been at St. Mark for 15 years.
In contrast to more elaborate Lutheran services for Eucharist and on special occasions, Bowers led a simple morning liturgy as a cool breeze moved through the open frosted windows. The 1978 green Book of Worship, which combines the hymnal and many rituals for all occasions, was used , and many in the pews knew the responses by heart.
Shelor played three hymns, all familiar Protestant ones from the 19th century: "I Am Trusting You, Lord Jesus," "Lord, Take My Hand and Lead Me," and "When Peace Like a River." As is provided in the liturgy of the Lutheran Church, the congregation also sang many responses to prayers .
Following the reading of Old and New Testament lessons -- from the books of Job and Second Corinthians -- by a layman in street clothes, Bowers read the Gospel story of Jesus calming the storm.This became the theme of his 15-minute sermon which immediately followed. The retired pastor using few notes, but holding his Bible on his lap, said he had preached many a sermon on the theme, and "I expect you have heard a plenty." But a regular Bible reader who prays for enlightenment will always find something new in the remarkable stories about Jesus, he said.
Those who spend their time trying to literalize Jesus' action of calming the sea, trying to explain the miracle by saying the storm would have stopped soon anyway, have lost it most valuable insights, the pastor said. In reflecting on the passage, Bowers said he discovered that many people see Jesus as a man of compassion who was glad to help his frightened friends in the water-filled boat, but these same people blame God for causing the storm.
"Do we ever speak of `acts of Jesus' when a disaster strikes? No, many people divide the Father and the Son, but as we believe the Trinity, we should know that both are one."
Recalling two times when a liner on which he was traveling rode out heavy ocean storms, Bowers said he did not blame Jesus' friends for being terrified of the high winds on the sea of Galilee. As many people do when they are frightened, they turned to Christ to save themselves. Responding to their need, Jesus did not hesitate to stop the storm at once. He made no demands on the frightened fishermen, as if he would bargain with them, but showed his concern immediately.
Unfortunately, said Bowers, many people cry out to God when in need but desert him once their crisis is over. They will fear again, for "we can never banish fear entirely" but at each step in life God's power continues to rescue, the pastor concluded.
Following the sermon, two collections were received since it was the fourth Sunday and money is collected then for community needs as well as for on-going church bills.
Bowers concluded the service with pastoral prayers taken from the service book. Along with seeking God's help for the church, the nation, the president and other leaders and the victims of war and oppression, he remembered a dozen sick and troubled members and friends by name.
Sojourner appears monthly in the New River Current. Its purposes is not to promote a particular point of view but to inform readers of a variety of worship styles.
by CNB