WHERE I WENT AND WHY
This weekend I was in Leesburg, Virginia for my nephew's wedding On Sunday I searched for an early service so that we could take the granddaughters sightseeing in Washington DC. I expected the church to have a history, but I did not know it was the first Methodist Church in America, and that the current building was used as a hospital in the Civil War, until I read the church history on line.
WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GO
Located at 107 Market St., Leesburg Methodist has parking readily available in a lot across the street. Dress was church casual. There was a nursery and a cry room, and busy bags were available. It was nice to see families and children accommodated in worship. Children's church is available at the 9:45 service. The 8:30 service was sparsely attended, about 25 people in the historic sanctuary.
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REFLECTIONS ON WORSHIP
MUSIC
The music leader played a grand piano and a soloist performed an offertory and an anthem. He had a beautiful baritone voice but could have used a mic to balance the piano. The Introit and Lenten candle response was sung to the tune of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" which beautifully set the tone for Lent. The hymns were very traditional.
MESSAGE
Rev. Jim Wishmyer continued a sermon series on Mark for Lent. This week's emphasis was Jesus as the Son of God. The text was a challenging story from Mark 5: 1-20 where Jesus performs an exorcism and the demons, named Legion, leave the man and enter a herd of 2000 pigs who then jump off a cliff and into a lake drowning themselves. Jesus then rejects the man's plea to follow him and instead instructs him to return to his family and community and witness to what had happened to him. Rev. Wishmyer said this graphic story is not often compiled in collections of children's Bible stories! |
| Christ is sketched but not yet painted along with the demonized man. The demons as boars are "finished". Too small to see in the photo are 3 crosses on a hill past the lake and cliff, another reference to Christ as the Son of God. Her plan was to come close to finishing it at the next 2 services that morning. The paintings are being framed and placed in the social hall. |
The point of this story is Jesus claiming his divinity and asserting his authority over all realms of spiritual and physical life. Mark was writing for both Jews and Gentiles and the story can also be viewed as an allegory. Legion, the demon, has obvious ties to the Roman military. They also would refer to their opponents as herds of pigs and used a wild boar as a symbol in their military hardware.
Rev. Wishmyer brought the story to our present time by talking about the church's role in witnessing to those with mental illness. He spoke about being called to the funeral home to counsel a family who's teen had committed suicide. Having been to 2 funerals of suicide victims in the past 2 years, the difficulty of this was still raw for me. I was so touched by Pastor Pat's (Riddle) sermon about Baptism and always being a Child of God at one of them.
At the 9:30 service (which is more contemporary) they were to introduced the topic of mental illness with a YouTube video from the actress in the Big Bang Theory. I think this is it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVKfrYhs0jk. Rev. Wishmyer stressed that the church has a unique opportunity to minister to the mentally ill and those that care for them for we as the church can combine spiritual and physical healing by working with physicians. We can provide a place that is open and honest, a safe place, not afraid of medicine, and where folks need not have shame or fear. This again struck a chord with me as I remember my home church embracing the mental health community after a neighbor went off his meds and literally chopped up our sanctuary, chancel, hymnbooks, chairs, and liturgical art. I vividly remember being at church the next day, cleaning up and having volunteers from the mental health community quietly just show up with brooms and help out. As we talked to them, most were caregivers of a family member who could be just like our neighbor. Twenty plus years later the church is still involved through a group home.
OBSERVATIONS AND OUTREACH
- I laughed at myself as I was using the Methodist Hymnal, I wondered where the music was to accompany the words. As I was putting it up at the end of the service, I realized that I had picked up the Large Print edition! How nice to have that available, and I didn't need my glasses, though I missed a few notes where the Methodists go "up" and the Lutherans go "down"...LOL. (That's my story for missing the notes, and I'm sticking to it!!)
- Besides the typical education opportunities and church meetings, the bulletin insert had multiple opportunities for outreach including ending human trafficking by buying fair trade bags, a financial Peace University seminar, an End of Life Workshop, planning for Native American Sunday, taking a meal to someone having surgery (organized on www.takethemameal.com), the Stephen Ministry, birthday boxes for children whose parents may not have the means to celebrate their birthdays, care packages for college students, and the Lenten offering is supporting a missionary in Papua New Guinea. Whew!! This emphasis on social ministry is what I've come to truly admire about the Methodist Church.
- I struggle just a little mentioning this... for Rev. Wishmyer said, "What goes on at the 8:30 service, stays at the 8:30 service"... and I thought... oh dear, he doesn't know I'm going to blog about his service!! Just before the sermon, he asked the musician to play another hymn, while he retrieved his sermon from his office! The humor with which he did this was charming and self deprecating. His notes were on an I-Pad, the second time I've encountered this so far.
TODAY'S EXTRA
Never a lack of cartoons!
THE BULLETIN
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