By Colleen Nelson
It’s one of those gorgeous mornings of genuine fall – sparkling clear as the last leaves of autumn close out summer with a scribble of red and gold against the gray hills. I’m coming across Nebo Ridge soaking it in, on my way to Nebo United Methodist Church. Jacktown is one ridge over and the Washington County line cuts across Enlow Creek in the valley below. I’ve been looking forward to going to church with my Grange Master Mary Jane Dinsmore Kent but she texted me this morning and said she wasn’t feeling well. So here I am, hoping to meet someone I know, hoping to get some idea where Mary Jane gets the spiritual energy she sums up at the bottom of every email – “You’re a sermon in your shoes.”
Mary Jane tells me she’s gone to church here all her life – the Dinsmore family farm is just down the road and the people I meet today all live near by. Nebo’s 1977 centennial program on file at Cornerstone Genealogy points out that membership has always been in the 40s, for this is a little country parish, cared for and attended by the families who settled here and whose farms are still in the family.
Those who drive furthest are Pastor Bill Lawler and his wife Karin, who come from Washington to hold the 9 a.m. service here, then off to Fairview U.M. Church to round out the charge.
I find myself among new friends who have already guessed why I’m there, like the stories I write and are happy to make me feel at home and tell me what’s going on.
There is no flat screen above the altar, just simple Christian trappings and a bright little painting of the church done after CONSOL put a steeple on the roof sometime in the 1990s. Another sign of the times is the new road beside the church that leads back to the well pad CNX is putting in. The big trucks have agreed not to run while church is in service so the stillness of a rural Sunday is ours.
Since Mary Jane isn’t here to play the piano, Betsy Day Bennett gets out her iPod that is loaded with hymns. Robin Archer’s son Ben links it to speakers and music fills the air, a fine backdrop to our voices punctuating the spaces between sermons, prayers, scriptural calls and responses, benedictions and some pretty funny reflections from Pastor Lawler about that pip squeak weasel Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to see Jesus, then went out on a limb for salvation and gave away his ill gotten gains. There’s a biblical punch line here: if even a selfish, loathsome, lonesome tax collector can learn to give to others with joy, how about you?
After service we stay to laugh, swap phone numbers, share memories. Robin, another lifelong member, tells me her mother June Amos used to be part of the church group that sold pies, cookies and garden produce at Arts in the Park, back in the day when Aleppo Grange was stirring apple butter over the fire and the community turned out to enjoy those first fall festivals at Ryerson Station State Park.
Last time I saw Robin, she came to Grange as a proud mom to watch Ben accept his scholarship prize for the essay he wrote about the career in 21st century genetic animal husbandry he plans to pursue.
This has been a day of celebration for Betsy – son Derek and wife Jessica had their first baby October 29 – Jordan Matthew, a healthy eight pounder. She opens her phone to show everyone photos of little Jordan, including one of her son Todd’s two year old son Connor “he was one pound at birth but look at him now!” trying to teach his brand new cousin to play catch.
Later, after the group shot on the front steps, I come back inside and am struck by the beauty of the big potted plants Betsy is helping move to a place by the window to await the next Sunday. Peace lilies she tells me. The first came seven years ago when her son Ethan Jordan died at age 22. Later it got a companion lily and together they make the church feel like home with their living presence.
Some of today’s sermon comes back to me as we stand in the light and admire their lush foliage. “That tree is faithfulness, compassion, love hope and joy” …especially the joys of babies being born, little Jordon Matthew.