WIRTZ — The sign alerts motorists on Wirtz Road about the “Barney Fife Bible Study” class that meets Tuesday nights.

Inside Rehoboth United Methodist Church last week, the class was under way. An episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” played on a pull-down screen.

Laughter pealed from parishioners scattered about the pews.

But then the show’s background music turned ominous.

On screen, Opie, the motherless child, draws back his new slingshot. The stone he launches impulsively slays a songbird, orphaning its three hatchlings.

Opie kneels. He cups the lifeless mother bird in his hands and tearfully pleads with her to fly. Later, he listlessly pushes dinner around with a fork as Aunt Bee frets and then he flees the table.

From Galatians: “For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

Actions have consequences.

The “Opie the Birdman” episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” is said to be one of the beloved TV show’s most treasured installments. The 1963 episode is poignant, frequently hilarious and even jarring.

It provided fodder Feb. 19 for the “Barney Fife Bible Study” group that has been meeting since January on Tuesday nights at the Rehoboth UMC in Franklin County.

The Rev. Rick Barton, 51, is pastor for both the Rehoboth church and Oyler’s Chapel UMC in Hardy . The ministry is Barton’s second career. He served in the U.S. Navy for nearly 19 years.

Barton said the Rehoboth UMC congregation totals about 25 people. A bout 7 p.m. on Feb. 19, he and his wife, Marylee, and eight Rehoboth parishioners gathered in the small church for the hour long class that finds inspiration in episodes from “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Barton distributed copies of an overview of the night’s class that he had retrieved from www.barneyfife.com , a web site created in 1998 in Alabama by Joey Fann. The outline suggested lesson points, relevant passages of scripture, and discussion questions. Barton said the free online study aids, coupled with DVDs he has purchased of the TV series, “help tremendously for churches that do not have large budgets for the purchase of study materials.”

Barton lowered a small screen at the front of the church. The class turned its attention to “Opie the Birdman.”

As the episode unfolds in the sheriff’s office, Deputy Barney Fife insists on demonstrating for Opie a trick shot with the slingshot. Sheriff Andy Taylor warns Barney three times not to shoot the weapon indoors. But Barney boasts that he’s an expert, a man born with a slingshot in his hands. He fires and shatters the glass in a bookcase cabinet.

Andy warns Opie to be careful with the slingshot, and the boy scampers off.

That night, after Opie flees the dinner table, Andy realizes suddenly that the bird he had discovered dead in the front yard that evening had been slain by his son and not by the neighbor’s cat. He scowls.

Andy, typically gentle and kind, reacts with Old Testament fire when the boy says he is sorry. Andy flings up the window in Opie’s bedroom and orders his son to listen to the plaintive cries of the tiny birds whose mother will never return.

Yet Opie is not beyond redemption. He accepts responsibility for the mother bird’s death. He collects worms and insects and begins to feed her offspring.

In short, Opie tries to do the right thing.

Proverbs: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”

The birds thrive in a small cage. Eventually, Opie sets them free.

Genesis: “...have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Opie and Andy watch the birds fly away. The episode ends.

The church lights came up.

Barton asked class members how they felt about the way Andy reacted when Opie said he was sorry for killing the bird.

There was agreement that Andy’s punishment was harsher than the “whipping” Opie anticipated.

Kathy Simmons, attending the class with her husband, Michael, observed that Andy had exercised “tough love,” an approach she said God often employs too.

Mary Metz, participating with her husband, Johnnie, said Andy’s reaction was effective. “He allowed Opie to accept responsibility,” Metz said. “He allowed Opie to grow up.”

She said parents sometimes err by trying to shelter their children from life’s hard lessons.

And Metz referenced the night’s scripture from Proverbs.

“Amazing things happen, more than we can imagine, when we trust God,” she said.

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