I remember in my church in Coventry we had an old fashioned “church wedding.” A traditional church wedding involved church people, rather than wedding planners. A church wedding usually consisted of a bride who had been raised in the church, attended Sunday school, confirmation, etc. along with her husband to be and his family. Aside from the groom’s guests, most of the people in attendance were members of the church. After the couple got married in the church, everyone exited to the church hall for a sit down supper and celebration. The women’s fellowship did the majority of the cooking, including the homemade wedding cake, made by a member who had completed the course in cake decorating.
At this one table during the dinner, sat ten of our older members. Bob, was a New England Yankee of the first order. He was a widower close to 90 at the time, very much alive, full of fun. Next to him sat Mary, late 80’s and quite spry, opinionated, and anything but bashful. The whole table had a terrific time with lively, fun conversation. Because they all seemed to have hearing problems, their noise carried over many of the other table conversations. At one point Bob who was laughing out loud slapped the table and said, “Mary, I wish I had known you twenty five years ago!” To which Mary responded without missing a beat, “Well, Bob, what’s the matter with me now?”
I tell this story because there is always “NOW.” It’s easy to use cop out phrases when it comes to our church like, “We tried that before and it didn’t work.” Or, “We used to do that, but then for some reason we stopped.” When it comes to our church, and service to one another, there never should be anything the matter with NOW! It is the best response.
Peace,
Jarv