Just another wedding, but from a whole new angle
by Scott Dalen
Well today was an interesting experience for me. My sister in law had a vow renewal/family “wedding” today and they asked me to preach the sermon for it. I was of course happy to oblige, but in the process I realized “hey, I’ve never done a wedding sermon before.”
Well, the prep work turned out okay. As it turned out, I was better suited to do it and make it
personal for them anyway as they live in Maryland and the pastors hardly know either of them at all. So in retrospect, maybe it was an okay idea.
The kicker that threw me for a little bit of a loop was that I spent the entire ceremony in the front. I expected to sit in the pews, likely with the kids as my wife was of course in the wedding party, come up for the sermon and then sit back down again.
That’s not what happened. Last night at the rehearsal, the pastor said, “Scott, we will both track around behind the sanctuary and walk in together. We’ll be in the front for the service.”
Umm…okay…I guess I’m in the front. New perspective. I’ve never watched it from that angle before. The cool thing was that it felt like I got front row seats to observe a wedding ceremony. Every other time that I’ve been that close to the action, I was either the best man or the groom. And let’s face it, in those situations; you aren’t really paying attention to how the pastor handles the service.
Long story short, the service went fine and several of my wife’s family members were surprised to see me in that role. I think they all know that I’m in the process of seminary but this was the first experience of seeing me “trying on the stole” if you’ll allow me to say that. The one that made me laugh the most was my in-law’s neighbors. I walked by them at the beginning of the reception and I heard, “Scott, you really surprised me. I mean, I know you have the gift of gab but wow. That was really amazing.”
I’ll take that as a compliment. I was also able to catch up with an old co-worker that I haven’t talked to for awhile and bring her up to speed with my current process of class/life. FYI, her husband is a Catholic youth director who interacts quite a bit with my wife, so we’ve really known the couple for quite a long time. It was good to sit and just talk about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it with someone who is involved with ministry or is married to someone that is. They can relate and that’s a plus.
Good day…but much like my kids who are passed out (finally) I’m ready for bed. Now I just need to get this tux off.
Well, the prep work turned out okay. As it turned out, I was better suited to do it and make it
personal for them anyway as they live in Maryland and the pastors hardly know either of them at all. So in retrospect, maybe it was an okay idea.
The kicker that threw me for a little bit of a loop was that I spent the entire ceremony in the front. I expected to sit in the pews, likely with the kids as my wife was of course in the wedding party, come up for the sermon and then sit back down again.
That’s not what happened. Last night at the rehearsal, the pastor said, “Scott, we will both track around behind the sanctuary and walk in together. We’ll be in the front for the service.”
Umm…okay…I guess I’m in the front. New perspective. I’ve never watched it from that angle before. The cool thing was that it felt like I got front row seats to observe a wedding ceremony. Every other time that I’ve been that close to the action, I was either the best man or the groom. And let’s face it, in those situations; you aren’t really paying attention to how the pastor handles the service.
Long story short, the service went fine and several of my wife’s family members were surprised to see me in that role. I think they all know that I’m in the process of seminary but this was the first experience of seeing me “trying on the stole” if you’ll allow me to say that. The one that made me laugh the most was my in-law’s neighbors. I walked by them at the beginning of the reception and I heard, “Scott, you really surprised me. I mean, I know you have the gift of gab but wow. That was really amazing.”
I’ll take that as a compliment. I was also able to catch up with an old co-worker that I haven’t talked to for awhile and bring her up to speed with my current process of class/life. FYI, her husband is a Catholic youth director who interacts quite a bit with my wife, so we’ve really known the couple for quite a long time. It was good to sit and just talk about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it with someone who is involved with ministry or is married to someone that is. They can relate and that’s a plus.
Good day…but much like my kids who are passed out (finally) I’m ready for bed. Now I just need to get this tux off.
posted by Scott Dalen at 9:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home