LET’S GET MARRIED
(at First Methodist or First Christian?)

This interesting observation comes from a reader in Colorado who used to preach for a Church of Christ in Texas:

“It was a common practice for young people to have their weddings in First Methodist building since they could have music for the processional and recessional. The brethren were perfectly willing for this to be done, but it could not be done in our church building.”

He goes on to say that his son is to be married and that he and his bride-to-be want a friend of theirs to play and sing at their wedding. The girl is a graduate of both ACU and TCU, and they are both very active in the Church of Christ, but the church will not allow them to use the building if anybody is to play as well as sing. They have therefore sought out a Christian Church for the most memorable event of their lives.

This little story, along with numerous others that could be told, suggests that we have become well nigh cuckoo about instrumental music. I’ll tell just one more, the case of one of our missionaries in Thailand, who suggested to his co-laborer that a church they had nurtured was now able to care for itself, while they go on to another field. “We can’t leave them like this,” said the other missionary. “Suppose they put in instrumental music while we’re gone?”

What impressed me about that story was that the missionary did not fear that the young church might sacrifice to idols in their absence or install a statue of Buddha. He feared the instrument! It might be, therefore, that instrumental music is not as obviously the sin we have made it out to be. Outside two small Presbyterian sects in Scotland, and perhaps some Quaker groups, we are the only ones in all of Christendom who have discovered what a terrible sin the instrument is. Even the Greek Orthodox Church, longtime acappella, sometimes uses instruments these days. Perhaps it proves nothing, but when we stand virtually alone in our understanding of what sins really matter it should give us pause to reexamine our claim.

And it must really matter when our kids have to go down to First Methodist or across to First Christian to get married, in the way they want to get married. And I don’t fault any girl for not wanting one of our quartets stashed away in the balcony trying to sing her processional as she presents herself before the entire community. Have you ever attended an all-a cappella wedding? If ever you do, you are likely to ask Is this really necessary?

Fairness demands that we acknowledge that our folk sometime allow a portable organ to be imported for the sake of a wedding. It is admittedly a strange sight: an organ borne into one of our buildings and then out again, usually all within the hour. It is sometimes stipulated that its exit be post haste. It is not to “hang around” as if it were a floral arrangement.

I once conducted such a wedding myself, where the organ was imported for the Saturday night affair. I watched the procedure with loving amusement. The electrical outlets were all in the wrong places, so extension cords snaked their way among the pews to the organ, which did not seem to fit anywhere. The ground rules for the importation included “no religious songs,” so the singers had to decide what was secular and what sacred. “I Love You Truly” apparently passed the test. Another rule was that the organ had to be removed that same night. It was something I wanted to see, just for the heck of it, so I watched as the organ was eased down the flight of stairs at the entrance of the building and hauled away.

Big Deal! I found myself thinking, and I fear that this is the impression we leave on our young people. We make much ado about those “sins” that do not really matter, while we are all too insensitive to the real evils in the world, such as injustice.

I am not suggesting that we go instrumental so as to accommodate our brides. I do not know that I am suggesting anything, except that we come down off of it and quit being phonies about instrumental music. There is no way for it to be as significant as a lot of our folk make it, who view an organ as a gargantuan symbol of apostasy and corruption. Imagine Ph.D.’s at Abilene interviewing a young Ph.D. fresh out of Yale, who had spent years studying weighty theological issues, and asking him his position on instrumental music!

Tiddlewinks! I suspect our kids see us playing this kind of game. It is of course all right to go to First Methodist for a wedding, but I don’t like the reasons why. A girl who has served the church for years can’t invite a friend to come in and sing at her wedding, accompanied by his guitar. He can’t play his guitar in our church, not even for a wedding. How about tender loving care to a young sister during the most important moment in her life? How about her feelings? Cannot insensitivity be as grave a sin, perhaps even greater, in God’s eyes than a guitar? A guitar! Now aren’t we sometime a bit ridiculous? It sounds like we are saying: take your sin over to First Christian where sin belongs, for we don’t do things like that over here.

But it really is somehow all right over at First Christian. Though we never associate with them otherwise, we’ll go over to their place for the sake of an organ for a wedding. The people are the same, wedding party and audience. Only the building is different. We join in worship and praise God for the miracle of marriage portrayed before our eyes. We talk about what a beautiful wedding it was, due in part to the exquisite renditions of the organist.

Nobody seems to sin, not when the wedding is over at First Christian, not even the Church of Christ elder when he writes a check for the organist, pleased to do what he could to make his daughter’s wedding all that it should be.

But the tracks have all been covered. The Church of Christ building down the street, dark and unused, is not contaminated by the drama. Sin has been averted and Satan put to flight.

We are a peculiar people, aren’t we? --- the Editor