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Lord's Day weddings, classical composers and musicians, and worship...

by David and Tim Bayly on January 8, 2011 - 1:59pm

Tses:2010 (Tim) Thirty-some years ago in one of his "Out of My Mind" columns, Dad proposed that, given the attack upon the marriage institution across our culture, Christians make a clear break with the world when we give and receive marriage vows; and that the first step in making such a break might be to place Christian marriages back on the Lord's Day as was the practice of the Puritans and early Reformers.

Following Dad's recommendation, both Christ the Word and Church of the Good Shepherd have witnessed couples taking their vows on the Lord's Day and it's a practice I commend. The first couple to do so at one of our churches...

was Kenneth and Melanie Tse who were married about fifteen years ago here in Bloomington. There are many benefits to returning weddings to the Lord's Day. Listing them will have to wait for some future post.

I simply wanted to mention that the man playing the saxophone in this clip is the same Kenneth Tse, and the piece he's performing, Concerto after Gliere, was written by David Canfield, an elder here at Church of the Good Shepherd and instructor in ClearNote Pastors College.

Readers should be reminded that we don't use electric guitars and drums because we lack the ability to do the highbrow Reformed aesthete thing. We've had all the trained voices, composers, pianists, organists, instrumentalists, and conductors a single malt drinking, Mashie Niblick waving, nicotine addict could dream of. But we believe Lord's Day worship is a time to honor God and preach the Gospel--not congratulate ourselves on our great taste, show our disdain for CCM, and parade pristine reproductions of the musical tongue of centuries past.

To claim the Regulative Principle mandates such musical reproductions, or that it condemns the replacement of the piano with the guitar (for instance), is an abuse of both the Regulative Principle and the Second Commandment from whence it cometh.

Tags: 
Music
Worship & idolatry
Weddings

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Comments

Submitted by Peter Jones on January 8, 2011 - 3:18pm

Tim, how did you guys move your church toward doing weddings on Sunday? I have done four weddings in the past 18 months. After watching these, it seems that the culture in families and society at large is contra this practice. I am not sure how I could lead people this direction. I would love some feedback there. Also when during the day do you do it? After the service? In the evening? Thanks, Peter Jones, Pastor Christ Church of Morgantown

Submitted by Tim Bayly on January 8, 2011 - 5:10pm

Dear Peter,

Can't respond for a bit, but I'll try soon. We've had three weddings in the past couple of weeks and tonight a soon-to-be bride was visiting who, with her fiancee, has chosen to be married after our Lord's Day worship service. Having the focus on God and His glory is their main reason--that and a desire to have it be a humble service.

More on why our congregation accepts it later.

Love,

Submitted by Tom Albrecht on January 8, 2011 - 5:44pm

Since marriage is not a sacrament but an institution common to all men (WCF 21:5; 24:2), it is not a proper element of worship and should not be practiced on the Sabbath. In The Directory for the Publick Worship of God we read:

“After the purpose or contract of marriage hath been thus published, the marriage is not to be long deferred. Therefore the minister, having had convenient warning, and nothing being objected to hinder it, is publickly to solemnize it in the place appointed by authority for publick worship, before a competent number of credible witnesses, at some convenient hour of the day, at any time of the year, except on a day of publick humiliation. And we advise that it be not on the Lord's day.”

Submitted by Tim Bayly on January 8, 2011 - 6:17pm

>>it is not a proper element of worship and should not be practiced on the Sabbath.

Calvin, Luther, Knox, and Puritans used the Sabbath.

Concerning the Directory's advice that wedding services not be held on the Lord's Day, two things: first, the service was to be held in "the place appointed... for publick worship;" and second, not using the Lord's Day was advice--not command. Why the advice?

As time passed, inappropriate festivities accompanying weddings became more frequent, so weddings were moved from the Lord's Day.

Such festivities have not been a problem for us.

Love,

Submitted by Mark on January 8, 2011 - 6:18pm

"not...show our disdain for CCM"

After reading some previous posts on music, I've wanted to make certain I never admitted listening to the Gaithers. Now I'm thinking I might be able to come out of the closet. For now I'll just watch and see.

Submitted by Tim Bayly on January 9, 2011 - 2:23am

>>After reading some previous posts on music, I've wanted to make certain I never admitted listening to the Gaithers.

You're right, brother. Showing my disdain for the Gaithers as a sign of my superiority is sin.

Love,

Submitted by Mark on January 9, 2011 - 4:10am

I wasn't attempting to poke you. Hiding an enjoyment of the Gaithers struck me as a funny thing to say. But it has been a blessing to me to see how often and willingly you accept criticism. It has also been a challenge to me to make this a trait more visible in myself. Thank you.

Submitted by Alex McNeilly on January 9, 2011 - 6:26pm

Two thumbs up on the video!

Submitted by Sue McKeown on January 9, 2011 - 7:16pm

WRT to Sunday (Lord's Day) weddings, our Anglican church allows members to have weddings during a church service itself. The reasoning behind this is that a wedding should be celebrated with your church family. In fact, our rector was not married when he was called to our parish. He and his wife were married during a regularly scheduled church service.

I'm also aware of at least one Roman Catholic couple who were also encouraged to be married during a normally scheduled Sunday morning mass in the RC chapel of the university they were attending, and not incidentally, were quite involved in this "parish".

Submitted by Gandalf on January 10, 2011 - 6:22pm

As for weddings on Sunday:
"It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

I'm biased--just ask my wife--but surely getting married falls under "doing good".

Submitted by Denver Todd on January 11, 2011 - 4:20pm

I have to add that, having witnessed a wedding within one of our services, it is all the more painful when they ended up divorced. I have yet to understand the whole thing fully. Here we were all witnessing the marriage, but then the divorce was done with incredible secrecy. I am still trying to wrap my head around that one.

Submitted by Jim Hogue on January 13, 2011 - 8:09am

Mr. Todd,

Regarding a very public wedding's breakup as more painful than a normal one....
(It may sound like an argument against your statement, but it's not. Think of it as you would a National Propaganda Radio talk show - we sound like we're arguing with one another but all making the same point)

From my layman's understanding, the whole purpose of having a ceremony for a wedding is to create a "public", if you will, interest in the man and woman remaining faithful to their promises to leave the other only when death separates them.

Legally (again, in my layman's understanding), all you need is the man and wife to sign the license, along with two witnesses.

Having the whole famn damily and a bunch of friends, acquaintances, and other random spectators present creates, for all witnesses (outside of the best man and lady, who are usually close friends of both, so they have a vested interest regardless of material investment), a vested interest in that couple's faithfulness to one another.

Think about it. Divorce means you and your wife having to return all the wedding presents and a lot of people having to edit someone out of a whole bunch of pictures. It's better for everyone involved if you do not divorce.

If your wedding consists of the minimum five people (official, bride, groom, + two witnesses), not much is at stake if there is a split-up.

Now, most of this is spoken in a slightly humorous way, but the intent is sincere. Satire often is used as a way of pointing out reality in a more palatable manner, which was my intent. Hopefully, you get the point though.

Respectfully,
Jim Hogue

Submitted by Denver Todd on January 15, 2011 - 4:21am

On Good Morning America this morning there was, via YouTube, a segment on a flash mob wedding at a mall somewhere in America. This is a perfect combination of public weddings (explained in this Baylyblog post) and flash mob evangelization (showing up in another Baylyblog post). I really do like the idea of weddings within a worship service, but in a way this is the church's version of a flash mob. It is only a matter of time before flash mobs show up in other church events. Not exacty the same, but I remember visiting a church one evening with my unchurched father in his hometown, having chosen the one service in which they were excommunicating a former church worker.

Submitted by Tim Bayly on January 15, 2011 - 5:25am

Dear Todd,

Concerning flash mobs, how about the entire book of Acts? Street preaching? Sidewalk counseling and protesting? A biblical family (one with lots of children) taking a walk?

Must have been a bit frightful to have your Dad's witness be the holiness of the Church, Christ's Bride? But that's what 1Corinthians indicates concerning evangelism: "But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you" (1Corinthians 14:24, 25).

We don't think of the witness to holiness as evangelism. Evangelicalism has led us to a Four-Spiritual-Laws minimalism of downloaded information followed by a minimalist intellectual assent as true evangelism. But really, I can think of few moments I'd rather have a self-righteous unbeliever witness than an excommunication. With the power of the Holy Spirit at work within him, he falls on his face and is converted.

Love,

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