Saturday, the 26th, we had the second wedding of the month of November. It was a church wedding in Shadi to bless the traditional marriage of Mlele and Mama Deu.
The wedding invitation stated that the wedding would start at 10:00 AM. The service started at 12:00 PM, two hours late, which is not uncommon for such an event. What was uncommon is that, after we had sung a few songs, Pastor Samson got up to announce that we did not know where the bride and groom were! Last he had heard, they had went to make a visit to family in Mkuyuni before the service (Mkuyuni is about 20 km away). He invited me to get up and preach my sermon.
As soon as he made his announcement that we were waiting on the bride and groom, I started laughing inside, not so much about the situation, as the irony of the text that I had planned to preach.It has happened each time that I have attended a wedding in Shadi that the bride and groom come in after the sermon during these services, so I am preaching to the audience, not the couple. I have decided that if I am called on to preach for these events, I will preach the gospel.
So, I planned on preaching Jesus' parable of the ten virgins from Matt 25:1-13, seeking to make the point that we must be ready for Jesus the Bridegroom whenever he comes. I had to laugh because there I was, preaching that we must be ready for the arrival of the Bridegroom while we were literally waiting for the bridegroom!
The service went well, as did the reception to follow. We arrived home around dark.
Dan, that is too funny! Did the Groom & Bride ever show up? I hope the sermon went well.
Posted by: Diana | 01 December 2011 at 10:05 PM