“Well, my love, high or low?” Lorcan asked
He had the pleasure of seeing her cock her head, confused. It was a habit he liked.
“Shall we go to high or low church today?” he asked.
“Surely not on our honey trip?” she replied. “No one will expect it.”
“My wife will expect it,” he said. “She has made it clear that she wishes me to be religious. Now, high or low?”
“Well,” she said, reluctantly, “Some of ours would attend the local high church, but when we went we went low.”
“That will work out well,” he said. “On our way here, only a half an hour walk away, I noticed a low church.”
“But surely we aren’t…”
“Put on your dress,” he directed. “The sign said they start at 0800. Not that that would matter much if the church is anything like the low churches I have attended. Their services tended toward the… casual.”
It was a half an hour walk to the church he had seen but, given that they were both so used to getting up early in the morning, they arrived a few minutes before the service started, and were met in the lobby by the pastor. “Greetings,” he said. “A young couple?”
“We just signed our contract a few days ago,” Lorcan said.
“Well, and starting out right with a visit to the Lord’s house,” the pastor replied. “In a sense, of course. The Lord does not dwell in temples made with hands. Welcome, welcome. Find yourselves seats.”
Lorcan led them in. ‘Seats’ was perhaps putting it a bit strongly, the church had long, low, wooden benches, with dozens of men, women, and little already sitting on them, and lads and lasses scattered on the floor along the wall. All of them well dressed, and many of the women with head coverings on. He should have thought of that, many low churches used them. Still, some women didn’t, so his wife didn’t stand out.
“Let us sing,” a man said, rising at the front. “Psalm 86!”
The room burst forth in song, and his wife looked as awkward as he felt. Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder and saw a young man, an older lad really, handing him a book. He looked at it, it was a Psalter. He quickly found the Psalm and, his wife leaning on his shoulder, they sang together with the rest of the group. It wasn’t like the tune was difficult.
“Our text this morning is Genesis chapter 24,” the preacher said, and Lorcan looked around for a Bible. That same lad quickly handed him one from, he saw, a stack at the back of the room. “The marriage contract of Isaac.”
His wife leaned over his shoulder and Lorcan glowed. And missed the next few words of the sermon.
“And so Abraham sent this servant, this street class man who worked for him, down to his family to get his son a wife. Imagine the shock nowadays if some crystal class, for make no mistake Abraham was a the top level of his society, sent some street class to uncle for his son!”
“But that isn’t the only shocking thing we read in this story. In all of the story, do we read anything about a contract? Are we just to assume that it occured somewhere? Or are we to treat God’s Word as what it says? And perhaps be shocked by our own society, our own culture?”
During the ages marriage has been treated differently by different cultures, but God’s Word has never changed. Some cultures in our past elevated fornication to an art form; some supposed Christians even insisting that the young couple fornicate before marriage, in order to see if they were ‘compatible’. As if ignorant of basic biology as well as Scriptural injunction.
Some cultures elevated divorce to the ‘compassionate’ thing to do for ‘incompatible’ couples… as if every single couple didn’t have to work through differences and problems. Some particularly bizarre cultures even had ‘no fault’ divorce. As if we should have ‘no fault’ murder or ’no fault’ theft.
And many cultures died when they played down the vital role of offspring in marriage. Could the Scriptures be more plain that the fruits of the womb and breast are not only a blessing, but one of the reasons God created marriage in the first place?
But before we become too content with our own society… the Scriptures call our temp contracts ‘adultery’, brothers and sisters. A woman, married to one man, cannot legally be intimate with another man… not as the Scriptures define ‘legally’ anyway.
Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!
Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.
If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!
If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.
Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von