Wednesday 21 October 2009

Between saying nice things and facts

About 5 years ago, I attended a wedding ceremony of an ex-colleague. It was a Christian wedding ceremony held at the garden of hotel before the wedding reception. I must say, it was rather romantic ala Hollywood style.

Just like any other Christian ceremony, there was the bridal march-in followed by a brief worship session and of course, a short sermon by the officiating pastor. As usual, the pastor spoke about the usual wedding stuff and then he mentioned something which caught my attention. He said something to the effect…

“… what a truly beautiful couple, truly match-made in heaven. I am sure God put them together in a wonderful way. It’s truly God’s plan for them to be together…”

Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with those words. In fact, one would expect these words to be typically uttered during a wedding ceremony. But to me, it’s odd. It’s very odd. I am sure you are wondering why…

It’s odd because I was aware of how the married couple first got together. It wasn’t exactly heavenly. When they first started seeing each other, both were still attached to their respective bf/gf. It went on for almost a year before they broke the news to their respective bf/gf, which led to a very ugly confrontation.

Speculatively speaking, I wonder if this so called match-made-in-heaven-which-God-put-together-in-a-wonderful-way were sleeping with each other and with their respective bf/gf at the same time. Scandalous isn’t it, do you think?

Don’t get me wrong. Whatever they did doesn’t concern me at all. They can have all the affairs they want and screw around for all I care.

Just that when the pastor started going on a verbal diarrhoea about all the nice things that you can ever imagine about the married couple and particularly, saying that God put them together in a wonderful way, it was just so odd for me and a few others who know the history.

No disrespect to pastors. But I just think they should know more of the history of the married couple when preparing the sermon of their ceremony and not just go all flowery and say all the nice things. And that is why I like my pastor. His sermon during my wedding covered mostly about all the “challenges” we will be facing as married couple. Now, that’s reality.

On a related note, an emcee at this particular wedding dinner made the biggest boo-boo ever. She proudly announced that the married couple are finally tying the knot after so many years of courtship. What the emcee didn’t know was that the wedding happened because the bride was 3 months pregnant. And, she only met (focus on the word “met”) the groom 3 months earlier.


1 year ago…
Why you should want the inflation to be up

25 comments:

missironic said...

Wow.. seriously scandalous! And u're right abt the sermon, shud noe the couple's story first. Or not, seriously it will be well, not right to those who noes the real story.

goingkookies said...

gee..u sound rather cynical..wait. that's not the word i was looking for.. jaded?

of course in all relationships, the happy, rosy part only consists a super minor portion... the rest is hard work to work things out to ensure tehre is a small dose of happiness..

ok.. now i m the one that sounds jaded. hehe.

the girl and guy was seeing each other whilst being attached to their gf/bf?? for wat? why didn't they just straighten things out?

i seriously hate cheaters. no excuses ever. if one realises that one is attracted to another, one has to decide what that person really wants. ish.

and the emcee who got d courtship part wrong? definitely a BIG boo boo. hehe.

TG said...

Well, as an atheist, I just think God doesn't meddle in our affairs. If there was a creator, he did his/her/its work and left the center stage to us. Because, if he did have the power of bringing two people together, he must also be the one to separate two people, right? So something doesn't seem right here. On the other hand, the pastor's word were meant in a flattering and not theological way, so chill Zewt or to say it the Christian way: God works in mysterious ways :P

day-dreamer said...

OMG @ the last paragraph.

Nick Phillips (15/03/1967 - 04/11/2022) said...

Can't really blame the pastor la. It's not like they actually told him the truth about their past, in fact most people don't tell the truth about their pasts to their pastors.

And I guess it's just the normal thing for pastors to say during services like this.

Jerine said...

Haha...I somehow find this amusing. Actually I told myself not to date anyone who's still in relationship because those guys can't be that faithful. But I broke that vow two years ago and I prove myself wrong. Not all guys like that are unfaithful.

Pinknpurplelizard said...

Hokkien say that as "Ji ka la'ap noh ch'un" which translates as standing in between 2 boats. One will typically either fall into one of the 2 boats or into the water.

I do not like those relationships where this occurs coz to me their being unfaithful to their then partners. But with all the flooze, somehow there are those who still justify their situation for them.

The world's morals are being degraded more and more. Slowly but surely becoming Sodom and Gomorrah.

Amanda Christine Wong said...

that's true...some people like it that way I guess - sugar coating. and it's a great cover up for a shotgun wedding...

Zuraida said...

Thank God we don't have sermons before akad nikah ceremonies, its just the pretty standard "aku nikahkan dikau....." ...hahaha...otherwise, yeah, its pretty ironic to hear sugarcoated heavenly stories when in reality the history is quite dark...

Maybe the pastor is being cynical...that he actually knew about the scandal and thought it'll be a huge blow if he had said the ooposite?

Hmmmm....

For all its worth maybe they are made for each other. Only God knows, despite the fact that the start is not so rosy....

Angela said...

we will just pretend everything is peachy and made in heaven. : )

Anonymous said...

To be fair to the pastor, he might not be privy to those info about the couple.

Anonymous said...

Pastors are human too. They are capable of making mistakes like anyone of us.

Anonymous said...

Haha..very scandalous! Thou shan't be promiscuous for thou shall loose thy dignity and be the talk of the town when thou got a baby-daddy!

j_yenn said...

You're not gonna get "killed" by the couple reading this, right? Hopefully not.

doc said...

ho ho! i bet you were squirming in your seat at that made-in-heaven wedding!

but i agree with zuraidah. even if the pastor knew about the history of the couple, he would do well to just ignore it, & avoid a dramatic scene right at the altar, & get on & just marry them off!!

Ninja said...

Wait wait wait...so with that second couple...she got knocked up on the first date itself or what???!!!!

Melody said...

Maybe the pastor was just asked to conduct the ceremony by appointment only and hardly knew the couple?

zewt said...

missironic - summore pastor of big church leh...

goingkookies - hmmm... cynical and jaded? really? anyway, why were they seeing each other while attached... itchy lah, what else. unless you wanna say it's God's will.

MKL - haha... non theological... hard to comprehend amongst so many christians and non-christians in the congregation at that time...

day-dreamer - :P

Nick Phillips - they dont tell the pastor is understandable. pastor over giving sugar coated speech is another ler...

zewt said...

Jerine - ahhh... you should blog about it haha!

pinknpurplelizard - though that's in the picture... but not the main topic here leh...:P

Amanda Christine Wong - hahaha... absolutely.

Zuraida - perhaps it's God's will, but to say there were put together in a wonderful way is just... funny i guess.

Savvy Gal - welcome to AZAIG. we always do, dont we?

Mei Teng - if that is the case, he should not sugar coat if he does not know it's it's the cake or a nasi lemak, right?

zewt said...

Lifong - hahahaha... thou is so right.

j_yenn - hopefully.... not.

doc - hahahah... perhaps. yes, i am sure i am not the one who squirmed.

sabrina - something like that...

Melody - las vegas style eh?

Unicorn Girl said...

zewt - have u forgotten that pastors are ' supposed ' to be holy man and / or women ? I do know of couples who actually lie to their officiating pastor's on a fictitious reason/purpose of getting married .

eiling lim said...

The moral of the story is - DO YOUR HOMEWORK! haha..

Niel said...

True enough. People just like nice things, and it's boring to talk about rice and water at a wedding.

Shaun said...

Pastors always tell lies la. Makes you wonder why you go to church then.

If it is depressing news, no one would come to church and pay money, i mean donations to the church.

Think positive. Lying positively. haha

zewt said...

Unicorn girl - fair enough... but still, weird.

eiling lim - most definitely.

Niel - hi there, welcome to AZAIG. talk about fire and storm would be better, isnt it?

Shaun - lie positively... now that would be a good skill.