Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: PURE (09/06/24)
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TITLE: Marriage Supper of the Lamb | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ruby Isaac
09/12/24 -
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White woven wicker baskets of multi-colored dahlias, gladiolus, and white roses stood on the platform of a small church in western Kansas. Two candelabras glowed with flickering white candles. A shaft of sunlight streamed through stained-glass windows casting a golden hue over the hushed scene. Marlene Glover's husband gently squeezed her hand. They exchanged loving glances which to them meant, “Today is our granddaughter’s wedding day.”
Indeed it was! Wedding guests--family and close friends, moved closer together in the pews as the ushers seated the last ones to enter. Then, at the stroke of five o’clock the doors were shut and the ushers, now serving as groomsmen, took their places at the front of the church. Seamlessly, they fell in step with the groom and the officiating clergyman who had just entered the room. The long-awaited ceremony was about to begin.
“All rise,” instructed the clergyman, extending his arms in a broad symbolic gesture. Beaming with quiet joy the mother of the bride--the Glovers' daughter--rose to her feet and turned expectantly toward the now open doorway at the back of the sanctuary. The congregation followed her lead, standing and straining to catch a first glimpse of the bride and her attendants.
A row of stately groomsmen, standing tall in black tuxedos and bow ties, waited at the front of the sanctuary in support of a very nervous groom. Their eyes, too, were fixed on the open doorway at the end of the white-carpeted aisle. Four smiling bridesmaids, gorgeous in lavender gowns, carried small bouquets of purple asters and white daisies. They moved gracefully down the aisle in step with the lovely strains of an organ chorale prelude penned by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Suddenly, the organist stopped for a quarter-rest and immediately switched to a major key, playing a series of much louder, stronger, soul-thrilling chords to herald the presence of the bride in the doorway! She stood clutching her father's arm, radiantly smiling, resplendent in a pure white wedding garment of fine linen. Pearls and sequins shimmered on the slim waistline and high neckline. Lacy long sleeves and a long flowing train framed the bride's elegant wedding gown. Looking straight ahead as she walked slowly down the aisle on her father’s arm, the bride's eyes met her groom's adoring eyes, and she smiled shyly.
"Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" asked the clergyman.
"Her mother and I," answered her father. Then he kissed his daughter on the cheek and stepped aside to sit beside his wife--her mother.
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The clergyman began the ceremony with these familiar words: “Dearly beloved we are gathered together in the presence of God and these witnesses to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”
He continued with a reminder that Scripture refers to the church as the bride of Christ. At length the congregation sang the century-old hymn by Elisha A. Hoffman which asks a series of questions:
"Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow'r?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Refrain:
"Are you washed -- in the blood,
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”
For all who can answer "Yes" to those questions another great hymn writer, Ralph E. Hudson, answers back with his own description of the bride of Christ as,
…"Clad in glorious shining garments,
Blood-washed garments, pure and white!
"'Tis a glorious church without spot or wrinkle
Washed in the blood of the Lamb.”
As the clergyman brought the ceremony to a close, the bride and groom exchanged wedding rings to seal their vows picturing the marriage of the Lamb to His bride, the church. Then he picked up his worn, leather-bound Bible and read this glorious, fitting portion of the revelation that God gave to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos 2,000 years ago.
Revelation 19:6-9:
(6) And I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude, like the rushing of many waters, and like a mighty rumbling of thunder, crying out: “Hallelujah! For the
Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
(7) Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory.
For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride
has made herself ready.
(8) She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.”
For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.
(9) Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are
invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me,
“These are th true words of God.”
Thus, inside a little country church in western Kansas set among vast and fertile fields of waving grain, the Glover family and groom's family joined together in a marriage supper and rejoiced in the true words of God.
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Category: Non-fiction. (Only the names, location, and various descriptive details have been editorialized for privacy's sake.) Author's Notes: All Scripture quoted is from the Berean Standard Bible which is dedicated to the public domain. The excerpts from both hymns are also from the public domain.
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