The Voice of the Voiceless

As I continue on in my first year of ministry, everything is new; not just in terms of getting to know the people and the traditions of the two churches that I pastor, but I am also new to the unique pastoral duties to which I am called.

This past weekend I had another one of those firsts. I officiated at my first wedding. It was a small wedding, just the immediate families of the bride and groom. The weekend before I had decided to go with the youth group out snowmobiling and sledding. The hill made the one that my sister and I use to sled on look like an ant hill and it was even harder to get up! We decided to cancel church on Sunday due to below zero temps and windchills that were approaching -40 degrees. That afternoon I began to feel a cold come on, but as the week went by and I began to prepare for the wedding the cold never really got that bad. On Wednesday night Bethlehem hosted the community lenten service and my voice was fine for that. On Thursday, when I got a call from the bride about a medical emergency my voice was getting hoarse. On Friday when I talked with the bride again, my voice was fine. Then 11:00 am Saturday came about.

I woke up thinking my voice was strong. I felt good and really no cold symptoms. With the small gathering we decided not to use the sound equipment. I barely got through the first part of the service which was me reading Scripture and giving a meditation. My voice was going fast and I was tearing up due to the pain in my throat. One of the grandson's got a glass of water for me and I was then able to continue. Going through the vows, the exchange of rings, and the rest of the service after taking a few gulps of water every so often, I would be fine. Nonetheless I was pretty happy when I came to the pronouncement of the marriage. I spoke very little for the rest of the party. However, I did not learn my lesson.

Even though it was snowing pretty good on top of a layer of ice, we decided to have worship on Sunday. I again woke up and felt confident in my voice. I led worship and preached at Lost Lake, but the sermon did not go well, so at Bethlehem I decided to do something different: I asked the people to talk about where they have seen God's promises at work in their lives. This was based on the Old Testament lesson of the day from Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham. This seemed to work well. Now I will just rest my voice and hope that it comes back completely by next weekend. How embarrassing for a pastor to not be able to speak.

Well, at least I set the bar pretty low for this first wedding!

P.S. At 5:15 last night we had 10" of new snow on the ground. We are now just beginning to dig out!