Going to Church
Psalm 122:1
A Song of degrees of David.
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
Lady Ambrose rose from her bath and took the towel that Nara handed her. “I am so nervous,” she confessed.
“You travelled the whole continent, and you are nervous going to church?” Nara asked, grinning. “Didn’t you go to church overseas?”
“Oh, it is so different. These people, well, I’m going to be living with them. And I married their lord.”
“And you will be on his arm, so you need to have no fear. He will direct you. He has been going to that church for years.”
“You’re not helping,” Lady Ambrose said. “But there is nothing for it. Let us get me dressed.”
Less than an hour later, Nara helped her tie on her church bonnet. Not a bonnet, really, but some kind of lace covering. “Are you sure?” she asked Nara, fingering it. “At our church at my home, my family’s home, you understand, we wore bonnets.”
“Oh, quite sure, My Lady. At this little country church, why, it isn’t a matter for discipline, but you would stand out most outrageously if you wore a bonnet. Very, umm, modest at our church.”
“She is quite correct,” Lady Ambrose heard and managed not to jump. Her husband, of course. “A few weeks and it won’t even seem odd. The New Testament command for women to be covered is carried out most, as Nara says, modestly in our church here. I quite approve, actually. Church is no time for boasting, and I’m afraid many women’s head covering can be seen as nothing else. Are you ready?”
“Yes, My Lord,” she said, bobbing a quick curtsey and taking his arm. He led her out of the house and into the carriage, and seconds later, the carriage with the Lord and Lady pulled out of the drive, followed by three other carriages and a large group of people walking. Children from the manor danced alongside, shouting and pointing at the new lady and their old lord.
The drive was only a few minutes, and they had gone very slowly so everyone could keep up. Her husband helped her down while everyone else filed in in front of them.
Then it was their turn, and after greeting the parson, they walked in, arm in arm, into the chapel, past row after row of staring and gossiping peasants. Her husband led her to the front pew on the left, and as she sat, so did the entire congregation; the murmuring getting a bit louder.
She looked around. Nara had certainly been correct. Her usual covering would have been most out of place here!
Suddenly everyone stilled and the silence was broken a few moments later by uneven footsteps as the parson limped down the aisle and mounted to the pulpit with difficulty.
“Our first Psalm will be Psalm 45,” he said, and sat back down.
A man in the third row gave a few notes, and everyone started singing. The church wasn’t even big enough for an organ! Lady Ambrose was pleased to learn that Lord Ambrose had a very nice tenor voice and seemed to know his part rather well. She wondered if he had sung in the choir as a lad.
“Our text for today,” the preacher said, finally, “Is
Gal 5:13-14 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
“Brethren, let us look into our hearts and see how this text should affect our lives. What does this Godly affection look like? What forms of kindness should we express for each other in fulfilment of this law? How does the love of our neighbour melt our heart on his behalf?”
Lady Ambrose thought that a very odd analogy. And, as the parson went on, she felt less and less as if the Parson was addressing her situation. Did the parson’s call for Christians to have ‘fellow feeling’ for each other mean that she should forgive her husband when he strayed?
Where was the difficult obedience that Esther said God called her to? Were Ruth and Orpah both to be loved for who they were, rather than Ruth being praised for her actions?
Her mind was still busy with those thoughts when the parson announced the final Psalm and she stayed distracted throughout the half an hour after the service when woman after woman came up to her and announced how pleased they were with her and her marriage and hoped she would be happy.
And then she noticed that the only gentleman that had greeted her was the parson, and the women who had come up were all older. Perhaps the younger women were shy? Or was it her position as Duchess? Certainly at home it had been the younger women who had tended to try to get her attention.
Finally, the greetings seemed done, and the peasants started dispersing back toward their homes; her husband came to get her, holding out his arm. “My Lord Husband?” she asked.
“Yes, my Lady Wife?”
“Would it be very offensive if we walked home? Just the two of us?”
He smiled. “It would definitely be irregular. However, as a Duke, I define regular. Jeremy?”
The butler came over, his face impassive as usual. “Jeremy, her ladyship and I will be walking back. Alone. The staff should proceed ahead of us if you please.”
“Very well, My Lord,” Jeremy said, with a gentle bow and soon, all of the staff were walking down the road, and pregnant mothers and small children were filling up the carriages.
“Did you have any comments on the sermon, my Dear?” her husband asked her.
“It didn’t seem very difficult,” she said.
“Well, at a small country church, the Parson cannot be too intellectual.”
“No, I mean, what he was asking for wasn’t all that hard. Just kind of ‘be nice’.”
He gave her a sideways glance. “And how do you react to that?”
“Well… I have always thought that we were to emulate the Biblical heroes like Daniel, Ruth, and Peter. But there didn’t seem to be anything heroic in today’s sermon. I mean, no one will crucify you for being nice, will they?”
“I think not,” her husband agreed.
Thank you for coming round Arthur’s Substack. I hope and pray it will be a blessing to you.
Arthur publishes with Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid: A Christian historical fiction chapter book about four orphans who go to live with their aunt on a dairy farm.
The Bobtails and the Cousins: The sequel to Preacher’s Kid. The aunt has married, and the cousins come to visit. Meaning town kids dealing with chores and manure and…
The Bobtails go to France: The sequel to cousins. The Bobtails, and Preacher’s Kid, get to take a trip to New York, London, Paris, and a small town in France. To get some cheese.
and
No Ordinary School: A brilliant but socially clueless boy gets recruited for a special school. Where he makes a lot of money, gets a girl, and solves a mystery.
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations. The book is a series of essays on how modern politics has gotten the wrong prescription for the wrong diagnosis.
Quite a few chapters of the Bobtails and No Ordinary School are here on this substack as audio.
I also write as Von, and I encourage you to check out that substack. There is a lot of theology and politics there, as well as quotes, poems, other articles, and links to other Science Fiction. But ‘Von’ also is publishing some serial books and stories. Much more adult and serious books than here, for the most part. Some of them.