Of Preaching at A Score of Weddings and Three Score and Ten Funerals

Recently this blog turned fifteen. It has been far from viral but I’ve enjoyed writing it and it has been interesting to watch and wonder at the number of visits over the years. Sometimes they are thinly and evenly spread from around the world as things putter along. And then there has been the occasional burst of interest from Russia, of all places, to the tune of hundreds of views for a few days. Perhaps our brief (and most enjoyable) visit to St Petersburg in 2015 excited the fevered imagination of some algorithm or other, or one of their hack-factories is assessing my Anglican scribblings as a potential vehicle for cyber mischief. But I digress. 

The most traffic has been not so much to do with the potential for espionage as it has been funeral and wedding sermons related—of which there are around 70 and 20 or so posted on GENEralities respectively. I don’t know whether anyone has gleaned any useful ideas from them or found them helpful, but they get the most clicks. The two most visited are a funeral sermon delivered on Holy Saturday in 2012—22, 600 visits—and a sermon for a wedding in July of the same year—21, 100 visits. You can read them here and here. 

Why these two in particular? I have no idea. 

To let you in on a little secret, the thing about my funeral and wedding sermons, especially the funeral ones, is that they’re pretty much all the same. Perhaps people have noticed and are too polite to say anything. If ever I was asked to suggest readings for a funeral, as happened frequently, I always suggested Ecclesiastes 3 (There’s a Time for Everything) and John 14 (In My Father’s House Are Many Rooms). Then I would try to weave the story of the person who had died and the people who were remembering him or her into the Biblical story and draw their attention to Jesus and what he can do for them. So my funeral sermons were variations on that same theme. Over and over again. 

Weddings tended be variations on the 1 Corinthians 13—The Love Chapter—theme. Which is not about weddings as much as it is about how to do the charismatic gifts and church. But it can be spun into loving one another and a discussion about the difference between the love the couple have fallen into and the agapé-1-Corinthians-13-Jesus-kind-of-love they will have to rise into if their marriage is to grow and last. 

The truth is that most of the people who are there are not really thinking about Jesus or the things of God. They’re grieving and thinking about the loved one or friend who has died or they’re wishing the nuptial couple well and looking forward to the fun of the reception party to follow. But still, such occasions are good opportunities to address real life and death—from “until death do us part” to when it has. 

And the most important, the best, the abundant life giving thing that everyone needs to hear and be reminded of is that a marriage, even a really good one, without Jesus will end eventually. So will a life without him. Lives and marriages with Jesus as an active participant, on the other hand, never end. They just go from glory to glory for ever and ever. 

Amen. Alleluia!

Love With Teeth: a Short Wedding Homily—for Tanya Chacko and Stefan Rothschuh—with reference to 1 Cor 13.1-7 and John 15.9-12

Jesus said I love you like the Father loves me. What kind of love is that? It’s the John 3.16 for-God-so-loved-the-world kind. Steadfast. Intelligent. Determined. Always focused on the other and hoping for the best for him or her, no matter what, kind. Do you know that God loves each one of us like that? Nothing we can do, or not do, can make him stop loving us, or even love us less. That’s how Jesus loves you, Stefan and Tanya, and all of you and me. 

Then Jesus says REMAIN in my love—ABIDE in it, SETTLE into it, LIVE in it, let it soak into your bones. How is this done? How do we remain in and enjoy the love of Jesus? Keep my commandments, he said. What’s the main one? LOVE one another. This is MY commandment, said Jesus. 

How shall we love one another? Holy matrimony—marriage—is a good way, a special and delightful way designed by God in the very beginning—part of creation in the second chapter of the whole Bible. After all, as we have just heard:  

It is God’s purpose that, as husband and wife give themselves to each other in love, they shall grow together and be united in that love, as Christ is united with his Church. 

The union of man and woman in heart, body, and mind is intended for their mutual comfort and help, that they may know each other with delight and tenderness in acts of love.  

God our Father, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law. Grant to these your servants that loving one another they may continue in your love until their lives’ end; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All of which sounds like remaining in the love of Jesus—the kind of love that makes a good marriage. So when I ask Tanya and Stefan if they will each give themselves to the other, the very first thing on the list of things they are promising each other is that they will love each other. They’ll promise it again in their vows. This love is not the the exciting, romantic love they’ve fallen in and that makes your mind go away. It is the kind of love St Paul is writing about as we heard Stefan’s grandfather, Herr Woith, read in German a few moments ago, and which Jesus says we are to remain. Love which is patient, kind, without envy, doesn’t boast, or behave arrogantly, is not rude, does not insist on its own way, is not irritable or resentful and without which we are really nothing but noisy, clanging, empty things.

Romantic love you can fall in and out of. Even in a good marriage. Warm fuzzies can cool with the rigors of parental sleep deprivation and life’s worries. But you can’t fall out of the love to which Jesus, St Paul and this marriage service refer. You can’t fall out of it, because you didn’t fall into it in the first place. You fell in love, then as you enjoyed that and got to know each other the Spirit of Jesus who loves you prompted you to realize this IS the one my soul loves (Song of Solomon 3.4) as it says on the first page of our leaflet, this is someone I’d like to give myself to completely, to love and to cherish for the rest of my life. This, with apologies to the dentists in the room (Tanya is a dentist—Ed.), is love with teeth. Love you choose to give. Love you then have to brush and floss and keep clean and healthy. Daily. Love which makes the smiles you share dazzling and white. Love to remain in. For the rest of your lives, no matter what, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, toilet seat up or down, messy or tidy, toothpaste tube all scrunched up or neatly rolled. 

Stefan and Tanya I hope and pray you will accept the invitation Jesus has extended today and that you will choose to remain in His love. The best way of doing that is by going to Church. That’s his Body and his Bride. Think of him as a benign and Divine Hygienist. There he will feed your souls and your relationship and keep your smiles bright. There he will keep you as one flesh so that, LORD willing, on the 21st of July, 2068, you’ll celebrate your fiftieth wedding anniversary. Mark your calendars. 

So love one another with all you’ve got. Live out and enjoy your married life together as you have begun it, in the presence of Jesus. 

Holy Ground: a Short Wedding Homily—for Hugh and Bonnie McDonald

…with reference to Exodus 3.1-6 and Mark 10.6-9. Exodus??!!?? For a wedding? I love atypical reading choices. 

Hugh and Bonnie were just living their lives, their plain, ordinary lives, just like Moses when he was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. (Ex 3.1) Bonnie was running her store and Hugh was enjoying retirement and wood-carving, they both did a little dancing. Then one day, they headed off their separate, familiar beaten tracks a little, like that time when Moses led his flock to the far side of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, (Ex 3.1) and saw something that he wasn't expecting. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “Wow! Look at that! I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” (Ex 3.2-3)

One day Bonnie and Hugh saw something they weren't expecting, either, and Bonnie said to herself, “Wow! Look at that! I like the look of him.” And who knows what Hugh thought, but secretly, and in a very gentlemanly way, something inside him was going, “Va-va-voom!” Which is an old-fashioned and more polite way of saying…well…you know. And something started to smolder. It burned but nothing was singed or blackened or burned up with them, either.  It was actually rather nice. Heart warming. And then, like Moses, one of them said, or maybe it was both of them, "I will go over and look at more closely at this hotness and see what's causing my temperature to rise." Pretty soon they were both feeling pretty cosy and warm and they discovered that it got warmest when they were together and they liked the feeling and they started turning aside to enjoy the flame more and more often.

And When the LORD saw that they, like Moses, had gone over to have a look, only in their case it was at each other, and they kept hanging out there warming their hands and grinning at each other all the time. God called to them from within the bush, just like he did to Moses, and he said, “Hugh and Bonnie! Bonnie and Hugh!” And they said, “Here we am…are.” Then God said, “Before you get any closer to each other, it's time to get serious! The first thing you have to do is to realize that, as a couple, for you to be on holy ground with me we’ve got to get Jesus involved. Your ground can never be truly holy without him. And for that to happen, you have to take off your sandals.” Why did God want Moses then, and Hugh and Bonnie now, to take their sandals off? Because if they left them on, they would track the unholy dirt and dust and grime of the world into what is supposed to be a holy place, which needs to be kept clean and pure because it’s holy. We do something similar, as a sign of respect, when we take our shoes off when we get home or visit someone else's home.

Hugh and Bonnie looked at each other, and Hugh said, “I think we’d better get over on that holy ground. Will you marry me?"

Which brings us here this evening. Bonnie and Hugh “have come to enter this holy state” (The Book of Alternative Services, p529), as we heard earlier, will make vows to each other “according to God’s holy law,” (Ibid, p 531) as they will say to each other shortly. Making their vows is like taking off their sandals so they can step onto holy ground and meet there heart to heart enveloped by the warmth and love of the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ who met Moses in that burning bush and who will make them into one flesh before our very eyes.

A Short Christmastide Wedding Giving-the-Gift-of-Yourselves Homily: for Neil and Leah Broadbent

Jesus is the reason for the season as the saying goes. The season being Christmastide still; until sundown tomorrow to be precise. Then Epiphany kicks in. Christmastide is a great time for a wedding and this is why. “For to us a child is born,” wrote the great prophet Isaiah, “to us a son is given.” (Is 9.6)

Jesus was given—a God-given gift to the world. In a few moments I will ask Neil and Leah, in turn, if they will each give the greatest and most precious gift they have to offer; the gift of themselves; to the other—even more lovingly wrapped and prepared, I'd like to think, because it's given in Christmastide. And it's especially fitting because, as we just heard, marriage itself is a gift of God. In this case, a special Christmastide gift for Neil and Leah, in which "husband and wife give themselves to each other in love" so they will "grow together and be united in that love, as Jesus, the great Bridegroom, is united with his Bride, the Church—which brings us back to Jesus being the reason for the season and for this Christmastide wedding.

So, Leah and Neil, as Robert Fulgham wrote in the first reading, “shortly you shall say a few words that will take you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never quite be the same." You’ll spend the rest of your lives opening, being challenged by, delighting in, misunderstanding and enjoying this Christmastide gift of each other.

Here are some Christmastide wedding gift-of-yourselves opening tips:

First, I noticed not everybody and everything you hoped would be here this weekend is here. It will be the same in your marriage, you will both miss things, make mistakes, be careless, take one another for granted. You won’t always be there and present for one another. Jesus always is. “I am with you always” (Mt 28.20), he said. Look to Him. He is the very best helper and comforter through life’s disappointments.

Second, change is the only constant in life. You will change—they way you look, the way you behave, what you like and don’t like; sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worse. Jesus never changes. He stays the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb 3.18). He is the very best and absolutely constant source of help through life’s changes.

Third, life is noisy. Have you noticed? (Lots of kids present and a good thing, too!) All this gift opening and discovery and growing together and being united in love happens in the midst of kids, work, anxieties, distractions, temptations—all vieing for our attention and having the power to divert our attention from the most important people in our lives. Robert Fulgham, reminds us to remember the "common things," the conversations, walks, informal little day by day commitments made to each other. He called these little, seemingly inconsequential things, "the real process” of a marriage. I agree.

Finally, the “still more excellent way” (1 Cor 12.31) to unwrap and enjoy the Christmastide wedding gift you’ve given each other today. Live in love—not so much the romantic love into which you’ve fallen, delightful as it is, but the more determined, act-of-the-will, toilet-seat-up-or-down, toothpaste-tube-scrunched-or-not kind of love which will grow you together as long as you both shall live; the love we heard about in the second reading. Jesus personifies it. Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind, does not seek his own interests. Jesus is not quick-tempered, does not brood over injury, or rejoice over wrong doing. Jesus rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes and hopes for the best for you both in all things. By following his example, you can love each other better than you know how. This is love with muscle which never fails and will have you celebrating your fiftieth wedding anniversary on the fourth of January, 2064. Mark your calendars.

May Jesus by your way, your truth and your life in your marriage as you open and enjoy the Christmastide wedding gifts of yourselves you have given each other today.

All praise be to Jesus Christ.

A Jesus Care Plan for a Healthy Marriage: a Short Wedding Homily for Franz and Dagmara Jonker with reference to Colossians 3:12-17 and Romans 12:9-18

Jesus is the name of The One in whom and through whom everything is taking place this afternoon. He is my boss, this is his church, he is the point all we just heard in the readings, he is the one who, for his first miracle according to John, turned a hundred and twenty or so gallons of water into fine wine for what must have been a most memorable and joyful wedding reception in Cana, he is the great bridegroom who will one day return to wed his bride, the church—an event which will set off the greatest wedding reception there ever was and for all eternity. What we celebrate today, is a foretaste of that event.

So, what’s the difference between Mother Teresa and a nurse? Mother Teresa only has to serve one God (Cami Arnold Miller). So, Franz and Dagmara, do you. One God, through his son, Jesus Christ, our LORD, the GREAT physician. Here’s part of his preventative health care plan for a good marriage from the readings we just heard. First, the Colossians passage Francesca read: Let his peace rule in your hearts, it said. Let it. No matter how clueless he seems. No matter how many jobs she wants done around the house. No matter what. The peace of Jesus. Ruling in our hearts, over every thing else.

Let his word—it's to be found in the Bible—dwell in you richly. Read it. Come to church to listen to it, pray it, sing it, eat it and drink it. Live it out for each other’s sake.

Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the LORD Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Everything. It’s not just the “religious” stuff we need to do in his name. It’s everything—the hand-holding, the loving smile, loading the dishwasher, cleaning the toilets, the hugging, the going out for dinner, having friends over, love-making, and especially, what you’re doing today. Giving thanks.

And from the Romans passage I read: let your love for each other be genuine and mutually affectionate—mutual having and holding, just as the vows will say, from this day forward, mutual loving and cherishing with deep affection for the rest of your lives. How long is that? The prayer of blessing we will pray over you shortly says this: “Finally, in your mercy, bring them to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home.” Forever, which “can never be long enough for me to feel like I've had long enough with you,” sang Train in the song we heard as you walked up the aisle, Dagmara. Forever, never long enough, because as the song also said, “Marry me, today and every day.”

Outdo one another in showing honour to each other—you begin today as you place a ring on each other's fingers saying, "with all that I am and all that I have I honour you in the name of God."
Serve The LORD. Serving one another is an important, perhaps THE most important way of doing that from now on.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering—for better or worse, as the vows will say, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

So there we have it. The perfect care plan for a mutually healthy marriage—peace, his word, genuine love, mutual affection, honour, rejoicing and patience. All from and for Jesus.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Short Wedding Sermon with Reference to Jesus, It's Not About Me, Wisdom (with some practical advice) and Love—for Giles and Kelly Talbott

I think it’s fair to say that Jesus, being the Son of God and all, was the smartest and most powerful man who ever lived. So when we consider that the first miracle Jesus, the smartest and most powerful man who ever lived, performed, according John’s gospel, was to turn a hundred and twenty gallons or so of water into really good wine so people could have a really good time at a wedding reception, we have to think that God really likes weddings and marriage. So the fact that Kelly and Giles have chosen to be married in a community and institution that God also holds dear and also created miraculously through Jesus—the Church—is most fitting.

Here’s why.

Although they may not have thought or said this in so many words, Giles and Kelly are here because in their love for each other they have each come to a place where life is no longer all about “me.” Life for each of them is now about another. And part of that development has come also the realization that life for them together, as a married couple, is no longer just about them, but about yet another. The One who created them, knew them by name from before the world began, loves them and will shortly, before out very eyes, make them one flesh in Holy Matrimony. The marriage ceremony is full of 
“it’s not about me, it’s about you” and “it’s not just about us, it’s about God and his creation, Jesus and his church, the Holy Spirit and his help, and the community in which we live and have our being.” It’s about living out of yourselves for each other.

Here’s how.

We heard it in the readings Kelly and Giles chose.
From Proverbs (3:13-18)—be wise. Here’s some wise and practical advice for a happy marriage from the Mother Theresa School kindergarten class:

• You need a ring, a dress and a cake
• You will need candles
• Make sure you have good kids
• Tell each other you are pretty
• Go camping
• Always dance together
• Have a good day with each other
• Go out for supper sometimes
• Always have love together
• To have a happy marriage my mom and dad lay in their bed. They hold hands and they love each other
• Say I love you (x5)

The Apostle Paul agrees in the reading from Romans (12:9-13) we just heard. Love, really. Work at it. Rejoice, be patient, pray, help one another. Love. The word used here is not about the romantic love into which Giles and Kelly have fallen. It is much deeper. Romance brought them together, the kind of love Paul writes about will keep them there. It’s what will have them, and some of you, celebrating their fiftieth on June 15th, 2063. Anglican priest and scholar JI Packer describes this kind of love like this:

Its total lack of self-concern is breathtaking. It seeks the other’s good, and the true measure of it is how much it gives to that end. 

Love is a principle of action rather than of emotion. It is a purpose of honoring and benefiting the other party. It is a matter of doing things for people out of compassion for their need, whether or not we feel personal affection for them. (CONCISE THEOLOGY A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs, J. I. Packer, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois.)

Listen to the words Jesus uses (Mt 5:1-9). He speaks of the poverty of spirit which enables us to think of others, especially those we love, as better than ourselves. Of comfort, meekness, righteousness of the unselfish kind, mercy, purity of heart and peace. A marriage like that will love you out of your individual selves into a new life together. A life as husband and wife, joined together as one flesh, united just as Jesus is united with the church in which you are about to make your vows before God himself.

Wedding Words and a Wordle: a Short Homily with Reference to John 15:9-12 and The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage in The Book of Alternative Services—for Gerron and Angela Hogg

Strong, definite words. 

• Love (7 times in the reading plus 7 times in the service so far—11 to come)
• Command
• Joy.

Same in the service. So far we’ve heard, or read, strong words like;

• Celebration
• Blessing
• Jesus
• Marriage
• Delight
• Tenderness
• Good
• Bad
• Holy state
• Solemn vows
• Lives’ end.

They will get even more pointed as this Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage before God goes on. Gerron and Angela will be making solemn vows using words like;

• Better
• Worse
• Richer
• Poorer
• Sickness
• Health
• God’s holy law
• All that I am
• All that I have

And then we’ll be praying for them using words like

• Your son gave his life
• Unity
• Estrangement
• Forgiveness
• Guilt
• Joy
• Despair
• Faithfulness
• Truth
• Security
• Loyalties
• Lead us not into temptation
• Deliver us from evil
• The way of the cross
• Enemy
• Death
• Heaven
• Age to come
• Life everlasting

Life and death words. Uncompromising. Real life. For keeps. Costly words if we’re going to take them seriously and live them out. Not to be undertaken lightly.

Today we’re enjoying a celebration and a blessing. Joyful. Fun. We’re also witnessing the beginning of a marriage which is all the words I’ve just listed rolled up in one glorious, frustrating, delightful, maddening, incomprehensible, life-long, God-given gift. Angela and Gerron will spend the rest of their lives unwrapping it. The best source of support and help with that is Jesus Christ, in whose presence we are in this ceremony and through whom we will pray God’s blessing on them today. Gerron and Angela, make a point of including Him and His Church in your new life together as a married couple.

Love and Marriage: a Short Wedding Homily with reference to 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 4 and Forrest Gump—for Aaron and Allison Babitzke

This feels like it must be my 843rd homily on love and marriage. Okay, I exaggerate, realistically it's probably only my 70th. I've referred to Forrest Gump's comment before but couldn't resist using it again when The Feather Theme came up.

These days I'm wondering whether there's really any point in a homily at weddings. Most people are thoroughly pre-occupied and distracted, especially the happy couple. Preparation sessions would be better opportunities to make the important and necessary connections between Scripture, the Christian faith, the Church and what they're doing.

Anyway, here's the latest (and my last?):

I wonder if you noticed that the music Catherine played as Allison and the bridesmaids came in was The Feather Theme from the opening scene of the movie, Forrest Gump. One of the things Forrest says in the movie and which sticks in my mind is this:

I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.

Which fits wonderfully with what we’re doing today and what we’ve just heard read from the Bible because if we pay attention to what we heard, we, like Forrest Gump, will also know what love is. And not only that, we will know its origin and how it is to be expressed. Which are good things to know when you’re about to enter into “a holy state,” and “a way of life that all should reverence, and none should lightly undertake.”

Let’s begin at the beginning. Love’s origin. “Love is of God,” wrote John in the third reading, and “God is love” (1 John 4:7 & 8)

How is God’s love most clearly and magnificently expressed? In that "he sent his Son" (1 John 4:9), Jesus, to show us how to live lovingly and, buy his voluntary death on a cross, to set us free from all sin and death.

Not only that, but God loved us first (1 John 4:10), and before we could do anything to earn or deserve it. God’s love for us is not dependent on our behaviour. Not a bad example for husbands and wives, don’t you think? Not a bad example for all of us, writes John, because of it, “let us love another" (1 John 4:7 & 11), he writes, because when we do that, “God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12) and in our marriages and relationships.

The word in the Greek is agape. In Corinthians reading we heard it described as patient, kind, not jealous, or proud, or rude, or selfish, or easily angered (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). Anglican theologian, James Packer, puts it this way: “Its total lack of self-concern is breathtaking. It seeks the other’s good, and the true measure of it is how much it gives to that end. Love is a principle of action rather than of emotion. It is a purpose of honoring and benefiting the other party (you’ll hear the word honour used several times during the vows later on). It is a matter of doing things for people out of compassion for their need, whether or not we feel personal affection for them.”

Here’s a way. The word will be mentioned 43 times in the service and in the readings. It reminds me of an organizational website called 43 Folders which is about getting things done. The 43 folders are one for each day of the month—31—and one for each month of the year–12—which adds up to 43. Basically its about planning ahead—you put your to-dos in the appropriate folder so you wont forget to get the things done on the appropriate day and month.

Aaron and Allison, your most important to-dos from now on are to live your I-do's out in love from now on; day by day and month by month. Be first, like God, in loving one another, don't wait for the other to start. Seek the good, the best, for each other. Act on the love you have for the other, not so much on the emotion you might be feeling at the moment, especially of the emotion is negative.

That kind of love never gives up and will never end (1 Corinthians 13:7 & 8).

 

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A Short Wedding Sermon on Love: with reference to 1 Corinthians 13:4-13—for Arthur and Shawna Jennings

I find God's Word endlessly meaningful and applicable although sometimes I wonder just how much juice it is possible to squeeze out of a single passage of Scripture. I suppose what we all do with 1 Corinthians 13 and weddings, would be called variations on a theme in music. I'm not sure what number this variation would be for me…

You know that reading is not about marriage. Its really about how to do Church. In particular, how to do worship in Church; how Church is not so much about the buzz and excitement and glamour of the charismatic gifts like prophecy, tongues and special God-given knowledge because as good and interesting as they are, they're going to end. And it's really not so much about us as it is about God and us needing to get serious, stop being childish, grow up and to learn to know Him by following Jesus. 

It works for marriage, too. Because marriage is not so much about the buzz and excitement and electricity and chemistry of pre-marital romance—good as all that is!—real marriage— deep, satisfying, rich, delightful, soul-mates marriage—is about putting the childish, all-about-me, ways behind us as we grow up into the women and men God made us to be. Real marriage is about learning to see through the poorer reflections of ourselves and our spouse that come from childish foot-stamping and always wanting our own way to seeing one another face to face. Really applying ourselves to learning to know one another fully, and being vulnerable enough to allow ourselves to be fully known—having faith in God and in one another, hoping for the best from one another and from God. God’s best is Jesus, by the way, who is to be found in His Church.  

But most of all, if there is to be growing up and deep face to face knowing of each other there must be love. Love that is greater than the romantic love that brought you together. Love that is fierce enough to overcome all obstacles and frustrations, that needs no love in return, that is intelligent and purposeful, as Marva Dawn writes, always directed to the need of the other. Love to do, by choice of will, day after day, night after snoring night, ruined toothpaste tube after ruined toothpaste tube, toilet seat up or down, bank balance full or empty.  

That kind of love never fails. That kind of love is the “greatest of these” Paul wrote about in our reading. That kind of love will grow Arthur and Shawna and bring them face to face forever. 

Good Creative Beginnings: A Short Wedding Sermon with Reference to Genesis 1: 27-28, 31a - for Jeremy & Courtney Bruins

I love weddings. I love the mixture of nervousness, joy, bravado, and hope in them. I love the bride’s walk down the aisle. I love the mix of vulnerability and love in the eyes of the bride and groom as they exchange their vows. I enjoy the variety (and sometimes mystery) in the music each couple chooses for the ceremony.

And even more, I love what’s going on in and under and all around every Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage in this, or any Christian Church. It can be less obvious and easy to miss in the excitement of the day.  What’s also going on this afternoon began in what we heard Stephanie read from the first chapter of the very first book in the whole Bible, Genesis. The word Genesis means beginning. For Courtney and Jeremy, today is a beginning made possible because of the fact that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is love itself, created them, male and female he created them and blessed them (Gen 1: 27-28)—all out of love. That was in the very first chapter of the Bible.

In the second chapter of the Bible, some twenty verses later, there is this: “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” No sooner had God created men and women and all of creation, he also created marriage. So what is going on in and under and around this celebration this snowy afternoon is a divine welding. Jeremy and Courtney are to be made one flesh before our very eyes. Instead of electricity, the arc that will do the welding into one flesh this afternoon is God himself, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

That’s what I love most about weddings. I get to see God himself at work in his good creation, bringing couple after couple together, and making them one. God created the romantic, exciting love which attracts them and draws them together. He is the deeper, quieter, steadfast, everlasting, love that will keep them together, if they allow it and will do the work. Then the bright lights and sparks and excitement of the falling in love can grow and rise into something full and rich enough that they will get to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary together, LORD willing, on Saturday, February 25th, 2062. Mark your calendars.

The love that keeps couples together is the for-God-so-loved-the-world kind of love. Less to do with feelings than determined commitment no matter what—crushed toothpaste tube after crushed toothpaste tube, toilet seat up or down, dirty diaper after dirty diaper and on and on.

The ultimate expression of that love, the very radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, who upholds the universe by the word of his power (Heb 1: 3) is Jesus Christ, Son of God, light of the world, LORD and Saviour, the great Bridegroom, whose Bride is the Church of which the congregation who worship here are a part and into whose presence you have come to be wed in His Name. Please continue as you have begun and make Him and His Church a part of your lives and relationship. His presence will brings out the best in you. We all become better, kinder, more loving husbands, wives, parents, children and friends when we make room for Him in our lives.

And “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Gen 1:31) Love is good. Weddings are good. Marriage is good.

Something More that Makes This Year's Love Last: a Wedding Sermon with reference to David Grey's "This Year's Love" and 1 Cor 13—for Austin & Brittney LaBranche

“This year’s love had better last,” sang David Grey as Brittney walked in with her Dad. We didn’t quite get to, “Sweep me off my feet, singin’ ain’t this life so sweet. This year’s love had better last.” I don’t know who swept who off whose feet but life is pretty sweet today, isn’t it. We’re here because Austin and Brittney have decided “This year’s love had better last,” and what better way to ensure that than to enter into a Christian covenant of Holy Matrimony. To that end they will make solemn vows before all of you and before the living God Himself.
Smart move because the fact is, as David Grey also sings, “It feels so right now,” but pretty soon most of us “start to forget, how my heart gets torn when that hurt gets thrown feeling like I can’t go on.” It happens to all of us. The hurts fly and we are tempted to give up on one another.
Another reason why it’s smart to commit to one another in Christian marriage is because, David Grey again: “If you love me got to know for sure, Cuz it takes something more this time.” More than what? More than just romantic feelings. Christian marriage is the something more; a solemn, purposeful commitment which provides a foundation and a trustworthy home for the sweet, sweep-me-off-my-feet feelings which brought you here today.
How does that work? Austin and Brittney, you’ve made the decision to commit before God. Well done. You must also decide to go beyond the sweet, sweep-me-off-my-feet feelings, children no more, grow up and love each other in the ways St Paul describes in your reading from First Corinthians; with patience, kindness, without envy, pride, rudeness, self seeking or anger; protecting and trusting one another, hoping for the best for one another, persevering in it all. Not always easy but worth the effort especially when those hurts are thrown and you feel like you can’t go on.
Marriage is wonderful, but it’s difficult. Christian marriage has the “something more” that makes you “know for sure” you are loved. The something more is Jesus. This congregation and this building exist because of him. The world was created through him. Men and women and marriage were a part of that very good creation right at the beginning. In the second chapter of the Bible it says a man will leave his family and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh in marriage. In other words, as EM Forrester wrote in A Room with a View, this wedding is a moment for which the world was made and Jesus is at the heart of it. Jesus gave his life on the cross to save Austin and Brittney and their marriage (and all of us) from sin and death if we will only accept it. As we shall shortly pray, the spiritual unity between Jesus and his church will be represented in the covenant of marriage Brittney and Austin are making today. All we do in this celebration is “through Jesus Christ our Lord,” Son of God, Saviour of world. Jesus—something more indeed—the ultimate, matchless and perfect expression of God’s love—whose love is the greatest and never fails; making it possible for this year’s love to last—oh, let’s say at least until Saturday, September 3, 2061 when, Lord willing, Austin and Brittney will celebrate their fiftieth. Mark your calendars. 


Rockin'—a Short Wedding Sermon with Reference to Mt 7:24-27 and Songbirds: for Jay and Shanda Burbine

This is good. Its good to see Jay and Shanda being married. It's good to be able to be a part of it. It's good to hear that reading from Matthew at a wedding. First time for me. Good choice Jay and Shanda, you’re giving all of us the gift of a fresh insight into wise Christian marriage building from Jesus himself.

Why does that matter? Jesus loves you and wants the very best for you and all of us. And Jesus likes weddings—his first miracle was to turn one hundred and fifty or so gallons for water into really good wine so people could have a good time at one.

Remember what the reading said? Let’s get it clear in our minds. Wise-rock. House does not fall. Foolish-sand. What a terrible fall that was! Repeat after me.

So let’s rock.

How do you build a house, a marriage, a life, on a rock? First, obey Jesus, love one another.

The song we heard as Shanda came in was Songbirds from classic rockers Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. If we'd heard a bit more of it, we'd have heard this:

And I love you, I love you, I love you, like never before.

A love song. Deeply felt. Romantic. That kind of love is wonderful and is what brought you together. It sizzles and leaves you breathless. But if your love never gets beyond that, your marriage will be resting on the sand Jesus talks about. It may be warm and comfortable and great to wiggle your toes in to begin with, but sooner or later there will be rain, just as Jesus says, and with rain will come rising rivers of irritation and misunderstanding. Winds of time passing, of change and disappointment will blow hard against your marriage. The sand will shift, be washed and blown away, it’ll get in your eyes, up your nose and into your clothing in the most uncomfortable places.

If you want to build your marriage on a rock, add the kind of love we heard about in the first reading from 1 Corinthians 13; it's powerful, the kind of love with which God so loves the world, which Jesus uniquely demonstrated and personifies; the love with which you comfort, honour and protect each other in Christian marriage by being patient, kind, truthful, faithful, hopeful and never giving up on one another.

And, finally, you know who the Rock is. Jesus, the Rock from whom everything in all creation rolled, rolls and will ever roll. The Rock which rolls our blues away, as I’ve heard Jay sing. Jesus is the Rock upon whom wise couples like Shanda and Jay can build lives and strong Christian marriages which will never fall.

Let’s review. Repeat after me. Wise-rock-Jesus. House does not fall.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad :-)

O, LORD, You Are So Big: a Short Wedding Sermon with reference to Ro 12: 9-18, 1 Cor 13, Mt 22: 35-40 and Monty Python—for Anthony and Kelsey Ilosvay

(Wedding number two today)

I can’t remember exactly how we got on to this, but in our marriage prep Bible study (I figure if people are going out of their way to married in the Christian Church, they need to know what the manual says about it) Anthony, Kelsey and I somehow got to this line from Monty Python:

O Lord, oo-oo-oo, you are so big, so absolutely huge, gosh, we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell you. Forgive us o lord for this our dreadful toadying, But you’re just so strong and so super. 

And Anthony suggested I should use it. I think it was a dare. So here goes.

In the last reading we heard, from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 22, Jesus obviously thinks God is big enough, impressive enough, strong enough and super enough to love—with all our hearts, souls and minds—with everything we have, in other words. In fact, He commands it and he calls it the first and greatest commandment.

Admittedly, that’s a tall order. It’s hard enough for us sinners to control our minds (especially when there are so many Australians present), let alone our hearts and souls. It’s a tall order for married couples, too.

I think the readings were well chosen. By choosing them, Kelsey and Anthony are clearly acknowledging that, for them, God is no laughing matter. Not only is God big—infinite, in fact—God is impressively super and strong. The Bible says nothing is impossible for God. God is an awesome being of great power and glory. He raises people from the dead.

If we want to make the most of life and marriage, this is how we just heard God says we need to do it: Love sincerely. Hate evil, cling to good. Be devoted to one another. Honour one another. Be spiritually alive. Serve Jesus. Pray. Share. Be hospitable. Bless those who get up your nose. Live in harmony. Avoid conceit. Don’t get even. Do what is right. Live at peace. Love. Be patient, kind, do not envy, boast, be proud or rude or self-seeking or easily angered. Keep no record of wrongs. Protect, trust, hope in and persevere with one another. Grow together. Above all, just love. Love God with all you’ve got. Jesus called that the first and greatest commandment. And love one another—he called that the second greatest commandment. That’s all you have to do and everything’ll be fine. 


By choosing these readings, you, Kelsey and Anthony, are doing the opposite of the “toadying” sort of prayer in the Monty Python sketch. You are taking God seriously—showing that you are impressed. You are acknowledging the significance of what you are doing today. You’re setting the bar high for yourselves. You know how you need to live to enjoy a long and happy marriage. You know where, and in whom, the best help is to be found as you do so; in Jesus Christ, the heavenly bridegroom, Lord, Saviour, light of the world.

Where is Jesus to be found? Here in his church, in the Bible and in his followers.

Let’s pray. O Lord, thank you that you are big enough to handle anything. May we be truly impressed...

White Wedding: a Short Wedding Sermon with reference to Eph 3:14-19 and Col 3:12-19—for Clarke and Kimberly White

(Wedding number one today)

I guess this really is a White wedding. White dress, Clarke White…

Wikipedia says white weddings started with the white dress Queen Victoria wore when she married Prince Albert in 1840. Before that brides wore all sorts of colours. At the time of Victoria's wedding, white was considered the color of mourning, and inappropriate for a wedding.

Thereafter, as accounts of Victoria's wedding spread across the Atlantic and throughout Europe elites followed her lead. Because of the limitations of laundering techniques in those days, white dresses were a sign of conspicuous consumption. They showed the world that the bride's family was so wealthy and so firmly part of the leisure class that they could afford to lose such dress if were soiled and couldn’t be cleaned.

And here we are in a church that exists because of the Jesus Christ we heard about in the readings from the Bible and who, on one occasion, on what is called the Mount of Transfiguration, the Bible describes as having clothes that became as white as the light (Mt 17:2), dazzling white (Mk 9:3), bright as a flash of lightning (Lk 9:29), whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them (Mk 9:3), and even his face shone like the sun (Mt 17:2). This, or any other, wedding is especially, wonderfully, white because of His presence. Jesus makes weddings extra white. And Jesus can make marriages white—whiter than white—so they glow.  

We hear how in the Bible readings Clarke and Kimberly chose to set the tone of their new married life together. Kimberly and Clarke, if, as we heard in the first reading from Ephesians, you invite Jesus Christ to make his home in your hearts as you trust in him (Eph 3:17), your hearts will glow with His light and so will your marriage. If you allow your marriage to be established in His love, you will see just how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ (Eph 3:18) for you.

And as we heard in the second reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, if you clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience with one another (Col 3:12), make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive each other (Col 3:13), over and over and over, if necessary. If you clothe yourselves with that kind of love, you will be bound together in perfect married harmony (Col 3:14). Most importantly, if whatever you do or say, is done in the name of the LORD Jesus (Col 3:17), your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong and this white wedding will have launched a marriage which glows with the dazzling, bright as a flash of lightning, white light of Jesus Christ himself. There is no stopping such a marriage.

As I thought about this white wedding theme, I wondered if there were any white wedding anniversaries. I found there are three: the sixth, thirteenth and sixtieth. Here are the dates of yours: July 16, 2017, 2024 and 2071. Mark your calendars.

Drugs, Chemistry and Matrimony with reference to 1 John 4:7–12—for Michael Laevens and Chandel Lovig

A drug, broadly speaking, says Wikipedia, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function.

In pharmacology, Wikipedia says, a drug is "a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being."

Enhance physical or mental well-being. That sounds like what marriage is for. Marriage, then, could be seen as something like a drug. Strangely appropriate, especially at the wedding of two pharmacists, don’t you think?

Okay, marriage is not a chemical substance, but there’s chemistry involved. That’s what brought Michael and Chandel together.

Wikipedia goes on to say that drugs may be prescribed for a limited duration, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders.

A limited duration. Not so with marriage. God, the great healer, prescribed marriages to last forever. Things don’t always work out that way, but God’s hope and intention was for enhanced physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing in marriages.

Not that Chandel and Michael are suffering from a chronic disorder. Or are they?

Think about it. What has brought them and of us here this afternoon was a condition “characterized by abnormal heart rhythms, sweating, impaired brain function, incoherent speech patterns and loss of sleep, among other things.” (writes Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, Editor of NaturalNews.com). Sounds an awful lot like a disease, doesn’t it. Plato, the Greek philosopher, called love “a serious mental illness.”

They need something for that. The something is marriage, not to make the condition go away, but to make it better, richer, and forever. Marriage is designed to change the love they’ve fallen into—the romantic, hearts aflutter love—into the deeper, more intelligent, John 3:16 God-so-loved-the-world kind of love we heard about in the reading. What’s that love like?

Jesus is. Jesus is, because, as we heard, God is love and God showed us his love by sending Jesus, his Son, to pay all that we owe for our sins, so that we might live through him.

Jesus, the one who shows us God’s love, the Bible also says, is the Bridegroom. The church is called his Bride. Therefore there’s no better person before whom and in whose name there is to be wed. Neither is there a better place in which to be wed.

Back to some chemical talk. Up to now, Michael and Chandel have been rather like a mixture. The components of a mixture, in this case the happy couple, retain their characteristic properties and, Chandel and Michael might argue about this but, can be separated relatively easily.

What the God who is love is about to do, is perform the divine equivalent of a chemical reaction or process, which will turn them in something stronger, like a compound. A compound is different from a mixture. Its components are not as easily separated. The Bible calls what God is about to do, “making them one flesh.” God is about to take the mixture that is Chandel and Michael and, using the power of the love he is and that created the heavens and the earth, sent us Jesus and raised Jesus from the dead, to make them into an indissoluble compound—one flesh.

Michael and Chandel, since God so loves you and is about to make you so much more than just a mixture, so much more than just a couple; as the reading you chose said, you “ought to love one another” deeply, from the heart, and intelligently with your brain and your will. As you do that, God himself will live in you—and his love, so wonderfully shown to you in Jesus, will be made complete in you.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad :-)

A Wedding Sermon with Reference to Genesis 1: 26-28, 31A; the Goo Goo Dolls, Josh Groban, Garth Brooks and Sugarland: for Andy and Dalis Hofer

The first thing we need to know today is that, as we just heard, God made us. More to the point, God made Andy and Dalis. Very good! And in the very next chapter of Genesis, God instituted marriage: so “a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are made one flesh, united into one.”

So this a moment connected with God’s very good creation. In fact, as we heard at the beginning of this service, marriage is a gift of God. And not only that, at the end of this service we will pray a blessing on Dalis and Andy asking that they may faithfully live together in this life, and in the age to come have life everlasting. In their marriage is represented, as we shall also pray, the spiritual unity between Christ and his Church. Jesus, the Bible says, is the bridegroom and the Church is his bride. Jesus, the Bible also tells us, is the only way to where that everlasting life can be enjoyed.

In the first song we heard, as the Mums and guys came, the Goo Goo Dolls in the song Iris sang this:

I’d give up forever to touch you…You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be.

I hope not. Although you love each other deeply, and make one another feel good, and even though (as Josh Groban also sang in You Raise Me Up as the ladies came in) when you’re together you can be filled with wonder and sometimes even get to “glimpse eternity,” if you allow one another to be the closest to heaven you’ll ever be, you’ll miss out on the life everlasting we will pray you will enjoy and the great wedding feast when Jesus and his bride, the Church, come together at last. Jesus is the closest to heaven you can be. Please believe in him. Worship him. Become part of his church. You've started your marriage in it, continue your marriage in it. Include Jesus in your marriage.

By the time this service is finished we will have heard the word “love” a couple of dozen, or so, times. The interesting thing is the word that's used has its roots not in the kind of love in which Andy and Dalis have fallen—delightful as that is. It’s a better, deeper kind of love—its called agape in Greek—the John 3:16 for God so loved the world kind of love. It's the fierce love of One who really cares about you. Unconditional positive regard. A love that needs no love in return, that is intelligent, purposeful and strong, always directed to the need of the other. You don't fall in agape, you rise in agape. It's to do...by choice of will, day after day, night after snoring night, ruined toothpaste tube after ruined toothpaste tube, toilet seat up or down…

The Goo Goo Dolls sang:

I just want you to know who I am.

This kind of love makes that happen.

Josh Groban sang:

You raise me up to more than I can be.

That’s what this kind of love does.

As Andy and Dalis sign the register, Garth Brooks will sing,

I would never do you wrong…there ain’t nothing I wouldn’t do to make you feel my love. 

That’s the kind of love we’re hearing about throughout this service. And that’s the kind of love which will have Dalis and Andy celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary on the 25th of June, 2061. Mark your calendars.

I’m going to give Sugarland the last word—we’ll be hearing them as Andy and Dalis head down the aisle into their new married life together:

I'm stuck on you

Whutooo whutooo

Stuck like glue

You and me baby we're stuck like glue.

That’s going to be true. As you will notice in the vows about to be made, there are no loop-holes, you two will be stuck like glue together. Using divine super-glue, the living God himself, who created you, is about to stick you together and make you one flesh and bless your union, all in the name of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

A Wedding Sermon: How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways—For Evan and Deinera Cortens

…with reference to The Song of Songs 2:10-13, 8:6-7, 1 Corinthians 13;1-7, 13 and John 15: 9-17

Here we are celebrating a 21st century marriage using a 16th century Elizabethan English rite garnished with 17th, 18th century music and readings from Scripture that are even older—at least as far back as  the nine hundreds BC. This is a vintage wedding.

At the centre of it is Jesus, Lord and Saviour, often referred to in the Bible as the bridegroom. The church is his bride. Marriage was a part of creation—first appearing in Genesis chapter two: a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So what we will witness Evan and Deinera doing today is, as EM Forster put it in A Room with a View, "a moment for which the world was made."

The word we hear most often through it all is love—34 times, to be precise.

“How do I love thee?” wrote Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her beloved, ‘Let me count the ways.”

Here are some ways of love we heard in the Scripture readings for Deinera and Evan and for all who love someone: first, from the Song of Songs, you use the word as a name for one another, a term of endearment.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.

And here we all are to witness the ultimate, divinely ordained expression of that call, Holy Matrimony, to wish them joy and to celebrate.

Here is another way love is, also from the Song of Songs:

For love is as strong as death,
 a most vehement flame.
 Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love 
all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.

Love is strong. Stronger than the grave. Unquenchable if you choose. Of infinite value.

If I count love out as St Paul writes in I Corinthians 13, the Love chapter, I’d be nothing and could gain nothing—even if I was an expert communicator, lover, husband or wife. Nothing.

St Paul goes on to provide something that sounds like a blueprint for love that counts in a marriage.

Love is patient and kind, not jealous or boastful or proud or rude, does not demand its own way, is not irritable, keeps no record of being wronged, does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance—even marriage.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Love is the greatest way.

Jesus counts some more ways in the reading from John's gospel: “Remain in my love. This is my command: Love each other. Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

What Jesus, Paul and King Solomon are talking about is the John 3:16, God so loved the world kind (agape in the Greek) a love that needs no love in return, that is intelligent and purposeful, always directed to the need of the other. Jesus, way, truth, life and Bridegroom is the model. Love counts.

Although it was chemistry of romantic love (eros in the Greek) which initially drew Deinera and Evan together and brought them here today, it is the agape love—the word we’ll have heard more than sixty times by the time we’re finished here this afternoon—which results in long, delightful, rich marriages and, on the 11th of June 2061, Lord willing, a fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration. Mark your calendars.

A Short Wedding Sermon: Slow Marriage (with reference to I Cor 13 and Mt 5.1-9)—for Andrew and Sara Cocks

I’ve been hearing about something called the slow food movement lately. The slow food people say something like this about what and how we should eat food: don’t eat it if you can’t pronounce the ingredients and don’t eat if if you can’t cook it in your own kitchen, if it won’t rot and if people weren’t eating it before 1900.

I think there should be a slow marriage movement in which is built on the love Paul writes about in the reading from 1 Cor and lived out in the way Jesus describes in Matthew.

Without love, wrote the Apostle Paul in the reading from Corinthians, we are and we gain nothing. What’s more, the love Paul writes about is patient, it remains. In other words, this love is slow.

Slow marriage uses words you can pronounce, and which we heard in the Bible readings, like love, kind, protect, trust, meek, mercy, pure, peace.

Slow marriage and slow love happens in our own “kitchens,” our own hearts and relationships. It’s do it yourself and can’t be prepackaged. It’s about growing up into, from childishness to adulthood, romance and chemistry to deep friendship and companionship, meal by meal, day by day, kindness by kindness, child by child, disagreement by disagreement, apology by apology.

Slow marriage needs no artificial preservatives to keep it from going bad. The relationship needs to be keep fresh by practicing real, slow love.

Slow marriage comes from way before 1900. From the very beginning, in fact, one of the very first institutions God created in Genesis, the very first book of the Bible. One man, one woman, one flesh.

So Andrew and Sara, you’ve both been trained in your jobs to be fast. Sara, as a cashier, to whip those items through as quickly as you can. Andrew, as an auto mechanic, fix em fast. Forget that when you go home. Resist the temptation to speed things up and have a fast love marriage. Slow and steady wins the race. Slow marriage built on slow love results in good, joy filled families and golden wedding anniversaries.

A Short Wedding Sermon with Reference to Jeremiah 29.11 and I Cor 13 and Jesus: for Murray and Kelly

How sweet is this? I know Kelly and also, from what I understand, Murray, thought they may have missed this particular bus, the marriage bus. And yet here we all are ready to see them having their tickets punched before setting off together on a brand new journey.

What brought them to catch the 5 o’clock this afternoon? Three words. St Paul lists them in the last verse of the reading we just heard: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV).

First, Faith.

Kelly wondered, from time to time, whether the LORD had forgotten her. I know because Kelly usually wonders, as she does just about everything else, out loud. She had to work at keeping the faith and she did, faithfully, for years. It was not easy. There were disappointments, pain and tears. But today, her faith is being rewarded. The LORD had not forgotten her.

Yet Another Short Wedding Sermon with Reference to Mark 10.6-9 and 1 Corinthians 13

Today we all get to witness a mystery. Travis and Stephanie are about to be made one flesh before our very eyes by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. From this day Travis and Stephanie will be one in a way they have not hitherto been. They will be one in a way God designed from the beginning of creation. They will be one in the way Jesus Christ, Saviour, is one with His Bride, which is the Church, of which this place, and the people who worship here. are a part.

How did that happen? Through love, love like the love we heard about in 1 Corinthians 13, only better, perfect, steadfast, ultimately expressed by a body surrendered and a life given up on a cross for Travis and Stephanie and for all of us.

Is it possible to live that kind of love out in a marriage?

A nuptual paraphrase of I Cor 13:

If I know exactly what to say so my mate understands exactly what I mean, but have not love, what I say is just noise.

If I know exactly what men or women really want, but have not love, I am nothing but a waste of space.

If give everything I have to my mate whenever he or she wants, but have not love, I will gain nothing.

The following are interchangeable between husbands and wives:

A husband is patient and kind, does not envy his wife for the things she can do better than him, does not boast about what he can do better than her, does not think he is better than her in any way.

A wife is not put her husband down, does not manipulate her husband to get her own way, does not get angry with husband easily, and does not remember and collect her husband’s every thoughtless act, or lack of action.

Husbands and wives always protect one another, trust one another, hope in one another, and persevere in their relationship with one another.

Mutual Love, so expressed, never fails.