September 6, 2014 Holy Matrimony
Laura Elizabeth Zwicker and Ian Blythe Everhart
Tobit 8: 5-8; Colossians 3: 12-17; Mark 10: 6-9, 13-16
Wow. Good afternoon everyone! Family and friends . . . . Great to be here as we are witnesses and participants
in this much anticipated celebration of Christian marriage. On Facebook it has been called “the Royal
Wedding.” Laura and Ian, I would personally
and I know speaking for everyone, express my and our deepest thanks for
inviting us to be with you as this new page is turned, a new chapter
begun. Her eyes met his across the choir of St. Andrew’s Church, and the rest
is history! All your lives now
coming together in a new harmony. Making
beautiful music together. (There are a
lot of possibilities with this metaphor, but maybe I’ll leave it at that. Will try to, anyway.)
I of course loved knowing you as Laura, and as Ian, before I got to
know you as “Laura and Ian.” Over this
long season as I have had a chance to get to know you as a couple, I very often
have had the thought that “this is going to be something special.” You should know that that’s the consensus in
the room today. We’re all smiling! In the mysteries of his Providence, God is
doing a great thing with you. He has a plan,
only just now beginning to unfold. Two
exceptional young people, gifted in so many ways. We’re your cheering section, with applause,
with love, and as you have heard with promises to support and even more: to
share with you the good work God is giving you to do. The Choir sings at St. Andrew’s, the great
organ rumbles and roars, and the Angel Chorus is joining in, magnificent
descants, in the choirs of heaven. A day of promise and blessing—and again, it’s
so great to be here with you.
You both gave careful thought to the selection of the readings from
Scripture for this service, and we would pause for a moment to allow God’s Word
to inform what we are about to witness.
The reading from Tobit, perhaps a story of the tradition not that
familiar to everyone. But this glimpse
of what we might call the honeymoon of Tobias and Sarah. I’m sure there must have been champagne and
candlelight in there somewhere. But so
meaningful that what they do first together as husband and wife, is turn their hearts
to prayer. And that I think is just such
a helpful image. How, as they say in the
Twelve Step Movement, “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main
thing.” Back in the 1950’s the National
Council of Churches ran a campaign that popularized the phrase, “the family
that prays together stays together.” Not
that there is some magic formula to guarantee marital bliss. But when you pray, when you will open your
hearts to God--and to be open in turn to what he has for you, and when this is
a consistent part of your lives, you will come to a sense of humility and grace
that will allow you to continue to know God’s presence and blessing. As we will pray today that it will be as you
grow deeper and deeper in faith, in prayer and worship, growing into communion
with God, you will at the same time grow deeper and deeper in communion with
each other.
The passage from St. Paul’s
letter to the Christians in the Greek town of Colossae, in what now is southern
Turkey. We don’t know too much the
context of this particular letter, but it’s evident that news had come to him
that there were controversies—spiritual and theological--that had begun to
cause division in the congregation. So
glad those kinds of things don’t happen in churches in our day! In any event, Paul addresses the issues at
hand with clarity, and absolutely correcting those who have wandered from the
message of the Apostles. But then in the
third chapter he goes on in I think an even deeper way about Christian life and
conduct in community, to describe what it means to live together as Christian
people, as we do the hard work of dealing with differences. As there are always differences, whether in a
large community, or even in a Christian community of two.
Paul lifts up what perhaps we could call a shopping list for a new
wardrobe, the deeper themes of what we are and what we can be at our very best
in Christian relationship. How we are
called to “dress for success,” as
Christian people, to live by sharing in the image of Jesus himself, by clothing
ourselves with him, by patterning ourselves in love following the
pattern that he shared with us. “Clothe
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another, and if anyone has a
complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven
you, so you also must forgive. Above all
clothe yourselves with love” –and here again our musical metaphor—“clothe
yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Thank you especially for selecting this reading. A great word as Paul addresses problems in
the early church, but always also for all of us to keep close, in our
friendships, in our families and communities, and meaningful that you have shared it with us
today on the day of your marriage. We
might almost say that sharing this reading with your family and friends is the
first step, the first example, of the work you are being called to do in your
marriage from here on out. When we call
marriage a “sacrament” we do so because in marriage you two become outward
signs of God’s grace and love. He is
going to be using you to communicate that grace and love to others, and that is
the work you are called to do and that we acknowledge and celebrate today.
Finally, just a moment on the reading from St. Mark, as Fr. William has
read it for us. The 10th
chapter of Mark along with the 19th chapter of St. Matthew rich and critical
texts as we seek to know what God’s Word has to say to us about marriage and
family, these foundational human institutions and relationships. Lots more to say, but I’m going to hang for
a moment on the first five words that Jesus speaks in this discussion. “From the beginning of creation,” He
says. That’s how he begins. “From the beginning of creation.” We remember just a few moments ago in the
Opening Address of this service we heard, “the bond and covenant of marriage
was established by God in creation.”
So to say this afternoon, that what we do as we pray that God will bless
your marriage vows, what you do as you exchange these vows, is not to ask God
to enter into and bless something that you
have created or are creating, but to see that it is for you now to enter into what
God has already made. This is your day,
for sure. But Marriage: it’s not about you, your lives, your
happiness and romance, your plans for
the future. This is about stepping into
his plan. His future. Not a way of life that you choose, but a way
of obedience, a way of life that he
chooses for you, and that you choose to accept.
The prayer we call the Prayer of St. Francis begins, “Lord, make me an
instrument of your peace.” And we would
let that be what you and we are about this afternoon. “Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to thee.” Again with humility and
grace, a moment of vocational
turning, as you open your lives to allow him to guide you, and direct you, and
correct you, and bless you, for his purposes.
Which we really don’t know, don’t understand. But just to say, and a good word for all of us: Fasten your
seatbelts! I have a feeling that what
God can do with this marriage in particular is going to be pretty exciting! So: all good, Laura
and Ian. We’re cheering! It is good to be here.
And now as Ian and Laura come forward to stand at the
altar to exchange the vows that will make them husband and wife, let us pause
for a moment and bow our heads and in the quiet of our own hearts offer a
prayer of love and blessing for them.
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