In a wedding that is worship, God is praised, music is sacred, thanksgiving is tendered, Scripture is proclaimed, the party high-fives must wait, all is dignity, commitments are solemnized.  Consider the theological beauty of commitment in our age that flits here and there and knows more about contracts than personal covenants:  "Somewhere people make and keep promises.  They choose not to quit when the going gets rough.  They stick to lost causes.  They hold on to a love grown cold.  If you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God" (Lewis Smedes).

   How is God's love mirrored in a wedding?  This matters, since unchurched unbelievers attend, and might notice.  When Martin Luther stunned the world by getting married, he invited a friend:  "You must come to my wedding; I will make the angels laugh, and the devils weep."  When God is glorified by the wonder and sanctification of human love, heaven sings, the evil that would poison and divide is shoved behind some bush.

   The wedding is to marriage what Baptism is to the Christian life.  How do we continue what we began in the worshipful wedding?  Just as we remember our Baptism, the married remember their wedding; we find ourselves (as voiced eloquently in Wendell Berry's poem) "choosing again what I chose before" - and not just her, or him, but God, and the Church!

   Marriage's chance at success isn't having fun, intimate relations, or enjoyable activities - but God.  Henri Nouwen once suggested that many marriages "are like interlocking fingers.  Two people cling to each other as two hands interlocked in fear.  They connect because they cannot survive individually.  But as they interlock they realize they cannot take away each other's loneliness.  Then friction arises and tension increases.  Often a breakup is the final result.  But God calls man and woman into a different relationship - one that looks like two hands folded in an act of prayer.  The fingertips touch, but the hands create a space, like a little tent.  Such a space is created by love, not fear.  Marriage is creating a new, open space where God's love can be revealed to the stranger, the child, the friend, the visitor."

   So in the wedding we glimpse our life together with God:  we do not know what will unfold, but we determine to stick together, with God at the center, serving together, kneeling side by side.

James

james@mpumc.org

Coming up (the last 2 installments as we conclude):

eWorship24 - Benediction

eWorship25 - Funeral

Sunday's sermon on the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) may be heard on our web site.

** I often recommend Walter Wangerin's As for Me and my House as the truest, most moving, funniest, and most helpful book on marriage in print.

The complete eWorship series may be found on our web site.