Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this afternoon is from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the fourth chapter, verses 9-12:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Thus far the text.
Bailee and Mike and my dear friends in Christ,
This day has finally arrived. This day is finally here. I know that you both have been looking forward to it for quite a while. You have worked so hard to prepare everything for this day, to get it all right. It’s never perfect, though. Something always goes wrong. Yet, there is still something about this day that makes even those imperfections, those snafus, just disappear.
Perhaps that is because this day is a day in which love is front and center. After all, everyone’s eyes here are focused right on you guys. We are standing in the center of everyone and everyone is looking at you, and they are waiting to hear you profess your love for each other in your wedding vows.
But, I have to tell you, these are JUST your wedding vows. They are vows that you will make to one another, to love and cherish one another at all times, but these are only WORDS that you will speak. They are not the action promised in the words. That’s a lot harder to do.
Tomorrow, when you wake up together, life as a married couple begins in earnest. You will begin, truly, to start keeping those vows that you are about to make. And you will also begin to start breaking those vows that you are about to make.
Now, you know this. This isn’t a surprise to either of you. We have worked through this. Your lives will be filled with many wonderful moments. They will be filled with joy beyond all compare. But some days will also be filled with sorrow. And some days will be filled with anger, or guilt, or pain. Weddings are wonderful, because they remind us how marriage SHOULD look, but they are hard because they sometimes mask the sinfulness that resides in each us below the surface of our beautiful white gowns or our shiny suits.
But, perhaps, this is where our wedding text helps us. Two are better than one. Why is this? Because they have a good reward for their toil. What does this mean? Simply, when two work together, they end up in a better place than if only one were working.
In marriage, what is it that we are working towards? You are a picture of Christ and His Church. Your marriage will be and is a picture of how Christ redeemed and loves His Church, and your marriage, the way that you are to work together is to redeem each other. How can you do this?
In the same way that our Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself to take the punishment we all deserved because of our sins, so is marriage sacrificial. For on those days of pain, or guilt, of anger, or sorrow, we are to sacrifice for our spouse. We give of ourselves selflessly, being true to them, understanding them, forgiving them, and even repenting of our own sins before them. In this, you will work together to continue to sanctify each other, growing in holiness in Christ for the rest of your lives and giving to each other the most beneficial gift you can, the forgiveness of Christ.
Because here’s the reality. You are joining yourselves together today not just because you are selfish and want a life partner to use for your pleasure. You are joining yourselves together today, for life, because you are wanting to be selfless. You want to serve each other.
And why is this? What kind of crazy person desires to be selfless, taking vows that bind them to another person for the rest of their life, promising before all of these people that you will ever be faithful and loving to this person? What kind of nutso does that?
Only a nutso who has been redeemed by Christ. For Christ is the bond that will keep you together. For all others, perhaps it is easier to hold grudges, to be angry, to keep sinning against a spouse. But for you two, redeemed by Christ, baptized in His death and raised to His life, you do not get such options. Against this idea that a rope can be bound of one string, which is easy to break, or two strings, which can be separated with a twist, your marriage is a rope of three strings, made up of Michael, Bailee, and Christ. There is no way to break this rope unless the cord that holds it all together fails. That cord, the one that holds everything together, it is Christ, and He never fails.
Christ is the ultimate picture of selflessness, and He, being wound into your marriage, in fact, you being wound around Him, He will bleed into your marriage also to make you selfless, forgiving, loving, caring. Christ has bled and died to forgive you your sins. But Christ has also bled and died to redeem your marriage, to make it strong before you even have the chance to make it weak.
For today, you are promising to lift one another up, to keep each other warm, to fight for each other, to be there in all adversities. That is no weak promise, and it is not one to be entered into lightly. And I know you haven’t. You see, you make this promise with the promises of Christ firmly entrenched in your minds, and as you do, this enables you to will and do all things to serve each other.
For these things, you have to understand, they are done in Christ because you are redeemed by Him. He will be there when you fail, He will be there when you fall, He will be there for you through all things, because He always has been. He has been there since your baptisms, through your growth as children into adults, and He will be there with you and for you through your marriage. You are His, and you are His forever, even as you are together forever. Rest in Him, for He is binding you together. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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