Barber-Viering Wedding Sermon

As you can see, here is the wedding sermon from this past Saturday. It was a very nice service, formally casual. And I think the Word was proclaimed and heard, according to the Spirit's promise and presence.

Wedding Sermon for Elijah and Anise
Oct. 2, 2010
1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-15; Ephesians 5:22-33

In the name of Jesus, who is the glory of the Father’s love and the foundation of Christian marriage, amen.

After a few twists and turns, after some time away, after wondering and wandering, after much discussion, reflection, and prayer, you both are standing where God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit wants you to be. God wants you to be here, in His Church, in this service, in front of all these people who love and support you. God wants you to be here, so that God can do what He is so good at- creating. God has created a beautiful world for us, creating all that is out of nothing. And today, in a few more minutes, God will again create something- Mr. and Mrs. Elijah and Anise Barber. That has never existed before. God is creating something entirely new. And to reveal this new thing, something old is being used as the material.

Love. In all three lessons that you chose for this service, love was at the core. And certainly it is not the generic, run of the mill, common love that is so prevalent today- love for waffle fries, your favorite sports team, your car. The way the word love is thrown around today, one might think that Americans are filled with love, are the kindest people on the face of the earth, and spend their day giving roses to all their siblings, neighbors, strangers, and coworkers.

And the love in our lessons is not the bastardized version of love that is on display. Love is often used as a carrot at best and a weapon at worst. We hold out our love to get others to do what we want. Love becomes manipulative and it then becomes cheapened. You don’t love the other person, you only love yourself, because you have your own best interests at heart. And when this happens, that is when love becomes a weapon and we can hurt people as we manipulate them. We make them jump through so many hoops and do all sorts of tasks to earn our love. How far from God’s love are our expressions of love!

God’s love was revealed when He sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. Love starts with God the Father, flows through Jesus, with the purpose that we find our life in the Lord.

In our conversations the last couple of months, your lives seem pretty good right now. You seem at peace with yourselves and with each other. Life is not easy, but at this time, life seems fairly smooth.

Why might that be? You seem to be hard workers. You appear to be committed to each other. From my perspective, you possess a certain amount of physical, mental, and emotional health. You look fairly creative and intelligent. Apparently people like you, so that is in your favor.

But none of that matters. Strength and health and creativity and the number of friends you have really doesn’t matter as we might consider why things are going fairly well in your lives.

The Scripture readings tell us why things are going well. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins…We love, because He first loved us.”

You’ve approached this day with a tremendous amount of reality. And humility. And more concern for the other than for yourself. And with the knowledge that at the center of your love for Elijah and your love for Anise is a love for the Lord Jesus.

He loves you. In spite of who you are, in spite of what you’ve done, in spite of what you haven’t done, Jesus loves you. And this is because Jesus forgives your sins, mistakes, and errors. Your sins aren’t excused, as if God says, “You lied when you said you didn’t know me? Oh that’s okay.” Sins are forgiven, not excused. God looks at us in our sin and our shame, God hears us express our sorrow and God tenderly and lovingly says, “For the sake of My son Jesus Christ, I forgive your sins.”

That, the love of God, is indeed the foundation for marriage, because the time is coming when sin will rise up in your marriage, when it will flame up like a fire…my hunch is Tuesday.

Today, things are great. She looks good. He looks good. It’s a good thing there are pictures being taken, because, Anise will likely never look like this again. And Elijah won’t either. The time is coming when you’ll say to yourself, “She does that?” And Anise, you’ll scratch your head and say, “Why doesn’t he do what I say?”

According to God’s Word, we know who we are- sinners. Our sinful identity leads to all kinds of sinful activity. Lying, cheating, and stealing exist. And in marriages, spouses take advantage of the other. Spouses manipulate to get their way. If you love me, you’ll do this. If you love me, you’ll change and become who I want you to be.

It happens. I bet there are some people in this room who could share experiences.

So we know who we are. You know who the other person is. With that sort of knowledge, we might hang our heads and never come to this place, never come to marriage.

But more important than knowing ourselves, God knows us and we know God. God is the forgiver. God is the redeemer. God is the healer. So we have the strength to approach God and seek forgiveness for our sin.

There is no fear in love. The love you have for each other removes the fear. You can stand face to face and acknowledge the hurt you cause, your inconsiderate and selfish actions. And you can forgive each other. There is no fear, because your love is rooted in God’s love for you. It is gift, pure gift. God’s gift to you. Your gift to each other. Let us love one another, for love is from God. SDG