1. Grace
to you and peace from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Mark and Jenny can you believe
it’s been 10 years since you committed your lives to one another as husband and
wife? What a blessing God has given to
you both. You’ve gathered your family and your closest friends for this special
occasion. Praise God as you re-affirm your
vows that you made in your covenant marriage with one another.
2. On
this day your marriage reminds us of how God has made the two of you one in
marriage through that “Covenant of Love” He’s
given to you. Today I want to give to
you four reminders of what marriage is.
Since you’ve been married for 10 years you probably know all of them,
especially that marriage is one of God’s very good ideas. But, remember that it’s
not the idea of the state, the church, or even your good idea. It’s God’s idea.
3. In
the beginning, when God created the world, he completed the creation by
bringing together a man and a woman. The Garden of Eden, as it’s described in
Genesis chapter 2, was a perfect setting for that first marriage. God saw in
this first marriage that this would be the way the first groom named Adam could
be everything God meant him to be. And it would be the way the first bride
named Eve could be everything God meant her to be. It would be the way he could
release his blessings to his whole creation.
4. The
second thing I want to remind you is that God has made a great commitment to
marriage. I don’t know about you, but
when I do something nice for someone and they mess it up, I’m tempted to say, “I don’t think I’ll do that anymore.” God
could have said that about marriage, for through this first marriage sin came
into the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.
5. But God didn’t say that then, and
he doesn’t say that now. In fact, he continues to affirm marriage, and he does
so in almost every book of the Bible by using marriage as an example of how he
cares for his people. In Mark 10:6-9 our
Lord Jesus says about marriage, “6But
from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7‘Therefore
a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8and
they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9What
therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” And, in Ephesians 5:21-32 the Apostle
Paul says, “21submitting to one
another out of reverence for Christ.
22Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband
is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and
is himself its Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives
should submit in everything to their husbands.
25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself
up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of
water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in
splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and
without blemish. 28In the same way husbands should love their wives as their
own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his
own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
30because we are members of his body. 31“Therefore a man shall leave his father
and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the
church.”
6. In Holy Scripture Jesus calls
himself the Bridegroom and he calls his people, the church, his bride. Again
and again he talks about his great love for his bride—and about his
faithfulness. He does that even when we as his bride look ugly and act
horribly. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d said a long time ago, “I don’t think I want to do this anymore.”
7.
But God’s never said that to me, and he’s
never said that to you. Instead, he expressed his love for us by sending His
Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.
But, we also know that Jesus rose again from the grave to show His
victory over sin, death and the devil for us. Jesus did all this for us so that
He might robe us in his righteousness. As a result, he loves us in so many
wonderful ways. Jesus comes to us through His Word and Sacraments of holy
baptism and the Lord’s Supper saying to us, “I
know you. I love you. I am yours, and you are mine forever!”
8. The
third thing I wish to remind you of is that, as God in Christ has loved you,
you are to love one another. Now, we who’ve accepted your invitation to join
you in this Marriage Affirmation service believe that most of the time that’ll
be easy for you. Our prayer is that you’ll continue to come into each other’s
presence, just as you’ve been doing these past 10 years, day after day, week
after week, month after month, year after year, and express in many ways your
love and devotion to each other.
9. But
if your marriage is like some marriages in our nation today, it may be tempting
for you to say, “I don’t think I want to
do this anymore.” On those occasions I urge you to remember how much your
Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, loves you and died for you to forgive you of your
sins. It’ll be proper on those occasions to say such things as, “I’m sorry.” “Forgive me.” “I forgive you.”
“You are precious to me.” “I love you.”
10. Mark
& Jenny we’re counting on that kind of marriage from you. In fact, we need that kind of marriage from
you. Let me tell you what kind of marriage we desire of you. There are some
children here watching closely. I expect the girls may already be planning
their weddings right now and are taking notes at this ceremony. But, even
better would be if, when they plan their marriage and are asked whose marriage
they’d like to imitate, they’d say yours. They’d say they would like a marriage
where they’d be such a blessing to each other, and so many would be blessed
through you.
11. The
fourth thing I want to remind you of is one of the reasons we are all here to
celebrate your 10 years of marriage together. We want to give you much more
than a hug, a kiss, a blessing, and maybe a gift. We want to be a Christian
community for you, to support you in your marriage. We want to meet with you
often to sing great hymns and to join you in prayer. We wish to share with you
in times of joy so your happiness will become greater; to share your sorrows so
that your sadness may be lessened. Most importantly we promise to remember your
marriage in our prayers.
12. Mark
and Jenny it’s our prayer and hope that in this marriage the two of you may
continue to be everything God meant for you to be as husband and wife. May the two of you continue to show, “That
Covenant of Love” He’s called you live with one another. It’s our earnest
prayer for you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment