Looking Outward Together
Sermon
THIS NEW LIFE TOGETHER
An Anthology Of Wedding Meditations
(__________) I would like to take a few moments and speak with you and the congregation gathered to witness your covenant of marriage about the significance of what you do tonight. God has given you both a gift: the gift of love to share with each other and a relationship in which you have the trust and faithfulness of another. Each of those words - love and faithfulness - have a multitude of meanings for us, but the nature of this love and faithfulness you enter into through marriage carries with it a set of values of its own. Listen to what several people have written about love:
The writer of The Little Prince, Antione De Saint--Exupery wrote of love: ''Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.''
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: ''How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth of height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! And if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.''
The apostle Paul said: ''Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self--seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.''
The writer of 1 John: ''This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.''
And lastly, the words of Jesus: ''As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friend. You are my friends if you do what I command.''
As you can plainly see, that which we celebrate today, the love you (__________) hold in your hearts for one another is many things. Poets and apostles and of course the Son of God have each spoken of the significance of love that is much more than an infatuation, or a desire that comes and goes. The love we command to you two today is the bond of your relationship which places demands upon you.
This love is after the fashion of the Heavenly Father for us: sacrificial, giving for the sake of another, not looking solely for what can be gained for yourself. It is the kind of love that has the power and experience to make up for the bad times and the wrongs we cross one another with. It is a love that brings two as yourselves to depend now upon one another.
And how does one come to the point of wanting to depend on another's care, but that there is an abiding trust. We have faith in God, whose promises are real. The veracity of that promise was revealed through the life, death and resurrection of God's own Son. In Jesus we have seen promise reach
fulfillment. Your trust in one another is based on first believing in the goodness of each other, that your word and promise is sincere. And secondly, you each offer proof of the same, as you do what you will soon promise in your marriage vows.
When love waxes and wanes between the two of you, one thing abides. That is the promise of trust you have made to care for one another, to stand by one another, through the best and worst of what is to come. And in doing so, it is remarkable how the love becomes real once again. Strong faith doesn't come all at once. It is often gained through willing submission to love and goodness in the midst of trial. Let faithfulness be the mark of your love seen by others, that they might look upon this marriage made today, and give thanks for the beautiful witness it brings to them, and that it might be a model of what others will strive after.
Trust in the love and faith of your God who has given you this life together. Abide in God's presence and allow God's will and ways to guide you, and you will find it to be a great source of strength for you.
Let your life be the two of you looking together to a future, and what will be best for each in that tomorrow. You have some significant decisions to make about that future. Your labor of love will have to include each other in the process of deciding.
We give thanks to God for you and your love pledged here. God bless you and keep you in all the years ahead. Amen.
Warren Gregory Martin is pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Williamsport, Maryland.
The writer of The Little Prince, Antione De Saint--Exupery wrote of love: ''Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.''
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: ''How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth of height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! And if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.''
The apostle Paul said: ''Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self--seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.''
The writer of 1 John: ''This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.''
And lastly, the words of Jesus: ''As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friend. You are my friends if you do what I command.''
As you can plainly see, that which we celebrate today, the love you (__________) hold in your hearts for one another is many things. Poets and apostles and of course the Son of God have each spoken of the significance of love that is much more than an infatuation, or a desire that comes and goes. The love we command to you two today is the bond of your relationship which places demands upon you.
This love is after the fashion of the Heavenly Father for us: sacrificial, giving for the sake of another, not looking solely for what can be gained for yourself. It is the kind of love that has the power and experience to make up for the bad times and the wrongs we cross one another with. It is a love that brings two as yourselves to depend now upon one another.
And how does one come to the point of wanting to depend on another's care, but that there is an abiding trust. We have faith in God, whose promises are real. The veracity of that promise was revealed through the life, death and resurrection of God's own Son. In Jesus we have seen promise reach
fulfillment. Your trust in one another is based on first believing in the goodness of each other, that your word and promise is sincere. And secondly, you each offer proof of the same, as you do what you will soon promise in your marriage vows.
When love waxes and wanes between the two of you, one thing abides. That is the promise of trust you have made to care for one another, to stand by one another, through the best and worst of what is to come. And in doing so, it is remarkable how the love becomes real once again. Strong faith doesn't come all at once. It is often gained through willing submission to love and goodness in the midst of trial. Let faithfulness be the mark of your love seen by others, that they might look upon this marriage made today, and give thanks for the beautiful witness it brings to them, and that it might be a model of what others will strive after.
Trust in the love and faith of your God who has given you this life together. Abide in God's presence and allow God's will and ways to guide you, and you will find it to be a great source of strength for you.
Let your life be the two of you looking together to a future, and what will be best for each in that tomorrow. You have some significant decisions to make about that future. Your labor of love will have to include each other in the process of deciding.
We give thanks to God for you and your love pledged here. God bless you and keep you in all the years ahead. Amen.
Warren Gregory Martin is pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Williamsport, Maryland.
