Wedding Homily...

Today, we are here to celebrate the joining of two lives - two lives , two stories, that have come together to become part of a larger story that we all have a sentence in, as we are here collectively today with Mark and Robyn to celebrate their wedding.

Author and Pastor Frederick Buechner wrote:

“In the long run the stories all overlap and mingle like the searchlights in the dark. The stories Jesus tells are part of the story Jesus is, and the other way round. And the story Jesus is part of the story you and I are because Jesus has become so much a part of the world’s story that it is impossible to imagine how any of our stories would have turned out without him…. And my story and your story are all part of each other too if only because we have sung together and prayed together and seen each other’s faces so that we are at least a footnote at the bottom of each other’s stories. In other words all our stories are in the end one story, one vast story about being human, being together, being here. Does the story point beyond itself? Does it mean something? What is the truth of this interminable, sprawling story we all of us are? Or is it absurd to ask about the truth of it as it is to ask about the truth of the wind howling through a crack under the door?”

Part of the truth of this, “…sprawling story we all of us are…” is to be human - to be a part of each others lives and on a wedding day like this, to celebrate the lives of the bride and groom that are being united as one.
In the book of Genesis it records that,

“The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’…. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”

Jesus, while at a wedding in Cana performed his first miracle at the request of his mother and in some way, a mysterious yet real way, Jesus is present here with us at this wedding and in an equally if not more profound miracle than the changing of water to wine occurs because of his presence – that Mark and Robyn will be united in what the Apostle Paul calls, “…a profound mystery…” and Paul illustrates what he means in this way:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, people have never hated their own bodies, but they feed and care for them, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

It is the presence of Christ at this wedding as it was his presence at the one in Cana that make the miracle possible the, “…profound mystery…” a reality even if it is not fully comprehended.

Frederick Buechner comments on this first wedding in Cana in this way:

“A dream is a compression of time where the dreamer can live through a whole constellation of events in no more time than it takes a curtain to rustle in the room where he sleeps. In dreams time does not flow on so much as it flows up, like water from a deep spring. And in this way every wedding is a dream, and every word that is spoken there means more than it says, and every gesture-the clasping of hands, the giving of rings- is rich with mystery. Part of the mystery is that Christ is there as he was in Cana once, and the joy of a wedding, and maybe even sometimes the tears, are a miracle that he works. But when the wedding feast was over, he set his face towards Jerusalem and started out for the hour that had not yet come but was to come soon enough, the hour when he too was to embrace the whole earth and water it with more than his tears. And so it was also, we hope, with the bride and groom at Cana and with every bride and groom-that the love they bear one another and the joy they take in one another may help them grow in love for this troubled world.”

In the Message translation of Ruth 2:20 it says, “…God hasn’t quite walked out on us after all! He still loves us, in bad times as well as good!” This could perhaps be all of our refrains about life. As we contemplate the idea of life and marriage this afternoon it is good I believe to think about how God loves us completely with an furious, lavish love, “…in bad times as well as good…” and in a similar way God asks us all and in particular today Mark and Robyn to imitate him and commit to love each other, “…in bad times as well as good…” with a deep and abiding fidelity in each other and in the covenant of marriage we are celebrating today. As Kristi has already read for us, the words of Paul, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…” and as Rhonda read the words of Paul, “And above all… put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” And as Deb read, “I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good. And more than any fate could have done to make me happy.”

As we think about the stories that have come together today in Mark and Robyn, Kai and Eli and all of us as participants in the moments of today and as Jesus is present in making this a profound experience of his Father’s love there is one other story I would like to tell – I have known Mark for some time now and have been through some “…bad times as well as good…” and there is a story that he told me that I would like to share with all of you. Mark was given a handmade card by one of his students who knew that Mark was and is a John Prine fan – so on the card she had drawn a rainbow with the these words from John Prine, “…after every hurricane, a rainbow…” and he told me that Robyn was and is that rainbow in his life! And as I have gotten to know Robyn better over the past months (even surviving going running with her) I know that she is a rainbow not only in Mark’s life but also in the life’s of Kai and Eli and she loves Mark, Kai and Eli so deeply. And in a similar but different way Mark, Kai and Eli are her rainbow, what makes life beautiful for her each day with a deep love. The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes wrote, “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time.” There is nothing more beautiful than a rainbow after a storm.

In the Song of Songs there is a beautiful line, “I slept but my heart was awake…” as we all desire, “…one bringing contentment…” and this is what marriage is, the bringing of contentment to two hearts that have been awake and beating for each other even while their bodies slept. God loves us lavishly and his grace is sufficient for all of life and it is my prayer that Mark and Robyn, Kai and Eli will dance in the love they have for each other and dance with God in the love he has for them and their lives together will be full of grace. T.S. Eliot wrote:

“... Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are ...”

I too rejoice and hope we all rejoice “…that things are as they are…” and I want to conclude by quoting some lyrics by Sarah McLachlan (a Canadian by the way) from her song “Ordinary Miracle” as the lines have beautiful truth in them for all of us but something special for Mark and Robyn and how their stories have intertwined into mine and all of ours and Jesus’ today:

“…Life is like a gift they say, wrapped up for you everyday
Open up and find a way to give some of your own….
When you wake up every day please don't throw your dreams away
Hold them close to your heart cause we are all a part of the ordinary miracle
Ordinary miracle, do you wanna see a miracle?
It seems so exceptional that things just work out after all
It's just another ordinary miracle today
The sun comes up and shines so bright and disappears again at night
It's just another ordinary miracle today.”