An Inkling
It’s funny
how the truth you’ve taken for granted can jump out at you in a new season.
Just a few
days after the Supreme Court took it upon themselves to try and reinvent God’s
gift of marriage, I presided at Brett and Gordon’s wedding. While parts of the wedding service are
personalized for the particular couple, many of its words are the same for
every couple, and I’ve spoken them so often now that I don’t really hear
them. But with the Court’s ruling still
echoing, I really heard them at this wedding.
Here are
the words I spoke on the nature of marriage, taken from centuries old
liturgies:
We have gathered today in the presence of God to
give thanks for the gift of marriage, to witness the joining together of
Gordon and Brett as husband and wife, and to ask God’s blessing upon
them. God created us male and female,
and gave us marriage for the full expression of our love. He gave us marriage for the well‑being of
society, for the ordering of family life, and for the birth and nurturing of
children. Indeed, in a mysterious way
the love of marriage even reflects the love Christ has for his bride, the
church.
For
years that seemed to be stating the obvious.
Not so now. And I got a second
reminder of that this past Friday, when Sarah and I attended a wedding for
Peter and Kerestin at the Christian Arabic Church. The day before they asked me to have a part
in the ceremony, and in particular to expound a bit on the nature of marriage. They realized that marriage with Christian
commitment is counter-cultural in some new ways now, and they wanted a native
of this land to speak to that. What a
privilege.
Because
God’s truth is always of one cloth with his grace, to be reminded of his truth
is always a gracious gift. And now may
he grace us to speak and live the (not so) obvious truth about marriage.
Blessings,
Keith
