Marriage
"Marriage is Honorable Among All"
The world is lost and confused when it comes to the subject of marriage. It has taken what is lovely and turned it into something cheap and ugly. Having been devalued, it is easily discarded. Rich and Wendi, you will stand apart in the midst of this culture―husband and wife made holy before God and man―united in covenant before a watching world. Everyone wants to know if you really mean what you say. Everyone wants to see if it really works.
Try, as our culture does, to erode and dilute marriage, Christian marriage is a thing to be admired, and even envied. Indeed, as our text tells us that it is "honorable." All the counterfeits fall short. Free love turns out not to be so free after all. Only a sexual relationship between a man and a woman, in the context of a covenant, is honorable and undefiled. The Church has to speak up. The Word of God has much to say about this. However, the Church is not nearly so concerned with why the bride and groom think they want to get married as she is with what they intend to do about it from here on out. You're making a solemn promise. You're taking an oath of loyalty to one another and to God, and you do so before all these witnesses.
The wedding is about the beginning of a marriage. A marriage is about a lifelong commitment, and the nurturing of that commitment in the face of a hostile world. You stand here today as representatives of Christ and His Church: a husband who gives, who sacrifices for his wife to make her eternally lovely; a wife who submits―that is, who joyfully comes under the mission of the household. Together you subdue the earth―you multiply and fill the earth with godly seed.
This is why, as our text says, God will judge "fornicators and adulterers"; because they defile the marriage bed; they attempt to thwart the purposes of marriage. The marriage bed (which in this text is a metaphor for whole marriage) is the daily meeting place. It marks the boundaries of your freedom. Like the tracks of a train, only as you are bound can you really be free. To leave the track or to betray the marriage bed is to invite disaster.
Your life with one another as husband and wife is the picture of your life with Christ. Your love for one another―your sacrifice―is to permeate every room of your house. Indeed, in every place your unity is to be felt. The vow of lifelong fidelity to one man―one woman―to one bed, becomes the wall at the edge of the cliff. Marriage is a place―a piece of geography―a constant point of meeting. It is headquarters; where you plan and resupply and rest. Before the sun goes down on your anger, you will forgive and start again.
The undefiled marriage bed is not unlike the Communion Table. This is where bride meets groom in intimacy. A picture of what ought to be true all the time and in every place. You are to always commune and thus show forth the honor of your marriage. Moreover, the marriage bed is the birthplace of your little subdivision of the City of God. It is your foxhole in the Grand Battle. At times, it will be your trench where adversity makes you bedfellows. And sometimes, it will seem that you have only each other. And so, you talk and pray and love and rest and go forth to conquer and build. The marriage bed, like all sacraments, is full of mystery. It is an outward act, full of grace and truth. Where God takes an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and binds their soul's together into one.
Why do so many marriages contradict this? Why is there so little communion? Why so much rancor? Why is marriage so often dishonorable? The answer is in our text: because of "fornication and adultery." Not simply the overt and obvious there's plenty of that. But even that had its beginning in a more fundamental infidelity. Many come to the Lord's Table week-by-week, engaging in the image of love, communion and covenant-renewal. But as God said of Israel: "Though they say, 'As the Lord Lives,' surely they swear falsely'" (Jer. 5:2). Anyone can eat bread and drink wine. Anyone can pretend to love Jesus. But the pretender is not telling the truth. He is perjuring himself as he eats and drinks. He is unfaithful and God is already judging him. His very eating and drinking becomes a curse rather than a blessing. The sacrament is to be a picture of what is actually true. When we turn it into a lie we are on our way to spiritual fornication and adultery. We are already flirting with other gods.
So too, anyone can go to bed and pretend to love―anyone can get married. The world is full of such pretenders and hypocrites. But remember, a sacrament is an oath of fealty. And the Scriptures say that "It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay." If it is merely form without substance then we have denied its power. We have defiled its holiness and we have begun to undermine the foundation. It is now only a matter of time before it crumbles and falls in ruin. It turns out that it's hard to pray and it's also hard to truly make love, but both need to be done without ceasing.
The honorable and undefiled marriage bed builds the City because it walks by faith, not by sight. We go the marriage with promises: promises from God and promises to one another. And in the context of these promises the covenant is established and reaffirmed. The mystery does its work and the building takes shape―day-by-day―stone-by-stone.
The Church has taught us that marriage was instituted for three reasons: a) the procreation of children, b) as a remedy for sin, c) and for a mutual society, help and comfort. If this is to be case for you, Rich and Wendi, then the instruction of Hebrews 13:5-6 will direct you safely: Let your conduct be without covetousness; (Selflessness is the essence of love and maturity.) Be content with such things as you have. (Thankfulness and gratitude for what you have been given is essential.) For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Trusting God through life's ups and downs, walking by faith must be at the core of your household.) So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Prayer
Most merciful and gracious God, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named: Bestow upon these Your servants the seal of Your approval, and your Fatherly benediction; granting unto them grace to fulfill, with pure and steadfast affection, the vow and covenant that they have just made to You and to each other. Guide them together , we beseech You, in the way of righteousness and peace, that, loving and serving You, with one heart and mind, all the days of their life, they may be abundantly enriched with the tokens of Your everlasting love and favor, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
http://feastofbooths.blogspot.com/search/label/Wedding
Hebrews 13:4-6
4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6 So we may boldly say:
"The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?"
The world is lost and confused when it comes to the subject of marriage. It has taken what is lovely and turned it into something cheap and ugly. Having been devalued, it is easily discarded. Rich and Wendi, you will stand apart in the midst of this culture―husband and wife made holy before God and man―united in covenant before a watching world. Everyone wants to know if you really mean what you say. Everyone wants to see if it really works.
Try, as our culture does, to erode and dilute marriage, Christian marriage is a thing to be admired, and even envied. Indeed, as our text tells us that it is "honorable." All the counterfeits fall short. Free love turns out not to be so free after all. Only a sexual relationship between a man and a woman, in the context of a covenant, is honorable and undefiled. The Church has to speak up. The Word of God has much to say about this. However, the Church is not nearly so concerned with why the bride and groom think they want to get married as she is with what they intend to do about it from here on out. You're making a solemn promise. You're taking an oath of loyalty to one another and to God, and you do so before all these witnesses.
The wedding is about the beginning of a marriage. A marriage is about a lifelong commitment, and the nurturing of that commitment in the face of a hostile world. You stand here today as representatives of Christ and His Church: a husband who gives, who sacrifices for his wife to make her eternally lovely; a wife who submits―that is, who joyfully comes under the mission of the household. Together you subdue the earth―you multiply and fill the earth with godly seed.
This is why, as our text says, God will judge "fornicators and adulterers"; because they defile the marriage bed; they attempt to thwart the purposes of marriage. The marriage bed (which in this text is a metaphor for whole marriage) is the daily meeting place. It marks the boundaries of your freedom. Like the tracks of a train, only as you are bound can you really be free. To leave the track or to betray the marriage bed is to invite disaster.
Your life with one another as husband and wife is the picture of your life with Christ. Your love for one another―your sacrifice―is to permeate every room of your house. Indeed, in every place your unity is to be felt. The vow of lifelong fidelity to one man―one woman―to one bed, becomes the wall at the edge of the cliff. Marriage is a place―a piece of geography―a constant point of meeting. It is headquarters; where you plan and resupply and rest. Before the sun goes down on your anger, you will forgive and start again.
The undefiled marriage bed is not unlike the Communion Table. This is where bride meets groom in intimacy. A picture of what ought to be true all the time and in every place. You are to always commune and thus show forth the honor of your marriage. Moreover, the marriage bed is the birthplace of your little subdivision of the City of God. It is your foxhole in the Grand Battle. At times, it will be your trench where adversity makes you bedfellows. And sometimes, it will seem that you have only each other. And so, you talk and pray and love and rest and go forth to conquer and build. The marriage bed, like all sacraments, is full of mystery. It is an outward act, full of grace and truth. Where God takes an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and binds their soul's together into one.
Why do so many marriages contradict this? Why is there so little communion? Why so much rancor? Why is marriage so often dishonorable? The answer is in our text: because of "fornication and adultery." Not simply the overt and obvious there's plenty of that. But even that had its beginning in a more fundamental infidelity. Many come to the Lord's Table week-by-week, engaging in the image of love, communion and covenant-renewal. But as God said of Israel: "Though they say, 'As the Lord Lives,' surely they swear falsely'" (Jer. 5:2). Anyone can eat bread and drink wine. Anyone can pretend to love Jesus. But the pretender is not telling the truth. He is perjuring himself as he eats and drinks. He is unfaithful and God is already judging him. His very eating and drinking becomes a curse rather than a blessing. The sacrament is to be a picture of what is actually true. When we turn it into a lie we are on our way to spiritual fornication and adultery. We are already flirting with other gods.
So too, anyone can go to bed and pretend to love―anyone can get married. The world is full of such pretenders and hypocrites. But remember, a sacrament is an oath of fealty. And the Scriptures say that "It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay." If it is merely form without substance then we have denied its power. We have defiled its holiness and we have begun to undermine the foundation. It is now only a matter of time before it crumbles and falls in ruin. It turns out that it's hard to pray and it's also hard to truly make love, but both need to be done without ceasing.
The honorable and undefiled marriage bed builds the City because it walks by faith, not by sight. We go the marriage with promises: promises from God and promises to one another. And in the context of these promises the covenant is established and reaffirmed. The mystery does its work and the building takes shape―day-by-day―stone-by-stone.
The Church has taught us that marriage was instituted for three reasons: a) the procreation of children, b) as a remedy for sin, c) and for a mutual society, help and comfort. If this is to be case for you, Rich and Wendi, then the instruction of Hebrews 13:5-6 will direct you safely: Let your conduct be without covetousness; (Selflessness is the essence of love and maturity.) Be content with such things as you have. (Thankfulness and gratitude for what you have been given is essential.) For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Trusting God through life's ups and downs, walking by faith must be at the core of your household.) So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Prayer
Most merciful and gracious God, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named: Bestow upon these Your servants the seal of Your approval, and your Fatherly benediction; granting unto them grace to fulfill, with pure and steadfast affection, the vow and covenant that they have just made to You and to each other. Guide them together , we beseech You, in the way of righteousness and peace, that, loving and serving You, with one heart and mind, all the days of their life, they may be abundantly enriched with the tokens of Your everlasting love and favor, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
http://feastofbooths.blogspot.com/search/label/Wedding
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