The Wedding of Patrick and Karen

I had the privilege of uniting Patrick and Karen in marriage Sunday afternoon November 20, 2016, at Kuhn Memorial Presbyterian Church, in Barboursville WV.

Matthew 7:24-27

Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

Meditation

I have been a pastor for 14 years. I’ve done something like forty weddings. One of my first weddings was for a couple that had been living together for 13 years. I asked them why they were getting married – they’d both been married before, both been divorced before, and they’d been together longer than a lot of couples – why marry now, I asked them. Well, they both had kids that were getting of marriage age, and they wanted to get married before any of their kids did.  I did their wedding. Then I did the wedding for the bride’s son. Then I did the wedding for the groom’s daughter. Then I did the wedding for the bride’s daughter and I had to write a whole new wedding sermon so that the family didn’t hear the same one three times!

I had to write a new wedding sermon for Patrick and Karen as well. In part because you’ve already heard me preach today, in part because it’s unusual for me to do a wedding for a friend, but mostly because I’m celebrating the marriage of someone who also celebrates marriages. I don’t know how many weddings Patrick has done, how many couples he has counseled on the way to the altar, but I know that he  perhaps more than many  has given a decent amount of thought to the institution of marriage, and specifically, marriage within the framework of Christianity.

The life of the pastor is an interesting one. We are visioneers and cheerleaders, priests and chaplains, administrators and janitors. We are storytellers wedded to one unchanging ancient story that we seek to tell anew every week. We are followers of a man we say was God in the flesh, who actually died, who actually came back from the dead, who somehow ascended into heaven, and who somehow wraps all of the brokenness of life together in one great big God-sized ball of reconciliation.

The life of a pastor’s spouse is an interesting one as well, and church: if you’re going to pray for just one of these people, pray for Karen. You are here today, blessing your pastor as he vows to put someone else before you. And Karen stands here today on one hand seeking to be part of your group and on another hand fearing that you and she may be in competition with one another. Pray for her. Embrace her. Honor their commitment and their right to privacy and their need for space.

Yes I’ve celebrate fortysomething weddings. You all have heard the 1 Corinthians “love” passage, probably many times at weddings, and I’ve used that a couple times. But this little passage from Matthew is my favorite wedding passage. It says so much, so succinctly. Certainly it can be connected with the message I gave a few moments ago regarding remaining connected to God and to each other, but it also connects to that one unchanging ancient story that we disciples keep alive in our own lives. As Matthew presents it, Jesus has just delivered the “Sermon on the Mount,” containing some of the most famous and central of Jesus’ teachings. And Jesus offers us an option: Go through life with me, and it’ll go better for you. There will be storms, don’t get me wrong, but when your life is founded on me, when you remain in me, we weather the storms together.

Patrick and Karen are building their house together, and doing so in connection with the master builder Jesus. They have been blessed in finding in each other  complementary life qualities and faith and hope and love (I couldn’t resist slipping a little 1 Cor 13 in there) – faith and hope and love that will help them weather the storms of life. It is good to go through life with a partner, especially in connection to God.

It is the perfect love of God that brought us to this sacred space on this day, and it is the perfect love of God that will guide you and sustain you throughout your marriage, throughout your life together.  

Patrick and Karen, I am thrilled to stand here today before God and your friends and family, witnessing to your commitment to each other, and I claim for you the perfect love of God, who has taken the pieces of your pasts and brought you together, which binds you together today, and which will be over, under, around and inside of you, sustaining you and bringing you to maturity together, I claim that abiding power for you in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

You’ve declared your intent, we’ve heard the word of God and witnessed to it, now let us enter into the sanctuary’s altar area and bless you and pray for you as you make your vows and bless your commitment to one another.