Wedding Homily

 

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled…. Hebrews 13:4a

 

It wasn’t what we expected to hear.

The couple being married were a young, godly twosome who appear to have taken their engagement seriously.  He asked permission to date, and then to become engaged, from the Bride’s father. They sought godly counsel about marriage and thought through the ramifications of where they would choose to live, worship, and (hopefully) start a family.

The handsome groom was obviously thrilled with what he saw coming down the aisle with her father. They lit a unity candle in the most meaningful ceremony of its sort that I have seen. (Their mothers each lit a side candle to begin the ceremony, representing their respective children. The bride and groom later extinguished their own candle and, together, lit the large, center candle to symbolize becoming one.)

Then it started. The wedding homily.  The bride’s pastor was speaking. He gave a few nice words about the institution of marriage and how sacred it is to God. He talked about the attack on it and the family in our nation.

Then, he started to talk about those things that have hit it so hard, starting with pornography and adultery. He pointed out the devastation that pornography has had on marriages and how it is getting worse. He looked at the young groom and talked about the pain it brings into a household.  The groom agreed.

The Pastor gave a sermon on marital love without ever touching the traditional “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13 (though it is also worthy of its reputation). He exhorted these two to love each other by being faithful and true to one another with their eyes, their words, and their hearts (those are not his words, but my interpretation).

Not a married couple attending that wedding could have walked out of there without examining what is happening in their own marriages.

Love, respect, honor, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and faithfulness were all wrapped up in this talk on the things that kill marriages. Unfaithfulness (through pornography and other sexual sin) was the thing he pointed out as the greatest threat to any marriage.

Did I tell you that this Pastor is also the father of the bride? He took one last opportunity to protect his little girl before giving her into the arms of the man who promised to love and cherish her for the length of his days.

It was a beautiful ceremony.  Everyone involved took the institution of marriage and the vows they made seriously . For some of us, whose weddings were many years ago, this ceremony made us take a good hard look at how faithful  we’ve been to our vows…with our bodies, with our eyes, with our mouths, and with our hearts.

How about you and your marriage? Love, respect, honor, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and faithfulness; how are you doing with your husband?