JK Wedding Entrance Dance

I saw this video for the first time today as I am participating in the Diocese of St Albans' hosting of the Weddings Project. This was a real wedding in the USA.

We were challenged to think - whose church is this? It's not mine as priest. It's not the PCC's. It's Christ. We are all His guests.

So often the church's answer to couples is 'no' or a percieved 'no.' Christ says 'yes' to us. Shoulndn't we, as the church, say yes to loving couple's celebrations of their love?

I was deeply deeply moved by this and it made me really think

For better, for worse...

I decided that it was time to write a new wedding sermon. The old one had been in circulation for a few years now.

I also decided that it was time to write a new one because the first wedding of the year is of the oldest daughter of a member of the choir, and she has heard the old one many times now!

I enclose both addresses for your delectation and delight below. I have kept the final paragraph the same in both, mostly because I feel that it says what it needs to, but feel free to offer an alternative should you wish...

Sermon 1: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a
I want to leave you with a few thoughts based on the readings that we have just heard before you come to make your vows to each other.

The theme of both of that reading was love. We are gathered here today because you love one another. Love can be elusive and hard to find and each one of us, if we are honest spends our entire lives looking for people to love and be loved by, in our friendships as well as in our families, and each one of us is gathered here this afternoon to celebrate that you have found love in each other.

St. Paul who wrote that reading, records love’s eternal characteristics - he tells us that it is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, not rude, it does not insist on it’s own way, it’s not resentful and it does not celebrate all that is wrong in the world. That’s a fairly demanding list, and your love for each other needs to be expressed in those sorts of ways. Try not to worry when life gets hard and loving is difficult, because St. Paul also tells us that true love bears, believes, hopes and endures everything that life throws at us. You are committing yourselves to each other today for the rest of your lives through good times and through bad; through joy and tragedy each one of us here hopes and prays that you will always remember the love that unites you today, and allow that to carry you through life together.

N I wonder how you express your love for N? N I wonder how you express your love for N? Perhaps you can't always easily verbalize it, but you can express it most powerfully in a touch or a kiss. When true love comes it often does so with a power that we cannot control, it leads us to do things that we never thought that we were capable of. Paul writes of love with a purpose. True love gives us each and inner strength and an inner drive. True love has lead the two of you from your families to each other and eventually here today as you make your vows in the presence of your friends and family and in the sight of Almighty God. I think is particularly apt as the love that unites the two of you is the highest of all human emotions as it is through loving and being in love, we emulate God himself - as I read at the beginning of the service “God is love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

Love perfectly describes what God is like, and in sending of Jesus into the world - through his living, dying and rising again - God demonstrates to each of us the depths of his love. God’s love is something that is available to us all every day, not just the 2 of you on this your wedding day. God loves us like a parent loves their child, no matter who we are, where we are, or what we do.

You are a gift of love from God to each other. So N take care of that special gift of love that you have in N. N take care of that special gift of love that you have in N and that way with the help and support of your friends and family, over the years, your love will change, deepen and grow. As it does we all pray that the both of you, and all those who know you will experience the profound depths of your love for each other in it’s source, in God. Amen.

Sermon 2: Colossians 3:12-17

A Lego Wedding...

- Lego uses the ordinary to make the extraordinary. Whilst individual Lego pieces seem quite ordinary, small and insignificant by themselves they actually have incredible potential to create amazing things which are only limited by ones imagination. The same is true for N and N who are in the process of building an amazing relationship which is exciting for us as friends and family to watch grow.
- Lego's strength is its diversity. Its pieces are all different shapes, colors and sizes. When these diverse pieces come together they actually create some dynamic things. The same is true for N and N who are two unique people. You have different personalities, you have had different upbringings, experiences, struggles, achievements etc. Today as you continue the process of 'becoming one' you do not cease to be two - you don't ignore your individuality, but rather your differences are to be celebrated and looked at as strengths. The challenge is for you to give each other space for your individuality to blossom and to encourage each other to reach your potential.

- Lego is designed to connect. Today N and N take a further step in becoming one - they commit to this connection for life. This doesn't just happen with Lego - for it to come together it takes some intentionality and work. The reading that we heard from Colossians 3:12-17 which talks about putting on (like clothes) kindness, compassion, forgiveness etc. None of these things accidently happen. Just like N and N, you took time/energy/money to choose your clothes for today and to get dressed in your finest, it takes time and energy to grow your love.

It takes a third party to put Lego together - someone who sees the big picture and who knows how the pieces fit together best. Today N and N, you are surrounded by a community who can play a part in your growth and relationship. The encouragement is for us all to help foster growth in our your marriage. Not to dominate it or tell you how to do it, but to encourage and support you. More than that we have a God who made you individually and who sees the bigger picture for you individually and together. This God desires to be a part of your formation and shaping from this day forward, for better for worse... His big picture isn't to limit you, but to help you enter into your potential in love and in life. And the love we celebrate in you is a gift from God.

You are a gift of love from God to each other. So N take care of that special gift of love that you have in N. N take care of that special gift of love that you have in N and that way with the help and support of your friends and family, over the years, your love will change, deepen and grow. As it does we all pray that the both of you, and all those who know you will experience the profound depths of your love for each other in it’s source, in God. Amen.

Wine into Water - The Church has done something more difficult

Alex commented to me yesterday, when I told her what the Gospel reading appointed for today was, haven’t we heard that recently? Her question, echoed my own frustration, and implied a certain amount of ‘not that one again!’ In answer to her question, no we haven’t this story for a while, in fact it is a reading appointed for this Sunday every year. As a preacher, it is one of those passages that is so well known, and much preached on, therefore this preacher could not help but feel that I had nothing new to say to you this morning.

As you read the passage there are several ways of understanding or interpretting this wedding feast at Cana that John has recorded for us. I would like to point out 5 to you here this morning.

Firstly, we can read of a God who transforms the ordinariness of water into the specialness of wine, paralleling his transformation of people from sinners needing him, into citizens of the Kingdom of God and introducing the enhanced, improved, better, more full life that God has pomised since the prophets first opened their mouths and spoke.

Secondly we could focus on the transformation of the water in the water jars used for rites of purification called for by the Old Testament Law, into wine; the new wine of the Kingdom first drunk by Jesus at the last Supper and referred to again in Revelation, implying the replacing of the old Law of Moses with the new, brought in by Christ.

Thirdly, another way of understanding this story centres on the the waiter’s ‘joke’ about saving the best wine till last (unheard of at a Jewish wedding clearly!), perhaps we are to understand that God has done a surprising thing by saving his best up till last - his very best gift to Israel and the world was not Moses and the Law, but his Son Jesus.

Fourthly then, there is the volume of what Jesus produces, in his later tradition of loaves and fish and the parable of the sower. Jesus transforms 6 stone water jars holding gallons and gallons of water. In so doing we rediscover the extravegant grace and generosity in love God shows his world - more than we will ever ever need.

Finally, in Jesus’ words to Mary, ‘My hour has not yet come’ there is a reference not to his unwillingness to provide for people’s physical need in great abundance, but that his greatest hour, the crucifixion and resurrection, has not yet come. He will only act when God wills it not when she wants.

Now perhaps you begin to see the richness of this story, but also how hard it is to bring a fresh interpretation to this miracle.

Whatever you have taken away from this story in past sermons or your own reading and understanding is all almost certainly good, true and life-giving. Whichever interpretation works for you, there is always an element of God celebrating, of rejoicing like at a wedding, of all that Jesus is doing or will do to forge a new relationship between him and people. This is the central message of the Church. We are not asked by Christ, following the ghastliness of the Hatian earthquake in such a God-fearing country, to go and debate whether the God of philosophy exists; we are not called to just be the compassionate or even the good people in society; we are centainly not called to retreat behind the safety of closed doors and carry on in private.

The Danish philosopher of the 19th centuray Soren Kierkegaard said ‘Christ turned water into wine, but the church has succeeded in doing something more difficult, it has turned wine into water...’ It is, if you excuse the pun, a very sobering thought. Have we, by the things we say, the way that we live, the way that we worship, reversed this miracle so much that when people come to church or come into contact with us as Christians they taste, not the best wine (good worship done to the best of our ability, love between us as people, the presence of God himself), but water which is either flavourless and dull or at worst stagnant which has to be thrown away. Have we made the message we have been sent to tell the people of our village in our day, once so full of rich and sweet flavour, now so flavourless so as to be not just unappealing but pointless?

The Greek word for Church in the New Testament is ekklesia, literally, called out. We have been called out of family relationships into a new relationship with God and with each other as disciples - HERE. Here in the security of this room we learn and worship together, here we get to know one another. BUT, from the safety of a room, God empowered the first disciples with the Holy Spirit and sent them out with is same message. He has does the same with us.

From Cana’s water in wine to Calvary’s blood and water, in this sweep we see Jesus’ whole life as one miraculous event, an invitation into an eternal relationship of love. I believe that in this Gospel my friends, God is offering us a challenge to be his Epiphany people again, sharing the sweet and rich wine of the Gospel with our community through some new things that we will do together this year - whether that is people trained to visit the sick and bereaved and show God’s love and care; through services planned in small groups together with me bringing the needs and life of the community to God in our worship; through the warmth of the welcome that people receive we they worship with us. God calls us to prove Kierkegarrd wrong. Amen.

PS: I don't think I have been ready for a Sunday this far in advance, ever!

The Word as a Wordle

This week, the wedding at Cana from John 2:1-11...