If you're coming to the wedding at Bodle Street Green today at 3pm, please look away now.
Mr & Mrs Harding!
Congratulations!
I take it you know that you’re now sitting next to the
person who’s statistically most likely to murder you?
I’m a very kind-hearted, generous sort of Vicar, you
understand.
You might say, I’m a Vicar who likes to say “yes!”
And so I get wedding couples to choose their own Bible
reading.
And Michael and Eliza have chosen a great reading.
I mean, all the Bible is good, but you couldn’t get much
better than the Beatitudes.
It’s just a shame it’s not about marriage!
Anyway, I like a challenge – so here we go!
Jesus is talking to his disciples about what his
followers will be like, and about the blessings of his kingdom.
That word “Blessed”, it sounds terribly holy and
religious, but it just means “happy”.
Jesus is describing The Good Life.
How to be happy, we might call it.
The best way to live in God’s world, is God’s way.
Life is best lived according to the Maker’s instructions,
with Jesus as your king.
And one thing to say at a wedding is that marriage is a
good, happy way of life – a blessing.
You’d hardly think it would need saying, but, sadly, with
fewer people getting married and more people getting divorced, perhaps it does.
Today we’re celebrating marriage as a good thing.
This is a happy, hopeful day.
One of the reasons there aren’t more gags in this sermon,
is that so many jokes about marriage are cynical.
Aisle, altar, hymn (joke)
Or do you know this one:
Marriage is like a deck of cards:
In the beginning all you need are 2 hearts and a diamond.
By the end you'll wish you had a club and a spade!
Obviously that won’t be so in your case…
If love is blind, marriage is certainly an eye-opener.
(Tough crowd)
Anyway, that’s the kind of cynicism we’re avoiding.
Marriage is a good, happy, blessed way of life.
(As singleness is too, by the way
(The Bible says that marriage and singleness are both different
gifts
(The Lord Jesus himself was single, so singleness must be
good!
In the Bible account of creation, God repeatedly looked
at what he’d made and said that it was good.
But then he comes to something that’s not good.
He says, “it’s not good for man to be alone.”
It’s not just that men are inadequate and need women to
sort them out!
Men and women are meant for one another, to be
complementary.
Michael and Eliza together, are so much more than Michael
and Eliza separately.
And Michael and Eliza are much better than 2 Michaels!
Today they become a kind of BOGOFF: Buy One Get One Free!
Marriage is a great blessing.
And if you marriage is to be as good as it could possibly
be, you’ll need the qualities that come from following Jesus – the characteristics
pictured in these beatitudes.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek”.
That doesn’t mean that either of you should be doormat.
Meekness isn’t weakness: it’s power under control.
Meekness is humility and gentleness.
Michael, it means that if Eliza wants to go on holiday to
the beach and you want to go to the mountains, you might say,” dear, let’s go
to the mountains”.
It means being caring and considerate, putting one
another first.
After all, a happy Eliza will make a happy Michael, and
vice-versa.
The Bible says, a man who loves his wife loves himself.
Michael, I think the best thing you can do for your own
happiness is to dedicate yourself to doing all you can to make your wife happy!
Jesus said: “Blessed are the merciful”.
All of us need mercy, forgiveness, understanding.
And when you’ve lived with one another for 70 years you’ll
know one another’s, what shall we call them, eccentricities? Weaknesses? Sins?,
better than anyone else.
In our marriages we should all say “Sorry, thank you” and
“please” often.
It’s easy to be irritated by your partner’s bad habits
and forget that you’ve got plenty of “foibles” of your own.
“Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Even great marriages might need a bit of peace-making
from time to time.
Some of these Beatitudes might seem a bit negative.
Remember you picked them: it’s your fault!
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness.”
Michael and Eliza, we hope you’ll be wonderfully
satisfied in your marriage.
Yet I hope you’ll always be hungry and thirsty too – not complacent.
It would be great if when you’re old and grey you still
want to know and love one another better.
Be dedicated to having a great marriage: work hard at it.
“Blessed are those who mourn.”
Even in the best of marriages, and the most charmed of
lives, there will be times of struggle and sadness.
But you’ve promised today to be there for one another in sickness,
and poverty and worse, as well as health and richer and better times.
May you be a comfort to one another when times are tough.
But marriage is
not the be all and end all of life.
The best marriage isn’t the answer to all your problems
or a garuntee of happiness.
Even the best of us will let one another down.
None of us is perfect.
Husbands and wives are great, but they make dreadful
Saviours.
We mustn’t make an idol of marriage or of one another.
It is good for us to know that we are all poor in spirit.
We need Jesus if we’re to know the fullness of God’s
blessings.
Marriage has great blessings.
Life as a Christians is wonderful.
But most of God’s blessing are yet to come.
Those who trust in Christ will possess the kingdom of
heaven, they will know lasting comfort, they will one day inherit the earth,
and be filled with righteousness.
The will see God and be his true children.
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The Bible often pictures heaven as a wedding party.
I hope we have the most fantastic party today, and that
it reminds us of the even greater wedding feast to come.
May we trust in Jesus, and look forward to the ultimate
blessings of the wedding party of heaven. Amen.
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