Wedding Sermon
Jordan Halverson & Taylor Madson
Genesis 2:7,18-24; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Mark 10:2-9
There are those who say that marriage is just a piece of paper. Except maybe for some legal stuff, it doesn’t really do anything. But those who would say such things don’t understand the way God works in this world. For our Lord always works in and through the created things of this life. When He made Adam, He worked with ordinary dirt to sculpt the first man and breathe life into him. He then worked through Adam to make Eve from his side. When God created you, the Bible says that He knit you together in your mother’s womb. The Lord works through humans to create humans.
That’s how it is with God–He works through all sorts of different things and people in your lives to provide for you and bless you and do you good in the end. Especially at a moment like this, we think of all the people who were the instruments of God who helped the two of you to become who you are and to bring you to this day–friends and family and parents. In particular I’m thinking now of Randy and the key role he played in your life, Jordan, as your father. I hope you know well how proud he would be and what he would say to you.
The point is, God is always working through ordinary created stuff, including ordinary created people, for your ultimate good. And this is true, then, even of earthly civil authority, which He has established to keep order in the world–as imperfect and flawed as individual office-holders or laws may be; God is still at work there. So when the marriage license says that you are husband and wife, it’s actually not just a piece of paper. Behind that document we see God, who is joining you together and making you one flesh. That’s why we gather here in church for the wedding–to recognize that the Lord Himself is present and working in this. He is the One who established the marriage of male and female as the foundation of the family, and we worship and honor Him for His gift of uniting the two of you as husband and wife.
And there is actually great comfort in knowing and believing this. Too often people have this uncertainty about whether or not the person they’ve married is “the one.” “What if my soulmate is still out there?” But that notion is just pagan silliness. The Bible doesn’t speak of soul mates, anyway, but of body mates. “The two shall become one flesh”–heart, soul, body, mind all together. And, Scripture says, “What God has joined together, let not man separate.” There’s your certainty in marriage. Even more important than your feelings of love and romance, which will go up and down over time, this truth will stand steady and unchanging: God has married you to each other; God Himself has given you to faithfully love and honor each other.
So let’s meditate for a moment on what that love is all about. The Epistle reading we just heard describes it in this way, “Love is patient and kind.” Real love sometimes involves patiently putting up with the other person’s weaknesses and flaws, not always requiring that you get your way, but treating the other person like the spouse you want them to be, even if they’re not quite there yet. Since marriage always involves the joining together of two fallen sinners, patience and kind language and forgiveness go a long way toward making that work, as it is written, “Love covers a multitude of sins.”
“Love does not envy or boast,” for it is glad to see others doing well and being blessed with good things, and it isn’t focused on itself. “Love is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” In other words, love is not selfish but selfless. People only become rude when it’s all about what they want. But real love is humble, wanting to do what is best for the other. As you put the interests of each other first, then you will find the greatest happiness. It’s counterintuitive, but the Scriptures teach, “It is better to give than to receive.”
“Love is not irritable or resentful.” In other words, love doesn’t have a short temper, but is slow to become angry. Love isn’t quick to bad mouth others or put the worst construction on what they say or do, but rather it explains everything in the kindest way.
“Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” It doesn’t enjoy playing with the facts to justify its behavior or manipulating the other to get what it wants. It despises all sin and falsehood. Love’s greatest joy is in that which is good and right and honest and true. It doesn’t worry about what it might lose in the process because it’s not seeking to gain for itself in the first place. And so it can afford to be honest and truthful.
Finally, the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 concludes, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” Love is willing to carry the load for the other, to do more than it’s “fair” share. It’s not in the business of keeping score of who’s done how much. It’s just there for the other person. Love trusts, not because it’s naive, but rather because it’s always hoping and looking for the best. It’s willing to risk being hurt, to lay itself on the line for the other. It endures and doesn’t give up.
Now when we hear that whole description of love, we agree it’s all nice and good, but it’s also difficult, and a little bit scary. For we realize that our love doesn’t exactly measure up to those words. But that’s where the good news of the Gospel comes in. The Scriptures say that God is love. And so this description of love is really a description of our Lord Jesus, who is love in the flesh. When we learn to see Christ in all of these words, that’s when we understand their true and greater meaning.
Christ is patient and kind, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. Christ does not envy or boast but in humility lays down His life on the cross to save us from our sins. The Lord Jesus is not arrogant or rude. He does not insist on His own way but freely does the Father’s will. Christ is not irritable or resentful but slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth, for He Himself is the Way and the Truth and the Life. Christ Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things for you. Christ’s love never ends and never fails you.
Jesus is the heavenly Groom, who sacrificed Himself for His chosen lady, the Church, to make her His own. He took our place under judgment on the cross to set us free and to purchase our forgiveness. Like Adam of old, Jesus was put into the deep sleep of death. Like Eve, we are created from the sacramental blood and water that flowed from His side. The risen Jesus has cleansed us and made the Church to be His pure and holy bride, without flaw and blameless.
Taylor, you just recently received that cleansing in Holy Baptism, where God worked through common ordinary water, joining His Word to it to clothe you in the white garment of Christ’s righteousness. And so you in your wedding dress today are in a very real way a picture of the church, just as Jordan is given to be a picture of Christ, showing sacrificial love for you.
That truth of what Jesus has done for you is the only sure and solid foundation to build your marriage on. You are given to love and forgive and be faithful to each other because You are forgiven in Christ and loved by Him through His holy cross and resurrection. Christ is faithful to you. He will never divorce you. He will not give up on you. He’s in this for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. For He’s already been through the worse and the poorer to save you and to give you the better riches of His mercy and His resurrection life forever.
So, Jordan and Taylor, hold on to Christ and His love. Remember who you are as His people. And then, as God said in the beginning, “Be fruitful and multiply.” May the Lord grant you a quiver full of children who are one flesh of the both of you for the praise of His name. And may He grant you a blessed and happy marriage together.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.