Nick & Rachel Wedding Homily

Charge

Nick and Rachel, so much has gone into preparing for today. There’s been laughter in the process; tears in the process; and prayers in the process. And, of course, there’s been CrossFit. All of it was so that we’d be able to enter today with confidence knowing that the Lord is delighted to join you together in holy matrimony. So, I want to celebrate today by giving you a reminder of the most important thing to carry with you for the rest of your days.

I don’t know if, in her song Sweet Dreams, Beyoncé knew that she was paraphrasing Scripture when she sang this line

Tattoo your name across my heart So it will remain Not even death can make us part

But she was! That line reminds me of the words spoken in the . This book of the Bible is about courtship and marriage. The couple is about to wed at the end of the book, and here’s what they say in their vow,

Song of Solomon 8:6–7 ESV

6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.

There is nothing in this world that is more valuable than love. As the couple is about to marry, the request is, “set me as a seal upon your heart.” That is, tattoo my name across your heart. Make me the impression upon your heart. Make me a permanent fixture in your heart. Because love is as strong as death. Death is unavoidable. It is relentless. It is persistent. It always accomplishes its goal. So, they’re saying, “I know that if you set me as a seal upon you heart, you will always persist in loving me. You will be relentless in pursuing me. You will not be content with letting the flame of our love dimmer and fade.”

Nick, set Rachel as a seal upon your heart from this day forward and forever. Rachel, set Nick as a seal upon your heart from this day forward and forever. From this day forward there is no other human being who gets that privileged place within your heart. No one. I’m not describing your marriage as Nick and Rachel against the world. No. I’m describing it as Nick and Rachel for one another always. Nick and Rachel devoted to one another, loving one another.

You see because the second part of that text is the whole point. Many waters cannot quench love. Neither can floods drown love. When there is true love, it will always live. And there is nothing more valuable than this love. They know that if a man were to offer for love all the wealth of his house he would be utterly despised. In other words, you can’t buy love. You don’t have enough money to pay for it. You’d be a fool to try an offer things in exchange for love. To offer things for love is to make love cheap. For a husband or a wife to think, I’m going to do this for her, I’m going to do this for him, so that she’ll love me more, so that he’ll love me more—to think like that is to make love cheap; something to be bought or sold or bargained for.

Here is the irony with love. Because it is of infinite value it must be given freely. It must be given away to each other for free. The fact of the matter is, you cannot give love like that in your own strength. You need the strength of another if you are going to live the rest of your days setting one another as the seal upon each other’s hearts. Because there will be days when you feel like the flames of love are being quenched, and the floodwaters are drowning it.

How do you prevent the floods of life from drowning your love? How do grow such that 20 years from now, after children, and change, and adjustments, that the flames of your love are burning even brighter than they are today? You do it by soaking yourselves everyday in the love of God. He is the Stronger One who gives you the strength to grow in your love for one another. Jesus Christ is the one who says to his people, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (). Remain in my love, Jesus says. Every day in your marriage together abide in the sacrificial, giving, always available love of God. God’s word says to us in , “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him.” The strength to grow in your love for one another, the strength to keep the flames of your love burning brighter as the years go by is to believe and live in the love that God has given you.

My confidence is that you will thrive in your love because God is committed to loving you eternally, and you know it.

Our Father, whose presence brings happiness to every condition, and whose favor sweetens every relation in life; we pray your presence and favor upon Nick and Rachel that they may truly thrive together in love for the rest of their days. Amen.