HabberstadBergh 1Cor13 Mt19

Amy Habberstad Bergh                       August 18, 2001

Texts: 1 Cor 13.4-8,13    Matthew 19.4-6

a long way from Wedding Rock in Patrick’s Pt State Park in CA where engaged to Fargo, ND

met at baptism

Beginning a new life together- as you begin writing the next chapters of your love story together, you aware of the realities of the daily grind; challenges of work; of getting enough sleep, finding enough time to do things you enjoy, and of having quality time

know love but they also know life, and oftentimes the facts of life can overwhelm the feelings of love,

for now, it’s kind of cute the way he has a song for everything he can sing, but someday that very action may drive you crazy

and you wonder: has the love gone?

impt to make distinction between LUV and LOVE

basically diff between feeling and action

LUV as a feeling is okay, desirable BUT LUV is fickle

LOVE is an action and it is this love that is described in 1 Cor 13:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

A goal of Xn life in general and Xn couple and Xn family in particular is to have this love become natural but it always remains something we practice, choose to do, that we are commanded to do: Love one another!

But know that w/ every command God gives, God also gives the way to make it possible to keep

consider J’s words in Matt 19: What God has joined together, let no one put asunder.

one hand: hard command: let no one put asunder

command addressed to you and to all gathered here

BUT hear the promise: What God has joined together, let no one put asunder.

And now I hope you realize that the beginning of your story is not just today, not just when you first met at that baptism, but goes all the way back to the very beginning of all things when God’s plan for you to be here together today was enacted.

Teased about Wedding service in LBW being just after AffirmBapt and just before Burial of the Dead

and threads through own Baptism and maybe will find you gathered here for another baptism someday down the line

It’s true: Not at the beginning, but not at the end either

I am convinced that it is God’s love that brings you to this day

God at work in the circumstances that brought you together;

God is present today, God will continue to be present until death parts you

today we not only celebrate your marriage but also celebrate a story of God’s love for you from beginning to end

And so throughout your marriage, I/we pray that you will not only LUV each other but also LOVE one another just as God loved you and holds your love together now and will love you always. AMEN.