Sermon D

What a joyous day this is for Malcom, Addy, Gene, and our entire congregation. We gather this morning to worship the Triune God and we get to celebrate the union of two of God’s beloved people.

Malcom, you have been a cherished member of our community for twenty years. Your son Gene has crawled, toddled, walked, and run throughout these halls and in this sanctuary. You’ve walked with this community through both happy and difficult times, always trusting that Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is working and guiding your life.

Addy, it has been a joy for all of us here at St. Paul’s to get to know you over the past several years. Your thirst for learning about Christ and your blossoming Christian faith is refreshing for for so many of us.

Now there is so much marriage advise that I could give you two this morning. Never go to bed angry. Make sure not to hog all of the space in the closet, or better yet make sure you each have your own closet. This advice and more like it are good things to remember. But none of these are the key to a successful marriage. I almost don’t even want to tell you what the key is…I don’t want you to think that the marriage relationship isn’t special, because it is. You see, the key to a successful marriage and every meaningful and committed relationship we have in our lives is the same. Do you still want to know what the key is? (pause for a nod of response from the couple)

Okay, here it goes. The key to the success of every meaningful and committed relationship we have is a focus on the third being in the relationship. (pause for dramatic affect.) Yes, you heard me correctly, a focus on the third being in the relationship. And that being is the Triune God.

All meaningful relationships take work, with some periods being harder or easier than others. It is only when we put God at the center that we can experience the fullness of our relationships.

At the time of our baptisms the Holy Spirit instilled in us πιστις. Πιστις is the Greek word that is often translated to mean faith, but to leave it there would be to short change this word. More fully translated the word πιστις means faith, trust, belief. This gift from the Holy Spirit allows us to put our trust in Christ in a way that would otherwise be impossible.

It is through Christ that we encounter one another most fully.

Reliant only on ourselves it is easy to only see what we want to see. During good times that may work out for some people with friendships, work relationships, familial relationships, and yes marriages flourishing. But what happens when we hit challenging times? What do we have to fall back on?

Many years ago I was in a session with my therapist complaining about the fact that my husband never seemed to be willing to shut cabinet doors and drawers fully in our kitchen despite my asking him to for years. My therapist said something to this effect, Well it sounds like you have two options. You can either learn to accept that this is just part of who he is or you can divorce him. I remember thinking WOW that is really extreme. But eventually I came to understand what this wise man was saying, which is this. I could either love him for who he is, including all of the good parts and all of the annoying parts, or I could say, “It isn’t worth it” and throw in the towel. I knew that I wouldn’t be throwing in the towel so I began to pray for the ability to accept the little things about my wonderful husband that annoyed me. I talked to my husband about it and he began to pray to pray as well. And we began to see a shift in not only our own relationship but also in our relationships with our children.

At the time I didn’t have the language to express or explain what was happening but I do now and I’ll share it now. As we began to focus more on our relationships, both individually and as a couple, with God we also began to enjoy what we saw in one another. That is because we were seeing Christ in one another and we were showing the love of Christ with one another.

God’s love is the only perfect love. It is when our focus is on God that we are able to hear and feel the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our relationships with one another. "Faithfulness shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, and our land will yield its increase.” And just so, our relationships will also yield their increase.

No relationship between people is perfect. With God at the center we can not only endure those times of difficulty, but also thrive in the love, compassion, consideration, and grace that we are able to see in and share with one another.

Amen.