Life is Funny

 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Psalm 37:5 (NIV)

            Life is funny. It rarely turns out the way we expect it too. If life were a baseball pitcher, I am confident that it would only throw knuckleballs. They dip and break and seem to change without any warning.

            This past couple of days have brought a rising, curving, changeup that caught most of us scratching our heads. I imagine that most of us can relate to the uncertain nature of this life and the unexpected changes it can bring. I mean really who would have ever guessed that the national unemployment rate would dip to 4.7%; and how many of us suspected that the Gospel of Judas would be discovered. Well, it is good to know that some things remain the same; things like love and marriage. Boy meets girl, at combat medic training school, they fall in love and immediately after graduation, surprise their families with a quickie wedding. It is good to know that you can count on traditions.

            Jesus would have been a great pitcher, because of all the curveballs he threw to the people of His time. He was born to upset the old ways. Born of a virgin, visited by Magi, threatened with death as an infant; these are not your usual first months of life.

Later in life he changed water into wine, fed 5000 with two fish and five loaves, He forgave the woman caught in adultery and ruined every funeral he attended by bring the dead to life.

            Emily and Austin you are beginning your life together and one of the realities you will face is that there are few certain things in this world. You know already this. Emily six months ago could you have imagined being here today marring a military man. Austin, I would guess that there have been changes in you life recently that made you blink and wonder.

When life makes a sudden shift away from where you think it should be, we have a choice, we can fight it and despair at what we thought it should be, or we can remember the words of Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

            You have come here today to be united in holy matrimony. As our liturgy says marriage is an honorable estate that God has instituted and blessed. All of the extra stuff that goes into most weddings does not add to it or somehow make a marriage more important or more holy. It is the commitment that the two of you are making to one another and before God, to have and to hold from this day forward until death parts you that makes this a sacred act.

            In Jesus’ life he caught a lot of people off guard by His teachings and His actions. And while we recognize value in the miracles and the lessons He taught; they are not the reason that He came. Jesus came to seek and save the lost and that could only be accomplished by his death and resurrection. His unconditional love, in action on the cross, was the most sacred act of love we have ever known. His death and resurrection was the most outrageous curve ball thrown to those who thought they knew better. He showed us that to live is to die and to die is to live forever.

            As you begin you lives, no longer as two, but now as one, you will encounter more than your share of curveballs and wild pitches. However one thing will remain that will never change or mislead you. God, in Christ, has already forgiven your sins and written your names in the book of life. He committed to never leave or forsake you and His promise is trustworthy and true.

            With this in mind you will be able to grow in your love and commitment to one another. You will be able to forgive each other for the times when you let one another down. You will be able to confess your faults to each other in the assurance that we forgive one another just as God has forgiven us.

            Emily and Austin May God grant you a blessed and prosperous journey together. And may he guide and comfort you when the unexpected happens. May you Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Amen