conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

My mother, however, would take issue with this.

You see, several months before our wedding, I was in DC for a conference and stayed with my mom. One evening we decided to gather some friends and have dinner. Mom graciously took us out for a lovely evening. And if I recall correctly, Jim and Anne sat next to one another at that dinner.

Now, I don't want to start a fight here at the blessing of their marriage, but there seems to be some disagreement as to who was supposed to call whom and if I was supposed to call someone with someone else's phone number. It becomes very confusing very quickly.

Now, if these competing stories were not enough, there is also the likelihood that they met in college. Jim was singing in an a cappella group and Anne was a groupie. I think she was even serenaded by the group during one concert.

So, really, in all of this who is to blame? Is it me and my wife? Are we to blame? Perhaps my mother is at fault here or deserves all the credit. Then again, there was college.

I think if we worked at it, many of us could think of phone conversations we had, moments when Jim and Anne perhaps wondered where their relationship was going and called friends and family for advice or guidance. In some sense, the credit and the blame belong to all of us gathered here today.

This is the thing I understand about Christian marriage. In spite of some popular notions about marriage, the economy and rugged individualism, we are not blessing this union and then sending Jim and Anne off into the distance to make their own way.

"Good luck, kids! Thanks for the party!" and off we go.

If there is truly a belief in the grace of God and the gathering of a cloud of witnesses, then we cannot leave Jim and Anne alone in this relationship. It may be a theological impossibility, a denial of the Kingdom of God breaking into our lives this day, even to suggest that such independence is possible. Marriage is yet one more way by which God gathers us in to life together with Christ.

...

One of the people who cannot be with us in the flesh is Jim's mother. I have heard time and again from friends and family alike that she wanted desperately to see this day come for her children. And it is with a heavy heart in the midst of great joy that we notice her absense. And yet...

And yet...

Jim and Anne will take communion with one another.
As we pray, we know that God is present...
         ...the Spirit is present
                 ...Christ is present as promised in Bread and Wine.

We also know that there is a cloud of witnesses...a gathering of saints and angels singing praises to God that gather with us. As much as we may miss those who could not be here with us, we know that they are here with us. They share the credit and the blame for the relationship we bless this day.

As our hands our lifted and our arms are opened, so too are those who have gone before us. As we embrace, we are embraced. As we feast, we enter into a holy feast. As we love, we are loved. The beloved who gather are seen and unseen.

Brothers and sisters, friends and family, our Lord is a Lord of Promise. The love that we receive from God in Jesus the Christ is the love that was promised in scripture. It is the love that the prophets foretold. It is the love of our family and friends. And it is the love that will come on the last day.

This day we praise the God of Love.

This day we bless a marriage that is the fulfilment of a promise of love.

This day we bear witness to love gathered, in all who gather here in Spirit and Flesh. There are none absent. None can escape the blame or credit for this marriage, this happy union.

Jim, Anne, as you were gathered together with the love and aid of friends and family, so too will you continue. Our arms our outstretched and God's love is eternal.

This is a blessing indeed.

Thanks be to God!