Rebecca and Jason's Wedding Homily

Rebecca and Jason’s wedding October 13, 2018 I was struck by a common theme weaving through the readings that Rebecca and Jason have chosen for this holy day. It’s the theme of blessing. In the reading for Tobit, Tobit and Sarah pray together to bless God and then to ask God’s blessing to be upon their union. The Ephesians reading offers God’s blessing to its reader/listener. And of course the Beatitudes are the quintessential passage of blessing in the gospels. This common theme shouldn’t be surprising, perhaps, because, after all, isn’t that what we are gathering together to do today? (It even says it on the front of the bulletin. It is the “celebration and blessing of a marriage.” But there is something surprising about all of this. That is the unexpected nature of the blessings that these scriptures talk about. Tobit talks about the blessing in marriage of finding a helper. He also asks God that they “may find mercy and grow old together.” The unexpected blessings in Ephesians are that the readers/listeners may be “rooted and grounded in love” and that they may be “filled with the fullness of God.” And then the gospel reading is all about unexpected blessings—how those whom the world would scorn for their suffering or their littleness are actually the ones who will be blessed by God. Jesus teaches that God’s unexpected blessings will be found in times of mourning, persecution, and peacemaking. Today, Rebecca and Jason, you will make your vows to one another before your gathered community of faith and your family and friends. And you will kneel before God to receive God’s blessing upon you both and upon your marriage. We will ask that God will pour out the abundance of God’s blessing upon y’all—defending you from every enemy, leading you into all peace. We will ask that your love for each other may be a seal upon your hearts, a mantle about your shoulders, and a crown upon your foreheads. We will ask God to bless you in your work and companionship; in your waking and sleeping; in your joys and your sorrows; in your life together and in your deaths because your marriage will encompass all of those things and more. But the thing that I want you to remember today, and especially in all the days to come, is that I invite you every day to look for the unexpected blessings that marriage brings you. Look for the ways that the other is a helper to you and for the ways that you can be a helper to the other. Pay attention to the ways that you both find mercy together. Seek out the blessing of your love in times when each of you individually and both of you together mourn. And listen for the ways that God blesses you in your peacemaking-out in the world and in your life together. What a joy it is for us to share this day with you. In the days and years to come, may you find God’s mercy and much joy and may you grow old together. Amen. Amen.