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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear J.D. and Tifaney, members of Pilgrim Lutheran Church, and invited guests of the bride and groom,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
One thing that struck me in hearing you, J.D. and Tifaney, speak about how you both first met was how at least one of you at that time had no thought of getting married. Yet, the Lord clearly had something else in mind, as here you both are. You are bucking trends in the United States not only by getting married but also by getting married here, in your church, since you desire to begin your married life in the Lord’s Name and with His blessing. Your story of how you met and your understanding of God’s role in your marriage prompted me to select as the text for this sermon Psalm 127, which served as today’s Appointed Psalm, essentially the Entrance Psalm or Introit (Psalm 127 was also reflected in the Opening Hymn). And, with Psalm 127 in mind, especially the first half of its first verse—“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain”—I have given this sermon the theme, “The Lord is building this house”.
Psalm 127 is the only Song of Ascents ascribed to Solomon, and it shares content with some of his proverbs and may even reflect his building the Lord’s Temple, receiving a special name from the Lord, and having a revelation from the Lord in a dream. The main point of Psalm 127 is that everything depends on the blessing of God, and the divinely‑inspired psalmist makes that point using examples from the family and civil spheres. Yet, Psalm 127 is not really saying anything we do not know from elsewhere in the Old Testament, such as from Genesis chapter 2.
In fact, the Old Testament Reading’s excerpt from Genesis chapter 2 (vv.7, 18-24) told us how the Lord God created woman in order for Him to fix the “not good” situation of the man being alone and so being unable to accomplish what God desired people to do, especially their being fruitful and multiplying, filling the earth and subduing it. So, the Lord God created woman as a helper fit for the man and did so by taking a piece of the man’s flesh and bone. Then, the Lord God brought the woman to the man and presented her to him as a treasured and precious gift necessary for him to have his own house, home, and children. Adam confessed who she is and about their relationship: they are two but one flesh. And, the divine writer states the result of their marriage and indicates that their union sets the pattern for every other union that will follow. Marriage is always to be the permanent union of one man and one woman, by way of a public confession and declaration of the union, and with the primary purpose of sexual union to produce children. J.D. and Tifaney, as you remember from our pre-marital catechesis or instruction, your spouse is the Lord God’s treasured and precious gift to you, in part for that same purpose.
We often think that we are in control of our lives, make the decisions about our lives, and by our actions determine what becomes of our lives. Yet, Psalm 127 busts those deceptive myths! “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” J.D. and Tifaney, the psalmist says that in vain you rise up early and go late to rest, toiling anxiously at Reef and E‑T‑M‑C. Such toil is “vain” because in effect the Lord gives you all good gifts while you His beloved sleep. Now, I am not saying that people should not work, but I am saying that we all should realize that God gives us everything, including our jobs, our ability to do them, and our things that we think that we are buying with the money that we think we are earning. Last week in our Midweek Lenten Vespers service we talked about Our Heavenly Father’s giving us our daily bread, that is, His giving us everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body. We do best when we recognize our human weakness and inability and surrender to Him.
Psalm 127 three times mentions things being “in vain”, and that emptiness or nothingness or vanity reminds us of our own worthlessness apart from the Lord God. On account of the sinful natures we inherit at the moment of our conception in our mother’s wombs, we are all materially and morally worthless before the Lord God: our thoughts, words, and deeds that do not proceed from faith are all evil before Him. On account of our sin, we deserve to be separated from God now and for eternity—no matter our age. Any efforts to save ourselves would be in vain, unsuccessful and ineffective, but our situation is not hopeless. The Lord God calls and enables us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sins for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ, and to want to do better. When we so repent of all of our sin, then God forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be.
Since before Christmas, our Sunday morning Adult Bible Class has been studying what the Gospel accounts say about Jesus before He began His public ministry, and the last couple of weeks, we have been watching the 2006 movie “The Nativity Story” and comparing it to the Bible’s accounts of Jesus’s birth. (J.D. and Tifaney, I am sorry you will miss this Sunday, when I hope to complete that class; I guess you will have to listen to that class on the internet!) The movie depicts Joseph building a house for Mary, his fiancé, and he plans for them to make that house a home by raising a family there together. Of course, in some sense they did raise a family, but not quite as he thought! The Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb, and He grew up, and, out of love, He gave Himself up for the Church, as the Epistle Reading said (Ephesians 5:1-2, 22-33). Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and for me, to save us from our sins. So the Epistle Reading describes Him as the “Savior” of the Church. St. Paul in that Reading goes so far as to say that human marriage mysteriously refers to the relationship between Christ and the Church. He lovingly and sacrificially dies for Her, who had been unfaithful, and He graciously by faith sanctifies Her, makes Her holy, through the washing of water with the word, that is, through Holy Baptism. She, in turn, submits to Christ. And so, like Christ, husbands love their wives sacrificially, and, like the Church, wives submit to their husbands in everything.
In planning this wedding with you, J.D. and Tifaney, I was pleased that you wanted to receive the Sacrament of the Altar together as you were married. Not bread of anxious toil as in Psalm 127, but the Sacrament offers bread that is Christ’s body and wine that is Christ’s blood, which give all of us who receive them the forgiveness of sins and so also life and salvation. As you receive this Sacrament you are forgiven of whatever sins you have committed in the past; your guilt is gone. You start your marriage with a clean slate, as it were. Also by way of this Sacrament, the Lord Jesus lives in us, so St. Paul writes to the Corinthians that our bodies are for the Holy Spirit temples, houses built by the Lord (the Hebrew word for “temple” is the same as that for “house”) (1 Corinthians 3:16). Because our bodies are “temples” or “houses” for the Holy Spirit, we glorify God in our bodies, fleeing from any kind of sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:12-20).
In the second half of Psalm 127, as well as in the verses of Psalm 128 that served as the Gradual today, there is an unmistakable emphasis on children as a blessing the Lord gives to those who are married. The psalmist’s calling children a “heritage” and “reward” emphasize that they are gifts given from the generosity and choice of the giver. That we do not exactly relate to the figures of speech the psalmist uses to describe how the children are blessings does not change that the children are blessings. Of course, sin impacts God’s plans for our lives, and so we live each day with sorrow over our sin, with faith that God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake, and with the desire to do better. With such repentance and faith, there is forgiveness for every sin, especially those sins that people so often think separate what God in marriage has joined together. As Jesus Himself emphasizes in the Gospel Reading (Matthew 19:3-6), in marriage there is no longer two but one flesh; what God has joined together people essentially cannot separate.
J.D. and Tifaney, You will express your consent to be married, and you will exchange your vows, but the Lord, Who brought you together initially, will marry you. “The Lord is building this house”. The Lord will not only marry you, but, as you live in His forgiveness, He will also enable you to stay married. As much my being His instrument for your wedding is my privilege and pleasure, and as much as your parents’ and other guests’ attendance here is a blessing, you know that the Lord’s being here through His Word and Sacraments is far more important both to your wedding and to your married life. Let Him fully build your house, and then its construction will not be in vain.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +