+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Tiffani and Frank, members of their families, and friends,
Your brothers and sisters in Christ at Pilgrim rejoice with you in God’s good gift of marriage, and we are thankful that you have come today to hear God’s Word, to pledge to live together as husband and wife according to the Word of God, and to have your civil marriage blessed.
From God’s Word today, you have heard that from the beginning God made people either male or female and set apart marriage as a holy estate, for the expression of our sexuality always open to procreation, and so as the foundation of family life. In our pre-marital instruction, we discussed how the first man and woman’s fall into sin had consequences for them and for marriage. Soon after, the Bible reports, without approving, fallen humanity’s deviations from God’s created intent of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, joined together for eternal life.
We all know other people who have failed to live as God intended them to live, in terms of sexually pure and decent lives, in what they think, say, and do. Sometimes we too easily point our fingers at them without considering ourselves, how we have failed to live sexually pure and decent lives, in what we think, say, and do, whether we are unmarried or married. And, fail in such ways and in other ways, we all do, for we all are sinful by nature, and we all fail to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
Yet, God in His unbounded mercy calls and enables us to repent of our sin: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin, all our sin, whatever our sin might be, for Jesus’s sake.
From God’s Word today, you have heard that marriage refers to Christ and the Church—in the Old Testament, the Lord and His people. Despite the people’s repeated unfaithfulness, the Lord faithfully welcomed them back each time they repented. The God-man Jesus Christ Himself loved the Church and gave Himself up to death on the cross for her, that He might sanctify the Church (make her holy), having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word (in Holy Baptism), so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that the Church might be holy and without blemish. By God’s grace for the sake of Jesus Christ, those who repent and believe are forgiven.
Not only Holy Baptism, but also in individual Holy Absolution and in the Sacrament of the Altar are God’s Word connected with things that you can feel (the touch of the pastor’s hand) and taste (bread that is Christ’s Body and wine that is Christ’s Blood). Thereby you also can receive God’s forgiveness, life, and salvation. Repentant believers do not despise these gifts but regularly receive them in communion with the Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
With Christ in believers in all these ways, we bring forth the fruits of faith according to our vocations. For example, husbands love their wives, as Christ loved the Church, and wives submit to their husbands, as the Church submits to Christ. And, when we fail to so live according to God’s Word, as we will fail, we return to these means of grace for His forgiveness.
Today without condoning sin (Romans 6:1, 15), Tiffani and Frank, the Church meets you in the condition you are in (1 Corinthians 7:17, 24), namely, married by the state. After you today have pledged to live together according to God’s Word and have received His blessing, always live in His forgiveness of sins, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +