What is marriage

We attended Steve’s son and daughter-in-law’s wedding Saturday and Diana’s brother preached.  I had to laugh,  Pastor Dyer had all the Baptists convinced he was a Baptist because of his causal to the point delivery and yet the Lutherans were thrilled to hear him explain marriage as designed by God.  And all the guys from the call committee at our Lutheran church wanted to immediately vote to call him.  Ha!

 

Here are several points and a few I would add myself about marriage.  We may think sitting at a wedding is just a 30 minute casual church affair and the groomsmen may think that if they can tolerate the money suits, the bridesmaids smile and look cute in their dresses, then it will soon be over.  But this wedding  is holy ground because wherever God’s Word is, that is holy ground (think Moses).  God put two people together just as he noticed his bride in the church on earth and noticed that he had the groom by his side in heaven.  And he put the two of them together.  Marriage is like the church’s relationship with it’s Lord and the church is like a marriage.  Do you doubt this? Then look at Genesis 2:7-18.  Adam was surrounded by all of creation and had a perfect relationship with God.  Yet astoundingly God says, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Now how could busy and spiritual Adam possibly consider himself alone, but God knew he was missing something special and specific. It was not good that he be alone spiritually, emotionally, socially or physically.  And 2:18 ends with the solution of a “helper”.  Those who know their Hebrew note that the word can also be translated “compliment”—like two puzzle pieces that fit in each other’s voids perfectly.  And the two represent the fullness of God’s character. The Hebrew scholars tell me that the words for "man" and for "woman" is the same word, just masculine and feminine endings. 

 

Astoundingly, God doesn’t create a woman and let her roam around until Adam finds her like the animals.  In Gen. 2:21-24 He causes a sleep to befall Adam, takes a rib and makes it into woman.  And then He brought her to Adam.  Talk about an arranged marriage! And she is so close to him, so complimentary to him that a man will forsake his family to become one with the woman.  In a similar manner, God brought his Son to mankind when they were yet evil and sinful, died for them and brought mankind together with His Son in the Holy Spirit.  Pastor Dyer asked the congregation to pray for the newlyweds and made them swear to it.  (Which caused my Baptist friend to say, “hey, Baptists are wary of oaths but this time we were convinced.”) And the groomsmen and bridesmaids were charged with supporting this new couple.  And the family came up to gather around Chris and Amy and pray in front of us great cloud of witnesses. Wow!

 

Man alone completes a woman and woman alone completes a man.  I know this because Jesus said it in Matthew 19:4-6.  Love is the centerpiece of the relationship. (So much for loveless arrangements and shacking up) It takes a man and a woman, not 2 men or 2 women or 3 women and a bunch of kids.  (So much for “gay marriage” and the nanny state as dad) Children do not complete a family, they come to it and expand it.  The husband and wife are the priority relationship and other relationships are subject to it.  Hey, I didn’t say this.  Jesus did.

 

It was a good thing Diana’s bro stopped when he did.  Otherwise we were about to storm the popular culture.  A friend told us, “It was like renewing my vows.” A pretty powerful homily, a pretty powerful belief, I would say.