June 2015
I have conducted two weddings this weekend, one in Burton
and one in Holme, and have been reminded what an enjoyable part of my job that
is. It seems to me that most people
still think that weddings are worth a great deal of effort – everyone dresses
carefully, great care is taken over the smallest details of the day and large
amounts of emotional energy are invested, especially by the bride and
groom.
Although most of us have heard the same vows made many times
it would be hard to deny that something very significant is happening as bride
and groom face each other and speak those gripping words of commitment. We are witnessing the beginning of true love,
not the first feelings of attraction and desire but the public commitment to
love, to do good to another person. We
hear them promise that they will maintain this true love not until the sparkle
appears to have gone out of the relationship but all the way to their dying
breath.
But the church marriage service says something about the
bride and groom that may seem puzzling: “It is God’s purpose that they shall be united
in that love as Christ is united with his Church.” What does that mean? It means that God himself designed human
marriage to be a miniature reflection of the big event that lies at the centre
of our world’s story, a marriage to eclipse all marriages, the forming of a deep
eternal bond between the perfect groom, God’s own Son Jesus, and the people called
together by God to collectively form his Son’s bride. (‘Church’ literally means ‘the called out
ones’.)
Imagine the delight that a young child feels at the GP
surgery when she sees that her plastic toys exist in the real world too – there
really are stethoscopes and thermometers and syringes! In the same way our weddings are small-scale
copies – the real thing exists too, there is a dream wedding and for those who
trust in Christ it’s our big day!
Sincerely
Graham Burrows