(Sermon as party of a Marriage Preparation weekend)
Imagine two people strapped into a space rocket, headed for Mars in some perhaps not-so-distant day in the future. They are on a great adventure. They take with them everything they need for survival - seeds, equipment to make water, masses of oxygen sent ahead on unmanned rockets - and now they will go.
There is no coming back. Perhaps there will be no earth to come back to. Human life seems threatened by global disaster. Here is a chance to start afresh. With this couple, this married couple. Eventually, they will populate this further planet, begin a new society.
Someone has said that "marriage partners may be thoughts of as the astronauts of society" (Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). Perhaps I can explore that for a while, though bearing in mind that God when he wanted to show us fullness of life came amongst us as a single man. So I could explore this from the point of view of singleness, but that is for another day.
On your wedding day: blast off. You come down the aisle. "Ten, nine, eight..." No wonder there is great excitement!
First of all, you are building your rocket. A space rocket needs to be strong. You need to be able to trust it. It must be faithful. Yesterday, we spoke about faithfulness, constancy. This featured very highly on the reasons you have chosen to get married. You are creating safe place. A safe place where you can face each other across the breakfast table, where you can sort out the debt problems, where you can moan about rolling up the toothpaste the wrong way. It is a place where we can "spill the beans" about oneself and still be loved. Yesterday someone said that it is a place where you can "grow old together". In an uncertain world, it is a place of security, a place to face the future, death even. Single people too may have these safe places. I think of those who have been able to experience this through deep friendships. And they are equally precious. Yours is a particular vocation of faithfulness.
You have been testing the rocket. Sometimes the count down has had to be restarted. But now the launch date is in sight!
Secondly, your marriage is a very public place of celebration. At every moment yesterday it seemed, we said "Party". Your marriage is not alone in a corner. That is why by law you have to have witnesses. Two is the minimum - and for one couple it will be 141! Your friends and family will gather on the launch pad. Underneath it all, this is because it matters to us all. Yours in the building block of the future. Yours is the smallest unit of that great thing we value so much - society. Your faithfulness secures society into the future. Around 10 years ago, I said to myself - if all Banks are as bad as the one I'm dealing with, we are in for some problems! I wish I had listened to myself. Without trust, everything breaks down. This will be put to the test in the "growing old together".
This trust and security is a safe place for your children. You are re-populating the future. You are creating a safe space-rocket for your children to grow, develop. Rest assured, they will never fully "leave home". As we gather for your wedding day, with joy and excitement we place society's well-being in your hands.
Space journeys are risky things. You never quite know what you will face - from the challenges of children not sleeping, to the teenage years, to frailty and older age. There is nowhere to hide!
On adventures we all fail. Sometimes people speak of the crisis in modern marriage. Strangely, that is the evidence for what I say. For you will face all sorts of problems on the way. These all testify to the adventure you are going on together.
You have come to the right place to begin a journey of risk. For you do not travel alone. There are not two but three in your marriage.
This place is I like to think one of those that led to the abolition of the slave trade, as William Smith came here and saw the grave of Hester Woodley. With God, nothing is impossible, and there is always forgiveness when we fail and seek to find his help to ask forgiveness, to forgive one another, and begin again.
Perhaps the best marriage preparation you can do is to determine to come here - or somewhere like it - each week, and to give time to prayer and reading the Bible regularly. As the saying does: those ho pray together, stay together.
Imagine two people strapped into a space rocket, headed for Mars in some perhaps not-so-distant day in the future. They are on a great adventure. They take with them everything they need for survival - seeds, equipment to make water, masses of oxygen sent ahead on unmanned rockets - and now they will go.
There is no coming back. Perhaps there will be no earth to come back to. Human life seems threatened by global disaster. Here is a chance to start afresh. With this couple, this married couple. Eventually, they will populate this further planet, begin a new society.
Someone has said that "marriage partners may be thoughts of as the astronauts of society" (Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). Perhaps I can explore that for a while, though bearing in mind that God when he wanted to show us fullness of life came amongst us as a single man. So I could explore this from the point of view of singleness, but that is for another day.
On your wedding day: blast off. You come down the aisle. "Ten, nine, eight..." No wonder there is great excitement!
First of all, you are building your rocket. A space rocket needs to be strong. You need to be able to trust it. It must be faithful. Yesterday, we spoke about faithfulness, constancy. This featured very highly on the reasons you have chosen to get married. You are creating safe place. A safe place where you can face each other across the breakfast table, where you can sort out the debt problems, where you can moan about rolling up the toothpaste the wrong way. It is a place where we can "spill the beans" about oneself and still be loved. Yesterday someone said that it is a place where you can "grow old together". In an uncertain world, it is a place of security, a place to face the future, death even. Single people too may have these safe places. I think of those who have been able to experience this through deep friendships. And they are equally precious. Yours is a particular vocation of faithfulness.
You have been testing the rocket. Sometimes the count down has had to be restarted. But now the launch date is in sight!
Secondly, your marriage is a very public place of celebration. At every moment yesterday it seemed, we said "Party". Your marriage is not alone in a corner. That is why by law you have to have witnesses. Two is the minimum - and for one couple it will be 141! Your friends and family will gather on the launch pad. Underneath it all, this is because it matters to us all. Yours in the building block of the future. Yours is the smallest unit of that great thing we value so much - society. Your faithfulness secures society into the future. Around 10 years ago, I said to myself - if all Banks are as bad as the one I'm dealing with, we are in for some problems! I wish I had listened to myself. Without trust, everything breaks down. This will be put to the test in the "growing old together".
This trust and security is a safe place for your children. You are re-populating the future. You are creating a safe space-rocket for your children to grow, develop. Rest assured, they will never fully "leave home". As we gather for your wedding day, with joy and excitement we place society's well-being in your hands.
Space journeys are risky things. You never quite know what you will face - from the challenges of children not sleeping, to the teenage years, to frailty and older age. There is nowhere to hide!
On adventures we all fail. Sometimes people speak of the crisis in modern marriage. Strangely, that is the evidence for what I say. For you will face all sorts of problems on the way. These all testify to the adventure you are going on together.
You have come to the right place to begin a journey of risk. For you do not travel alone. There are not two but three in your marriage.
This place is I like to think one of those that led to the abolition of the slave trade, as William Smith came here and saw the grave of Hester Woodley. With God, nothing is impossible, and there is always forgiveness when we fail and seek to find his help to ask forgiveness, to forgive one another, and begin again.
Perhaps the best marriage preparation you can do is to determine to come here - or somewhere like it - each week, and to give time to prayer and reading the Bible regularly. As the saying does: those ho pray together, stay together.
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