22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 3, 2006
Song of Songs 2:8-13; James 1:17-27; Mark 17:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Ordinary Marriage

On most Sundays we save the welcome to visitors for after the sermon, but today’s service is a tad unusual. It has something to do with the tympani, the brass, the new faces in the choir, and the presence of so many folk who can sing this Lutheran service music by heart. Worship this morning is both ecumenical and trans-cultural, as summed up by an exchange I heard taking place in the narthex a few minutes ago:

"Would y’all like a bulletin?"

"You betcha."

Talk about Lutheran-Reformed dialogue.

So, speaking on behalf of the session and congregation, I welcome all of you to this service of Lord’s Day worship. Whether you come from North Dakota or North Decatur, or even North Leith in Scotland, you are welcome. One of our favorite hymns around here begins, "Look Who Gathers at Christ’s Table!" There is bread and wine for everyone. (No lutefisk. Ecumenism only goes so far. But plenty of bread and wine.)

And to our brothers and sisters in the Adams Mountain Lutheran Church, who raised Megan Thorvilson in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, a special message from our congregation to yours: You done good. We couldn’t have done better if we had baptized Megan ourselves. The only reason we’re turning loose of our summer intern is because she’s becoming a member of the family.

Although this is an unusual Sunday in some ways, in liturgical terms, it’s perfectly ordinary. Today is the 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time and the scripture readings come straight out of the Consensus Lectionary. With one exception, the folks in Adams, North Dakota, and the folks on Adams Street here in Tallahassee are hearing the same passages this morning. The slight variation is the Old Testament reading. The Presbyterian reading comes from the Song of Songs – by far the steamiest book in Holy Writ. The Lutherans have instead a passage from Deuteronomy, the second book of the Law.

Perhaps it’s true. Presbyterians do have more fun.

Actually, Presbyterians are as uncomfortable with the Song of Songs as everybody else. Who knew you needed a "V Chip" for your Bible? Our passage depicts a young woman in the court of King Solomon, being wooed by a young man who is remarkably athletic:

Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.
         My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag . . .

He’s no slouch of a poet, either. He hangs around the garden wall, looking up at his true love’s window. When her chaperones are out of earshot, he tunes up his lute and croons like a bass in the St. Olaf Choir:

Pretty racy stuff, this, and perfect for a wedding. The early church fathers told everybody the Song of Solomon was an allegory of Christ’s love for the church. Right! So much for the plain meaning of the text!

Why can’t this passage be heard for what it is – a celebration of romantic and physical love? Is it too much of a stretch for us to imagine the Lord God hiding behind a bush in the garden, saying to her, "Tell him he’s got nice legs. Go on!" or to him, "Complement her eyes. Tell her, ‘Your eyes are doves behind your veil.’ Go ahead! Tell her!"

If God did not want us to rejoice in the flesh, why do you suppose God’s Word came to us in the flesh? In John’s Gospel, the first "sign" that God’s word has taken flesh occurs when Jesus produces wine for a wedding feast. And in Matthew and Mark Jesus quotes with approbation the saying that "two shall become one flesh."

But there is more to Christian marriage than the affirmation of love, both spiritual and physical, between two people. For Christians, marriage is an act of discipleship. When we Christians marry, we’re not just following our instincts; we’re following Jesus. I think that’s one reason why Adam and Megan chose to be married here, in the context of Lord’s Day worship. Marriage is what the Reformers called an "ordinance" of the church. Not a sacrament, but an ordinance – a duly constituted and divinely sanctioned expression of the ordered Christian life.

It is therefore "mete and right" for a man and woman to make their vows to one another in the "body of the Kirk." Here is the Font to remind Megan and Adam of the grace that claimed them in baptism, and will not let them go. Here is the Table where they are fed and nourished to bear that grace into the world. Here is the Book which bears the Good News, the Law and Gospel, the message of salvation. And here are the people, the saints of God, who have helped to bring them thus far along their way.

Please don’t misunderstand me when I say that marriage is, for Christians, a perfectly ordinary thing. It’s not the only way to live a Christian life. It’s not even, I am becoming convinced, the only context in which two Christians can faithfully live together in covenant love. But it is God’s good gift to a man and a woman who wish to live faithfully together, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, as long as they both shall live.

To use the words of our Epistle Reading, marriage is a way for Christians to be "doers of the word," not merely "hearers of the word."

Mere hearers of the word, says James, are like folks who look at themselves in the mirror and, upon going away, promptly forget what they were like.

They’re the couples who spend thousands for a church wedding and are never seen again in church – save for Christmas and Easter. They’re the folks who phone up the church office and say, "I hear you have a lovely old sanctuary. Can my daughter and I come by to look at it for her wedding?"

They come by the office. They pick up the keys. They have a look. Then they bring the keys back and drop them disdainfully on the Administrative Assistant’s desk.

"We’ll have to keep looking. You should have told us that place hasn’t got a central aisle."

"Doers of the word," by contrast, are those who put their marriage to work. They make their home a place of Christian hospitality and a headquarters for Christian mission. They make a place for justice at their table, and grace is not an occasional visitor in their home, but a constant companion. (Grace does the dishes.) For doers of the word, marriage is not an one-time event captured in a guilt-edged photo album, but a way of life, a context for living in covenant.

Because the Triune God has claimed us and called us to live in covenant with God, we are graced and empowered to live in covenant with one another. That’s what makes marriage an ordinance, not merely a custom. Martin Luther himself maintained that one of the great achievements of the Reformation was to reclaim marriage as a divine ordinance.

And so these two Christians, Adam John and Megan Joy, stand before us to bind themselves together in marriage. Quite an ordinary act, really, but it speaks of extraordinary grace:

Grace made flesh.
         Grace going ahead, preparing the way.
         Grace in passing through the waters.
         Grace in cross and empty tomb.
         Grace in bread and wine.
         Grace in the sound of the other’s voice.
         Grace in the touch of the other’s hand.
         Grace in two made one.
         Grace in the Triune God, in whom all promises are kept.

Ordinary Sunday. Ordinary Christians doing the word. Extraordinary grace.

Thanks be to God.