Song of Solomon - My
beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
11 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
11 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house,
it would be utterly scorned.
for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house,
it would be utterly scorned.
Mark 10 - And Jesus
left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and
crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.
2 And Pharisees came up and in
order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his
wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses
command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to
write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And
Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you
this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of
creation, ‘God made them male and female.’7 ‘Therefore
a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,[a] 8 and
the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What
therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, on this, your
wedding day. Amen.
Dear friends,
especially JB and Annie, What God has joined together, let man not
separate. These words of God take on
very special meaning today, as the two of you here, and now are joined together
as one flesh. Today you begin a journey
together, until death do you part.
Til death do you
part. Several months ago, JB had
promised that very thing to Annie, but as a joke JB had told her that until
death do they part meant 10 years. Meaning
now we’re down to 9 and a half years?
So over those
years, over that time period, which we hope is more than a decade, God promises
to be with you, and to care for you, in good time and bad. God promises to support you in sickness and
in health, and God promises to give you love for all those days.
There will be
struggles. There will be difficulties,
and days of sadness alongside the days of joy and happiness. There will be times where you are both so
busy between teaching and drilling that you’ll hardly see each other. There’ll be times where perhaps you’ll wonder
what you were thinking on this day. But
through it all God’s love for you will carry you, and keep you, throughout all
the challenges that await you.
That’s a love that
begins and ends with Jesus Christ. He
who showed us what love really is by giving up his life for us on the
cross. Who suffered, bled and died that
all our sins might be forgiven. God’s
love is a powerful love. Many waters
cannot quench God’s love, neither can floods drown it. In fact, nothing in this world can destroy
that love. That is the forgiving love
that will keep you and hold you together until death do you part.
Because God first
loves us, we are able then to love each other.
Because God loves us, we’re able to care for each other, no matter what
things might happen in the next 9 and a half years, or God willing even for the
next 40-50 years. When money is tight,
God loves you, and will provide. When
there is an argument about whose better, UND or NDSU, God has already given you
forgiveness. When one of you is sick,
God will be there with both of you throughout it all.
Today, a life of
love, which we pray will be longer than 9 and a half more years JB,
begins. As Solomon writes, “Arise, my
love, my fair one, and come away. Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal
upon your arm; for love is strong as
death, passion fierce as the grave.” In
fact, love, the love of Christ will keep you until death do you part.
In the name of
Jesus. Amen.
