The Christian Marriage :: Ephesians 5:21

Whenever Christian people do something Christian, they are doing and telling the truth. 

Contrary to everything and everybody else around them, they are ... in truth ... celebrating the fact that they are Christian and that being a Christian makes a difference. Being a Christian makes a difference not only in the life to come but also in this life and in this world.

Zachary and Constance ...

GOD PROCLAIMS THIS TRUTH THROUGH CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE 

So, today you are doing and telling the truth before all these people ... your family ... your friends ... and, above all ... before the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I. What you two are doing and saying today is demonstrating to all of us ... not that you just love each other ... but that God loved you first and reconciled you by the blood of Jesus Christ. 

And you are saying that he has already made a difference in both of your lives ... separately and that he will make a difference in your life together. 

You are admitting ... along with Christians everywhere ... that being human means being full of sin. Sin, as you both know, is the disrupter of human relations. 

Sin breaks our fellowship with one another ... it breaks them in congregations, it breaks them in families, it breaks them among friends, and it especially breaks marriages. Sin wreaks havoc with human life. In sin we tell lies about our relationships to each other and most importantly our relationship to God. In sin we tell ourselves that things are OK when they are not ... We tell ourselves that things are good as long as they don’t hurt anyone ... We tell ourselves that marriages last only as long as people can tolerate each other. We tell ourselves that we can change the marriage commitment from “as long as we both shall live” to “as long as we both shall love.”

My brother and sister in Christ, when Christians are united in marriage, they not only tell the truth about sin, they also tell us a greater truth: Our Lord Jesus Christ has made the difference in both of your lives. He has come to you. He has brought you together. He has reconciled you.

You know that Jesus lived life without sin. That He who knew no sin became sin for you. That He took your sin to the cross and saw to it that it died with him on the cross. 

God loved you in this way ... Jesus shed his blood for you and laid down his life for you, so that through his death and resurrection, he would reconcile you with him and with each other. Man and woman who were made for each other separated themselves in sin. But God has brought us together. Never forget that. He has reconciled you. Because of God in Christ, every Christian marriage can now be alive with hope and divine love ... which sacrificial love. This mystery is profound.

Every Christian marriage can now be alive with optimism ... the kind of optimism that counters all the horrible statistics of marriage failure and divorce that show the sham of all the “how to” articles in the cheap tabloids at checkout counters. Christian truth exposes such evil with the fact that Christ makes a marriage the most natural, workable, sublime, practical, and lovely union ... a real example of the relationship that exists between Jesus and the Church.

II. Therefore, God’s Word enjoins us to [submit] to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph 5:21). 

Zachary, the Christian husband, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is to strive always to exercise toward his bride the same unselfish and sacrificial love Jesus demonstrated for his bride, the Church, when he gave himself up for her in life and in death. 

Constance, the Christian bride is to give herself to her husband as the Church gives herself in loving service to her Lord ... not because of some perceived human obligation ... but because she stands by the grace of God ... as does her husband ... in that loving and beloved relationship that only comes to those who are one in Christ Jesus. She strives to serve God who first served us. 

Together, the Christian husband and wife are born anew through Word and Sacrament. So receive these gifts as often as you can. In your new life together, the Christian husband and wife are continually forgiving each other and being forgiven. They are continually being renewed and refreshed by God, who continues to serve them, making them one. Together with Christ, the Christian husband and wife stand under the primal blessing of creation when, on the sixth day, God stepped back and looked at everything he had made and said, Behold, it is very good! (Gen 1:31). 

Yes, your marriage is indeed very good. 

So as important as this ceremony may be today, it is not nearly as important as when you continuously forgive and affirm each other, even as Christ forgives his bride the Church. A Christian marriage is one in which both spouses recall what Christ has done for them. A Christian marriage is one in which both husband and wife recall their vows in the face of difficult differences and extraordinary pain. 

Can you do that? 

Will you do that? 

Through the last few months working with you, I am confident you will with the help of God. Don’t let yourselves drift away from the Lord. Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love as Christ loves us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. He has made this all possible through the Holy Spirit, whom he clearly has poured out on both of you generously. Draw near to him in the Divine Service as often as possible. Allow him to continue nurturing your faith in Christ and your marriage to each other into the years to come. You will then see your lives toward each other bear that delectable fruit of the spirit that is the love of God in Christ. 

He has united himself in both of you individually as Christians, and in a few moments in both of you as a Christian husband and wife. He has made you one. 

None of us know what lies ahead in our future, but we Christians know that God is there to brighten every morning with his presence and his power for the day. God is there to lighten every night with the brightness of his forgiveness and his peace. With him, you can do and be all that he intends. Keep near to him ... today and forever. In Jesus’ name.