Big Wedding

August 28, 2016  “Big Wedding” Hebrews 13.1-8, 15-16; *Luke 14.1, 7-14 Pastor Hines

Have you been to a wedding lately? [slide #1 bride and groom]

Weddings are so exciting. New love is as beautiful as a summer bouquet and as breathtaking as a moonlit sky full of silver stars! [slide # 2 moon and stars]

Weddings are the culmination of those wonderful Gaither lyrics, [slide # 3 Gaither Singers] “Something beautiful, something good, all of my confusion, he understood. All I had to offer HIM was brokenness and strife, but he made something beautiful out of my life. We are assured over and over again that God can make something beautiful out of our lives.

We make covenants with great joy in our hearts. [slide # 4 Covenants] Any time we come together, we expect something great and something good. When we are gathering for a picnic in the Shick Shack or the Weikel’s home, we gather in agreement to be happy together [slide # 5 picnic] and we expect to enjoy ourselves immensely. [Slide # 6 laughing crowd]

When we sign a contract for a car, a home, or employment or business, we have great expectations. We expect something for something, not something for nothing.

Committing ourselves in a covenant is a humbling experience. Jesus encourages humility in verse 11 of our scripture lesson saying, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” [slide # 7 humble]

It takes a lot of humility to follow through on a covenant. This time of year we are auditing our membership list. The Book of Discipline requires that we contact those who have not participated in the life of the church. Some do not participate by reason of physical limits for themselves or a loved one for whom they care. It is our job to visit and encourage any sheep who seem to be lost, to either participate as they are able or transfer to another church or withdraw their membership. [slide # 8 blue people]

In some cases it is very uncomfortable and humiliating to remind those who have made a commitment to the church to keep their covenants and commitments and contracts and pledges and positions. It is uncomfortable to think that those whom we remind might give us a sad face or frowny face. And it is humiliating if when we remind others of their commitment that they ignore us or give us words that are difficult to ignore. Keeping our covenant to encourage others to keep their covenant indeed can be uncomfortable and humiliating.

Being humble is all about knowing that we are very, very, very special, but we are just not more special than anyone else. When we make our covenant at baptism, or confirmation, or reception as a new member, or at Charge Conference agreeing to hold certain positions, we are blessed; God smiles on us when we remain in covenant. God grieves when we are lackadaisical and lukewarm in our commitments. Many around us may also shed a few tears and endure some heartache when we do not keep our commitments.

Weddings are to be a happy gathering, a celebration of our commitments, covenants, and contracts that we make at the altar with humble and grateful hearts. Covenant celebrations are not a time to get on our high horse. They are times to lay low, to be still before God and one another, to be still and know that God is God, to soak in all the sunshine of God’s love that is sent to us through our circumstances and through God’s precious children.

Covenant celebrations are a time to do as Jesus notes in verse 13, when we have a celebration gathering we should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Of course, we have all been poor in some way. Every one of us, in one way or another has been crippled, lame, and blind.

A few weeks ago I had a nightmare that a pit bull was biting my right hand off. I woke up with a nagging tingling and numbness in my arm. Our bodies can be a source of stress and strain that effects our quality of life. From time to time you may have issues in your body or your mind or your family. We all do, and every time we celebrate our covenant we get a dose of joy and peace that makes all the difference in the world.

NPR interviewed what was said to be the last doctor in Aleppo, Syria which is under siege. She is a woman doctor working without proper supplies and equipment in this time of war. Just when I was wondering how much of a normal life they had during their war, she surprised me by saying there were weddings all the time and she was delivering babies constantly.

Even in the chaos of war, rivalries or revolutions, we find ways to commit, gather, and celebrate. [slide # 9 uniform/wedding] Even in this broken world where a child bomber attacks a wedding in Turkey, killing 51 people, there will be the God-given drive to commit, gather, and celebrate. Even in this broken world where investors knowingly build houses on flood plains only to have residents flee for their lives when the waters rise, there will be commitments, gatherings and celebrations.

A few Sundays ago, I visited the Movie Church. In his sermon Pastor Brien Jones talked about an email he received from a worshipper. The worshipper said she witnessed two females engaging in inappropriate affectionate behavior. He shared this email that he sent back to her:

Pastor Jones says 

he was glad they felt safe...and comfortable sitting next to adulterers, slanderers, people with anger issues, people on the verge of divorce, people in debt up to there ears, people living out of balanced lives, people abusing their bodies with food and stress, people with hidden addictions, and all the other imperfect people...

Jesus calls us to commit to each other, to gather together, [slide #10 crowd laughing] and to celebrate with the utmost humility as if we were at a big wedding. We are better together than we are apart. [slide # 11 Better together] Amen.