July 23, 2006 (Jimmie Johnson)

I John 4:16-21

So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

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You might have to take it on faith, but in most Presbyterian churches there is a method in our madness when we gather for worship.

Our primary purpose is to glorify or praise God. And in doing so, we discover ourselves becoming pleasurably alive and joyful and being challenged, as well, to ethically reflect God’s presence by the way we behave toward the neighbor in need.

Not bad for a people known as the “Frozen Chosen.”

A sense of worship that seeks God’s glory and discovers we are never more truly alive or human than in such a pursuit. And a pursuit that always leads to the neighbor because what is nearest to God is precisely the need of one’s neighbor.

You can pick up an order of service in any church, or if it doesn’t print one, simply observe what goes on in worship and the order that it takes place--- and you will quickly establish the basic “God-vision” of that congregation.

The sequence of the service and the elements of the service will tell you how that congregation and its leaders think about God, Jesus, the world and you. You see their vision of God.

So I want to embark on a summer sermon series exploring why we Presbyterians go about our worship like we do. After all, one can be a member of any Presbyterian church without any requirement of becoming a Presbyterian--but, we ministers, elders and deacons are constitutionally required through ordination vows to see that the church worships and is governed according to an inherited tradition more than 400 years old.

We Presbyterians know we didn’t invent Christian worship in our generation, and we gladly receive the light shining over our shoulders from the past. There are huge God-beliefs behind every step of our order of worship, even in the sequence of this order.

So huge are these beliefs, we who are Presbyterian believe in receiving them and in passing them on.

I begin this morning with a sermon about why we Presbyterians do weddings like we do. The gospel text from chapter 2 of John seems to proudly tell us that the occasion of Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding. These words clearly announce the worldliness of Jesus and the joyfulness of his presence.

What about gay unions since the Presbyterian Constitution declares marriage as being between a man and a woman? (I know how to get your attention, huh!)

Well, I believe what I believe, while at the same time knowing I could be wrong, and knowing that sincere Christian people are in painful disagreement over the controversial issue of gay unions.

I would wish there were a way for me to participate in civil unions, since I believe homosexuality is an orientation and not a choice---but the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) says “no” to such a liturgical service--- and I am the kind of Presbyterian that believes you abide by the constitution even when you disagree with it.

I wouldn’t see such a service as being a wedding, or understand such a relationship as being a marriage, but still the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) says “no” to clergy participation, and I don’t break vows either those of my own marriage or ordination. You will have to make your own mind up should you ever receive an invitation to a civil union for a homosexual couple.

A wedding in the Presbyterian Church tells us something very important about God. Above all else, a wedding tells us that God is full of faith, hope and love.

At a wedding here last Saturday, I began the sermon by talking about war breaking out and how pleased old Death must be. I mentioned how some of the wedding guests were probably trying to focus their attention on the bride and groom--- but unable to do so because they were aware the phone might be ringing at home, and a message is being left about the death of a loved one, or how the lab report was bad news.

I mentioned how some in attendance I’m sure were being so worn down by the sinking values of our culture--- where you have to have the courage of a hero even to be decent today.

I started the sermon that way at this wedding. I could tell people thought I had forgotten where I was. It was on their faces.

“The preacher is talking about death and hopelessness and fear and failure, and here we are at a wedding. Jimmie has finally gone around the bend.”

I could see puzzlement and uncomfortable looks on their faces.

I was merely letting the theology of the wedding service tell us about God and us as God’s children in a dangerous world.

This is what a wedding does in a Presbyterian church: it challenges cynicism and despair. Get’s right in the face of fear and selfishness.

A wedding in a Presbyterian church reminds us of how God intends all human time and relationships— that they be filled with faith and hope and love even in such a broken and fallen world--- especially in such a broken world.

So I began to talk in the sermon about how a wedding is just what we need in a world of pain and meanness and fear.

And suddenly the congregation and the bride and the groom and the parents got it!

And I could see on their faces an expression that meant, “That’s right. God is with us, and God wants to say something to me about my life at this wedding!”

A wedding in a Presbyterian church is not the family showing off. Nor is it the bride being the center of attention. The service is not even the family’s service.

No, the wedding service, like all worship, is God’s gift to us, and a service authorized by the Elders to celebrate the faithfulness of God and the lavish love of God.

That’s why a wedding is never really about the bride, or the groom, or their families. It is a service of worship where a man and a woman stand before God and a congregation, which includes their families, and promise to be to the other the instrument of God’s love and friendship. They promise to behave with the hospitality of God through all the twists and turns of life -- in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer.

They promise to be faithful. They promise to be counted on. Their vows are modeled on God’s behavior toward all of Creation on a daily basis. Vows made, lived and kept through God’s life lived in Jesus.

A wedding service is above all the worship of God. The gathering of Easter people to remember their story of God sticking with us in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer--- a story of God’s faithfulness which means in the end not even death will part us.

This is why all the music and decorations are to represent the on-going worship life and style of the congregation and its theological heritage— in our case, Presbyterian.

Sure, there is the human dimension and the touch of sentimentality as the wedding party processes into the church making its way here to the front---- all eyes upon them.

But, suddenly even the posture of the wedding party signals the presence of someone far more regal and beautiful and shiny in promise--- than occasioned by the entrance of the bride. The wedding party turns from honoring the bride toward the symbols of God’s presence in the Lord’s House. The wedding party and the congregation wait in anticipation of holy words.

Assembled initially by a wedding invitation received in the mail, the congregation listens as the minister voices a Call to Worship. These sentences from Scripture sweep us up in a holy and fearless invitation from God to see the world and ourselves---even in that moment when we are so aware of human imperfections, envy, superficiality, thinking about all the “what if’s “ in our lives, misplaced priorities, broken vows, failed marriages, or the bitter sweet feelings about those no longer with us.

Yet with all that human weight upon us, we still hear how God is love and dwells in us and invites us in to an everlasting relationship. We remember how Jesus showed up at a wedding--- a wedding where the guests were as fearful and anxious and mixed in motive as we.

No, we Presbyterians don’t see marriage as a sacrament. But, when we are at our best, gathered in worship, with the decorations and the music and the order of worship all shining the reflection of God’s faith and hope and love it is as if time stops and we see so clearly the God who knows us the best, yet loves us the most.

We see the God who promises that the Time that outlasts time will be the Time when by God keeping God’s vows all of creation, and all of us, and “all things shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

God has vowed to live up to such a promise. It’s what the music, the decorations, the prayers, the liturgy, the sermon, the attendants, the bride and groom, and their families all mean above all else!

And that is why we do what we do!