Wedding Sermon / Rylan & Cassandra Feisel / Colossians 3:12–17 - Pastor Ted Giese - September 22nd 2018

Wedding Sermon / Rylan & Cassandra Feisel / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Saturday September 22nd 2018: Season of Pentecost / Colossians 3:12–17 "Marriage Built on Christ."

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian friends and family gathered here today. Cassandra and Rylan it’s been fun getting to know the two of you in preparation for today and discovering who you guys are, and who you are together as a couple, and were you are planning to go as a married couple in your future as you build your new life together.  

Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians Chapter 10 writes that, “‘All things are lawful’ but not all things are helpful, ‘all things are lawful’ but not all things build up.”[1] Your religious believes are a fundamental part of your identity. If you’re spouse to be worships a different god than you do, or claims no religious beliefs at all, or worse yet is hostile towards God then there will always be a significant part of you that he or she will never fully understand or respect. Cassandra and Rylan the great news is that you are both Christians, baptized into Christ Jesus, with that baptism confirmed in the Lutheran Church and together you stand on the Rock of your salvation Jesus Christ in faith, and that is an awesome place to be as you your start your marriage together with God’s blessing. If you did not have this I wound not be in favour of you getting married and would not do your wedding, I wouldn’t even encourage your relationship at all if you didn’t have this common faith. I guess that’s to be expected, me being a Lutheran pastor and all. By the Grace of God you do have this and I am very glad to be here with you today.

Ask any long married couple and they will tell you that marriage, for all its joys and comforts is hard enough at times without having a shared firm foundation of faith. Christian marriage then, where you can worship together and raise children together, taking them to Sunday School praying with them together at home, where the Lord’s Prayer can be prayed in your house without contempt or criticism, is a wonderful thing. With such a firm foundation in Christ Jesus you will better weather the storms of life.  

Yesterday before our rehearsal for today, I visited with a lady named Patricia Reslein born April 14th 1928, which makes her 90 years old this year. She’s one of our members here at Mount Olive. I mentioned that I was doing a wedding today and told her about the two of you and she said “John and I [that’s was her husband’s name] had our ups and downs but we had a good marriage, we were married for 57 years before he died and it was our faith in Jesus that got us through it all. It made our love for each other strong in the face of hard times.” Her advice to you, “Trust in God, keep your faith in God together and you will do well.” This echoes what we heard in our first reading where the wise king Solomon writes that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”[2] The threefold cord is the two of you and God and as we have talked about a number of times along the way it is your firm intention to remain married until death do you part, that you are prepared to stick through whatever comes your way whether that be for better or for worse. Having God’s blessing and help in this will serve you well.

Now with that most excellent foundation here you stand and you will also continue to be a blessing to each other. Rylan, Cassandra needs your calm, cool and collected approach to life and you need her warmth and love and encouragement. As you grow together and work to set out on your own as a family with little Nevaeh these qualities that you each bring to your relationship will help you when you feel anxious in life or when you are tempted to go back to your old ways. Rylan today you pledge to be a family man; Cassandra today you pledge to be devoted to Rylan and support him as he supports you. It is an exciting thing to build a life together with God’s blessing and as you do remember you are not alone, you are not even alone together, turn to those Christian couples you have in your life for advice and support, they will, like 90 year old Patricia Reslein, give you encouragement and help you along the way. Every church has them, Mount Olive has them, they will be happy to help you just as your mom promised to do today and just as your families who are gathered here likewise desire to give you their support such as they have to give.

What does it look like to lean on each other while standing on the firm foundation of Jesus? Saint Paul says to put on “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” When he says “humility, meekness, and patience” that’s like being, “calm, cool and collected,” When he says “compassionate hearts and kindness,” that’s like being “warm and encouraging.” Jesus in our Gospel says the couple who joins together in marriage is “one flesh”[3] in this one flesh you have more than just the physical union, you also have the joining together of all your qualities … your good qualities, and the not so good qualities you have, which is why St. Paul also talks about the need for love to bind everything in perfect harmony and for forgiveness also. Learning how to forgive each other for the small things along the way, having a heart of forgiveness for each other in all things, will be some of your the best building blocks, and bricks as you build your house together on the foundation of your faith in Jesus. He is the one who won for you you’re forgiveness, the forgiveness you share with each other. 

I leave you with this, Jesus told this story in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7, He starts by saying “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”[4]

I pray that God will trim and shingle your house together with every good thing, that whatever rain may fall, whatever storm may come, whatever wind might blow, you will be warm and safe, calm and collected together under the roof of your married home together as a family built on the rock solid foundation of Jesus Christ the firm foundation that you share in your common faith. What does the future hold for you: new jobs, and carriers, more children, moving out together on your own with God’s blessing, and many wonderful memories together?

Rylan and Cassandra: Trust in God to guide you and in His unchanging love and hope in Him through all you days and you will always build on the Rock that nothing can move. Now “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.” God grant this to you. Amen. 

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 10:23
[2] Ecclesiastes 4:12
[3] Matthew 19:5-6
[4] Matthew 7:24–27