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Rector's Corner

Wedding Summer
One might hear about a "summer wedding".  This year, I would reverse those words, for this is shaping up to be a real wedding summer.
It started when Rainey and Christina Gray came back to Resurrection about a year and a half ago, bringing their family with them one Sunday when everyone was home.  It might have been the 10:00 a.m. Christmas Day service that started their comeback.  Then a few months later, the Sontag family came.  I learned that Mike Sontag is Debbie Holliday's brother, and that their daughter Kelsey was planning to be married soon.  Before I knew it, I was talking with Margaret Anne Gray and Daniel Hinkle about the wedding they were hoping to have at Sewanee in the summer of 2010.  Next, Kelsey Sontag and her fiance Mark Velemirovich were meeting with me to discuss their wedding plans.  In no time, Jaclyn Power (Debbie Holliday's daughter) and her fiance Philip Armbrust were in my office to discuss their Labor Day Weekend wedding plans.  If your head is spinning by now, so was mine.  
As I write this article, I find myself deep into the Summer of Weddings.  All year long, each couple would meet with me on Saturday mornings or weekday afternoons, depending on when they were in town and able to work these sessions into their busy schedules.  All three couples have traveled a lot in the past year, sometimes just to be at Resurrection for a pre-marital session.  We have studied books about marriage together.  We have gone over the Book of Common Prayer wedding ceremony and talked about the lessons and hymns for the wedding, as well as whether or to have communion or not.  Most of all, we have talked about the essential place the Church plays in the life of a Christian, and the part newly married couples play in the life of the Church.    
As even a loose familiarity with scripture indicates, any Christian is a member of the body of Christ, and Christian marriage only makes sense within the context of the community of those who believe in Christ and worship God the Holy Trinity.  Why would I say that?  Because being a Christian means reaching beyond oneself, both to receive and to give.  Marriage is not for just two people.  A married couple is the foundation of a family, and families are the building blocks of a redeemed society.  We need to be in relationship with people beyond ourselves to know and serve Christ fully.  We need people with whom to worship, learn, pray, and serve.  A child needs someone other than his parents to teach him Sunday school; and adults need to be with children other than their own to learn to serve Christ in others.   We need to know and love others in Christ if we are to know and love one another as Christ has loved us.
In more than one of these pre-marital sessions, it occurred to me that these couples don't really need me now.  All three couples want nothing more than they want a beautiful, faithful, fruitful Christian marriage.  I have told them to come back after one year, three years, or a decade.   That's when it would be even better to spend a Saturday morning with them to talk about how their love has been tested, and how it has grown.  Whether they come see me, or another priest, or a marriage counselor, I do hope they have someone outside their relationship with whom they can talk openly and honestly about how their lives together are going.  
Lately, I have been in the car market for about a month, for myself and for our 16 year old son.  I have seen some older, nicer cars.  I have seen some newer cars that looked worn out and ugly.  Some seemed slimy, and some smelled funny.  The cars that have been very well taken care of looked neat and clean inside and out.  Their engines last a long time.  Their paint jobs hold up well.  The interior trim is not faded and broken.  
A marriage can be like a car.  If you take good care of it, it can last a very long time. But the difference is in the fact that a marriage can grow purer, holier, and stronger over time, whereas even the best cared for car can only last a few decades, at best.  These three couples I have been privileged to get to know over the past few months are young, shiny, and new.  While their bodies may never be in better shape than they are now, I pray that their inner selves may grow more beautiful every day through the working of the Holy Spirit upon their lives as part of the body of Christ.  
With the life-giving power of divine love, God has touched all six of these young men and women.  Through their love for one another, and their gratitude for the lives they will share in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, he will touch many others.  May the love of Christ radiate forth, bringing countless others into the knowledge and love of God forever.  
-- Father Joe

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