A Wedding Sermon for Amelia and Philip

This is the rough text of a sermon preached at the wedding of Amelia Bower and Philip West in Asheville, North Carolina on the 24th of October 2015. The reading for the day was Colossians 3:12-15.   Please note that these are not exact transcriptions and that there may be some spelling and grammatical errors.

While I have known Amelia for many, many years, I remember very well that when I first met Philip, I was struck by how comfortable he and Amelia were with each other.  I remember we had all been playing in the pool at her parents house and we were sitting out on the balcony and just in watching how they interacted, it was obvious that there was real love between them.  It was a sense of connection and a sense of being at ease with each other that you don’t see very often, even in couples who have been married for years, and it was, and remains, a beautiful thing.

And in thinking more about it, especially in light of the chosen readings, I realized that there really was an added ‘something’ present with Amelia and Philip.  It was the presence of God in their relationship that enabled them to be so at ease.  Many of you may be familiar with the term ‘Namaste’ from a yoga class you may have taken, but what that terms means is that, and this a rough translation, ‘the piece of God that exists in me recognizes the piece of God that exists in you.’  We are brought together by the living God who exists with each one of us.  For Philip and Amelia, I think that they realize that, deep down, there is something larger that is bringing them together, and that is, the love of God.

In the letter to the Colossians, Paul is writing to a group of gentile Christians and explaining to them what it means for them to be a part of this new movement and to be a follower of Christ.  He is providing both practical advice for living, you know, don’t do these things, always do these things, and behave in this manner, and he is giving them a bit of theology on how it’s all done. 

We are called to clothe ourselves in compassion and kindness, to be humble and gentle with each other and to be patient, to forgive each other and to ‘put on love’ so that we might be bound together.  What St Paul understood is that on our own we can’t do any of this.  But through Christ we are transformed and made new and we are clothed in Christ’s love so that we can truly recognize the presence of God in each other.   We can love each other because of Christ’s love for us. 

Amelia and Philip, marriage is truly a blessing.  But it isn’t easy.  Even the best marriages have spots where things get weird.  But so often it is the virtues that Paul is talking about that see us through.  Patience, humility (‘Yes, dear.  You are absolutely right’ will get you through so many things, even when you know the opposite to be true), and forgiveness are important, but ultimately it is love that sees us through.  I think that Lennon and McCartney were truly preaching the gospel when they told us that all you need is love.

Love, true love, brings all of these virtues together and as Paul reminds us, it is ultimately God’s love for us that frees us to love each other.  God’s love casts out fear, it casts out anger and it unites us. 

Simply put, love wins.  Love always wins.  And to be more precise, love won.  In Christ’s death and resurrection, the love of God brought defeat to sin and death and we are now brought together in love. 

Philip and Amelia, you are living into this new reality of love.  The new reality is one of a world that is given to hope, to love, to humility and to kindness.  Our prayer going forward is that your life together might increasingly reflect this new reality and that you would always be strengthened and always brought together as one through the living God who strengthens all of us and binds us all together.  And because of that, we can truly say, thanks be to God. Amen.