As we have gathered today, gathering as witnesses for this happy occasion, we are marking the inauguration of Boden and Shanna’s voyage of discovery together. They have already discovered enough about one another that they want to take the voyage together, but once they have embarked, the real discoveries will start. It will be a …
Alec and Hannah
We are gathered at a wedding, and we have gathered in order to witness the vows being made. When these vows are exchanged, a new relationship in the world is established—the marital relationship between Alec and Hannah. But it would be false to say that a new kind of relationship has been established. A unique …
Philip and Naomi
Too often we speak of marriage as though the secret to a happy one is something uniquely marital. But marriage is a human estate, and is a relationship between two humans, a man and a woman. And as something that encompasses a vast number of humans in relationship, it also encompasses the range of things …
Micah and Kelsey
A wedding ceremony is an imaging ceremony. This is the case because a wedding is made a wedding by virtue of the fact that it consists of a man and a woman, coming together as man and wife. We are told in Scripture, in various ways that this is an imaging of God. The first …
Eric and Micaiah
One of the great scriptural principles in ethics is the one about not kidding yourself. This is particularly important for marriage, for reasons I hope to explain shortly. Here is Paul’s way of putting it: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of …
Kane and Ashlynne
Marriage was established by God in an archetype. That is, He created the first man from the dust of the ground, and fashioned the first woman from the man’s rib, and did so in order that we would have a pattern to follow. The language manifesting this as a grand template in evident in the …
Josiah and Zoe
Marriage is one of the creation ordinances, and has been with us from the very beginning. We therefore ought not to be surprised to find a description of its origin in the book of beginnings, in the book of Genesis. What I would like to do here is to take a brief walking tour of …
Jeremiah and Megan
In Scripture we are taught to be imitators of God, as dearly loved children (Eph. 5:1). As Christians who accept the Bible as God’s authoritative voice in our lives, this immediately presents us with several kinds of problems. Theologians distinguish two different kinds of divine attributes, which they call communicable and incommunicable. God is love, …
Dane and Chantelle
In one way, it is very easy to have a Christian wedding, and to establish a Christian marriage. What you need to do is obtain a Christian church for the ceremony, make sure the service has a Christian liturgy, and is formally done in the name of Jesus, get a Christian minister to officiate, and …
Luke and Elizabeth
We cannot think about marriage rightly unless we learn to think about aesthetics rightly. Aesthetics is the study of beauty—what is it that makes something lovely? The elements are many, and include things like simplicity, balance, form, and so on. God has fashioned the world in such a way as to please us, and He …