Wedding Homily Liz and Mike Sept 9, 2016

Weddings are great---everyone is happy, the couple looks great, we have a great party to look forward to---weddings are glorious occasions.
But what the wedding sets into motion—a marriage--- isn’t all sweetness and light. A marriage as Mother Ellen proclaimed a few moments ago, should not be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, because frankly marriage, like any relationship, takes work. But, as our reading from Ecclesiastes so poignantly points out---it’s worth it.
The reading offers this advice for you as you begin your marriage: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.”
This statement is made right after the author extols the desolation of a miserly couple who toil in isolation---far removed from any human community. The point the author is making is clear---solitary toil is pointless compared to toil and life together in community.
God has built us to live in community, to be in relationship. We can do so much more, we can be so much more, when engaged in relationships, in community. Not just marriage, but all kinds of relationships, all kinds of connections. It’s when we’re relating that the fullness of God is expressed.
Even the very fullness of God is expressed in and through relationship.
One God, three persons.
One God, three varied ways of reaching out to us.
One God, three expressions of that Divine Being: The parental Creator of all God, the fully human, fully divine Jesus Christ God and God the Holy Spirit, that which energizes us in our communities, in our relationships to do good, to be faithful and to further the kingdom here on earth.
God’s all about relationships and community. And marriage is just that—a relationship, a community. Individually you’ve each brought communities to this relationship. The communities of Liz, the communities of Mike. Together, you’ve created additional communities, the communities of LizAndMike.
The point is, God created us to be together because we are stronger together---
Of course there are many ways to be in relationship---they’re as varied as the personalities here today, but the important thing is to find how you –how each of us---is fulfilled.
What relationship, what community makes your heart sing?
What relationship, what community brings you closer to the Holy?
With whom is it that you most often see the face of God?
It’s a quest for us all.
At this time and in this place your quest pauses here to acknowledge THIS relationship, THIS community of LizAndMike. A time to pause and celebrate the sanctification of this relationship, of the community---the family---you are and that which you’ll become.
For God loves when we find others to be with, to love and to nurture.
Liz and Mike, today we sanctify what has become.
Today we celebrate what will be.
And today we thank our Creator God that our very beings find their fulfillment in each other.
May God bless you this day, may God bless you every day and may those who witness your love, your community, your commitment to each other be strengthened in their own relationships and their own communities. And above all, as Paul writes: clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Amen.