Roblog

On Saturday, September 2,  I had the privilege of presiding over the marriage ceremony of Julia Thorpe and Andy Terwilliger.  Here is the homily from that ceremony on the passage that Julia and Andy chose, Colossians 3:12-17.

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.—Colossians 3:12-17

We live in troubled times.  Some might even say that these are times that try men’s souls.  What once was up is now down, what was down is now up, and people are polarized to the right and to the left and views that are not acceptable to the politically elite are automatically condemned as hateful.  Everywhere we turn activism seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

I am encouraged that you, Andy and Julia, are engaging in one of the most subversive and counter-cultural actions possible today:  Marriage.

What has been called traditional marriage today is derided and despised; it has been redefined by modern culture until it nowhere resembles God’s design.  Fewer and fewer men and women are marrying than ever before.

But you are getting married—and you are getting married as believers in obedience to God’s design and call for marriage.  You are truly activists!

The text you chose for this message makes that clear; if you read it and compare it what we see on the news and the internet you can see stands out in stark contrast:

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 (Col. 3:12-14).

You are incredibly bold, in the face of this culture, to make this the proclamational foundation of your marriage.

But, of course, the difference between the outrage we see in the so-called activists and the true counter-cultural activism that the two of you are engaging in is self-righteousness.

The moral thought police who refuse to let any opposing view have a voice are driven by their self-righteousness.  They are convinced they are right and, because everyone else is wrong, they will not tolerate neither their ideas nor their presence.  By the way, that is a hallmark of fascism.

You, on the other hand—and, hopefully, all who call on the name of Christ, are rooting your lives in the exact opposite of self-righteousness; you know that you have no righteousness of your own to claim, so you are humbling yourself before the only one who has righteousness.  You know that you have no power within yourselves to enter into this thing called marriage. And so you are looking to the Lord for this:

…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…(Col. 3:15, 16).

Any person, any people, who humble themselves and seek to “let the peace of Christ rule” in their hearts are going to stand out in this culture because they will be a people who believe in and rest in grace—God’s giving and blessing to all who lean not on their own understanding (that is what repentance essentially is) but on the life-giving, powerful Word of Christ.

You will fall short in all of this—and even hurt and sin against each other.  But you have the most powerful thing possible in your hearts and hands:  the Gospel.  And so you may “forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you.” We do not see a whole lot of forgiveness—true forgiveness—in our world today.

As a result, you will be a couple marked by all the fruits of the Spirit; I think that is essentially what Paul is describing in this entire passage, the Spirit-led interaction of believers one with another. It even has a kind of melody to it as we admonish one another “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” You will stand out from the anger, strife, and self-righteousness by these things.  And every couple should sing together and to one another, anyway!

The bottom line, though, is that, by using this passage to begin your marriage, you are declaring that you are not the center of your marriage:

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 (Col. 3:17).

By this proclamation alone you are making the most counter-cultural statement possible:  Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory (Psalm 115:1a). It Christ and your submission to him in all things for God’s glory that is the center.  That, indeed, is truly radical activism.

May God, by his grace, use you in your humble trust in him, as powerful agents of grace and truth in our needy world.  And may you enjoy each other in his love every minute along the way.

 

Tagged: Activism, fascism, Marriage