Promises

Today I'm going to preside at the first wedding I've done in a long time.  Since first being ordained in 1996, I've done hundreds of funerals, but only maybe a dozen or two weddings.  In my days as a Unitarian Universalist minister I did some unusual ones. I remember one wedding I did in the Tufts Chapel for a Greek Orthodox woman who wanted all the Orthodox rituals in her wedding with her groom, a culturally Jewish man who'd never once been to temple in his life.  He had no knowledge of her (or his) religion, but just kept saying he didn't want the wedding to be "too Christian."  Boy, I had to work very hard with that couple to come up with something that worked for them both!  I did weddings for people who wanted me to sing Sufi chants I'd never heard of or to include very, very long poems or to base their ceremony on their favorite movie.  I've got to say, such weddings were exhausting!  It was like reinventing marriage every time.  Now, as an Episcopal priest, I stick with the Marriage rite from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.  It's traditional, but beautiful, and it is founded in the understanding that it is God that brings people together into a life of commitment together. 

Marriage is about making promises - both the bride and groom's promises to each other and God's promise to be there with them in their love for each other.  Sometimes we avoid making promises for fear that we will not be able to keep them.  But today two of our parishioners will make lifelong promises to each other - and despite the risks involved, they are excited and happy.  For they know they will not need to carry out their promises alone.  Their extended families and our church community stand ready to support them in their marriage.  And they also know that God is at the center of their lives together and will provide what they need to live more deeply into God's love together.

When we are convinced that God is active in our lives and when we can entrust our lives to God, we are able to make promises to ourselves and others despite our fears.  For we know that with God, nothing is impossible.  I am grateful for John and Kim today - for their faith, and for their willingness to make promises.

Commitment

This Saturday, the Episcopal churches of the Bridgeport deanery had their confirmation service with our new bishop, Ian Douglas. There were dozens of people there, making a conscious and intentional and public affirmation of their faith. Some were being confirmed, and some who had already been confirmed in a different tradition were being formally received into the Episcopal tradition. Our friend Chris from Grace Church was one of the people who was received. Chris started coming to Grace Church last fall, and something just clicked for him. I believe God called him here. This just seems like the right place and the right time for him to take part in the life of a church community, and we are so grateful to have him among us.

Chris felt called to make it all official, and here he is, with his Mom, the bishop, me, and Nikki, one of the priests from St. Paul's where the service was held. His sisters were there, as were a number of Grace Church people. We were all there to witness Chris' new commitment to his faith and to the church. Afterward, we all went back to Grace Church where we had a beautiful pot luck lunch to celebrate.

We all know Chris cares about the church and is going to be among us for the foreseeable future. So we really didn't have to give up a Saturday to go to a two hour long service with the bishop, and Chris didn't have to get all dressed up and drive his family all the way down here, and we didn't have to make all the fuss of putting on a luncheon and Chris' sister didn't really have to make the most beautiful cake any of us had ever seen, either. But you know what? It was really, really important to do these things. Because it's important not just to notice someone's commitment, but to publicly recognize and celebrate it. Chris' commitment is something the entire church (Grace Church and the whole Episcopal church) needed to respond back to and acknowledge and formally notice.

I talk a lot about how the current model of church in our country is unsustainable and about how it needs to change. I talk a lot about how we need to discern what God is calling us to do together and how we need to find new ways to enter into God's mission in the world. I talk a lot about how people of faith have to walk the walk of discipleship and not be complacent and content with 'social club' churches. I talk a lot about how people need to step up and respond to God's call to us. But talk is cheap. Without commitment, none of this will ever happen, and our church will just be one of many that will die away over the next few decades.

So I am moved by Chris' commitment to our little church community, and I was thrilled to have him take part in the whole fancy ceremony of being received as an Episcopalian by a bishop dressed in full regalia. And I was also thrilled that our church showed up to witness Chris' commitment and that we came together on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to have a party, when certainly, there were other things we could have been doing. Because we were walking the walk that day. We showed up to put our feet where our thoughts and mouths are. We were being the church together.