Sermon for
the Holy Marriage
of
Matthew Vernon Moss
and
Katie Anne Timm
Zion Lutheran Church
Bensenville, Illinois
17 July 2015 anno Domini
And I heard something like a voice of an immense crowd and like the sound of many waters and like the noise of crashing thunders saying, “Hallelujah! For Yahweh, our God, the Almighty, has taken his reign.” Let us rejoice and let us celebrate and thus we will give the glory to him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has prepared herself. And there was given to her that she should be clothed in pure, bright linen, for the linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And he says to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who have been invited to the feast of the marriage of the Lamb.’” And he says to me, “These are the true words of God.” Louis Brighton Translation – Revelation Commentary
Shortly after Adam and Eve were married God clothed them. If He hadn’t clothed them their marriage would never have lasted 930 years. God has also clothed you Katie and Matt, with Christ, and clothed in Christ your marriage will be blessed and it will last.
If God had not clothed Adam Adam would have remained enamored with his body. “Well – look at me.” Without God’s clothing of Eve, she would have continued in self-absorption. “Aren’t I special? Everyone pay attention to me! After all, I’m the bride.” That first marriage would have dissolved into divorce as Adam and Eve gazed on their nakedness after their sin and then tried to justify their sins against God and each other by hurling accusations at each other.
God covered them – He put something between their shame and selfishness. He clothed them with some animal skin. Matt – a lot of your friends at Fort Wayne think it was a lambskin – I like that idea, but being from the other seminary I’m going to say, “We don’t know – God’s Word doesn’t say.” God not only covered them with an animal’s skin, He covered them with His promise – one day the serpent who had soiled their sacred marriage by tempting them to sin and shame and self-justification would be stomped into defeat by the Son of a woman. Adam and Eve believed this promise and it covered their lives through homelessness, the death of a child by the hand of another child, and who knows what else might have happened in 930 years of marriage.
God has covered you Katie – I was there. You weren’t just covered in my baptismal gown, worn also by your grandmother, bought for something like 87 cents from the Montgomery Ward catalog in 1935. You were covered by Christ in your baptism – the morning Divine Service on Christmas Eve, 1989. It fell on a Sunday – it was a busy and beautiful day. Matt, God has also covered you – you were even more broken than Katie when you were baptized – in your effort to get into this world you broke your collar bone. You were covered with your father’s baptismal gown, but like Katie, it was much more than that. Christ covered you, in water, with His death for your sins and His resurrection to declare you righteous and holy before His Father.
God has put Jesus between you and your sin, between you and your shame, between you and your selfishness. That’s what Jesus did when He came into this world – He took on flesh, He dressed Himself in our skin, so that He could cover us with Himself. He wasn’t baptized in His Father’s baptismal gown. He was baptized into our sin – sharing the bath water of the Jordan with the miserable and messy lot of humanity. He was baptized into your sin Katie and into your’s Matt.
But even as He carried your sin to the cross, He never sinned. He never looked to Himself. He never considered Himself more important than anyone He encountered – not Zacchaeus of wee-little man fame, not the woman caught in adultery, not Matthew the tax collector, not Mary Magdalene with seven demons. Though His flesh bore your sin, He remained completely righteous. Then, as promised by God to Adam and Eve, Jesus, the son of a woman, crushed the serpent’s head, even as His heel was bruised. At the cross Adam and Eve’ sin got their payback. Jesus, the son of God, hung naked, not only before the world, but before His Father. Bearing your sins, His own Father would not look upon Him. Christ Jesus takes God’s judgment for sin. Your shame, your judgment, your hell – He takes it for you. As Saint Paul told us today – He loved His bride to death.
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25–27, ESV)
As you stand before us today you give us a picture of the Gospel and a picture of the future. Saint John tells us that the Hallelujahs – the praises to Yahweh, resound in the heavens because the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has prepared herself. Katie as you stand there in the beauty of your mother’s wedding dress, you give us a picture of what we all look like before our Father in heaven because of Christ. Robed in His righteous life, cleansed by His blood, radiant with His grace and forgiveness. Our beauty is a given beauty. Our loveliness is a borrowed loveliness. Jesus has given us this wedding present. The Groom gives for His bride. Matt – that is why you will always go first in the wedding ceremony. The Church is out of step even with chivalrous culture. It isn’t ladies first in the church. It is Christ first and you, the groom stand as a picture of Him to us. You said it to Val and me when you asked for Katie’s hand in marriage, “I’m willing to die for her.”
St. John tells us that this covering of Christ has an effect on Christ’s bride – that the dress of Christ’s righteousness leads to us dressing ourselves in righteous deeds. “And there was given to her that she should be clothed in pure, bright linen, for the linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” A Christian bride and groom, covered by Christ, cover each other. You probably already know this, but you are marrying a sinner today. And because you will soon be one flesh, together for life, there is no one who will sin against you more than your spouse, for the simple reason that that happens to be the sinner with whom you spend the most time.
You have been clothed in the pure, white linen of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. His love covers a multitude of your sins. Cover each others – adorn your marriage with the same love with which Christ has adorned you. As Saints washed white in the blood of the Lamb and covered with the very real flesh of Christ Himself, exhibit saintly love toward one another, act like those who are righteous. Matt will sin against you Katie – cover him with Christ’s forgiveness. Katie will sin against you Matt – cover her with Christ’s forgiveness.
You are favored by God. Your place as the Bride of Christ is unshakeable. You have been invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb as His dearly beloved bride – therefore favor one another. Let your love be unshakeable, and regard each other as your dearly beloved – covered in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
8 July 2015 anno Domini