The Bestman's speech
Remember you singing ‘Bright Eyes’ badly – from the service your voice hasn’t improved much!
Jo you came along just in time – Star Wars concludes. Our lives have moved on, Star Wars has been and gone. I admit I like star wars – I even have my own young Padione – hi!
Now the faithfulness you showed to Star Wars can be re-directed to something even more worthy!
But Star Wars never provided for you – the aim was to get the right qualifications, and work on the Star Wars films but it never did provide you with a livelihood. The lucky break…
That has been just one source of the loneliness, loss and sadness that led you to write poems like the ones found on your Website Poetry.
Star Wars served you well in a sense, it was about the only constant, a good distraction from some of the very harsh realities.
Without a doubt Jo is THE BEST thing that has ever happened to you and that makes us especially delighted for you today. A new hope! I am certain that your Mum and Dad would be thrilled to see this day too and to see you so happy together.
But it would be naive for you to expect too much of even Jo. In the ‘blaze of bliss’ that we all see in your faces today it is hard to imagine things could ever take a turn for the worse.
Today you’ve made some pretty profound promises before us and before God. They’re going to be hard to keep. After the crazy flighty first love has evaporated those promises may be all you’ll have left – but even they are just the expression of the very essence of love – it’s commitment and strength behind them that really matters.
In another poem you said this: "A Strength to embrace the sunrise, a Strength to acknowledge the sunset"
You used capital S for strength there, you personalise it: and that reminded me of a Bible passage that’s very often used at weddings:
4:9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
4:10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
4:11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
4:12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
In a Christian marriage – which is what we have undoubtedly witnessed today - we normally understand that ‘threefold cord that is not quickly broken’ as meaning the bride, groom and God.
I have a fantastic wife – she’s delightful etc. – we get on very very well – but, just ask the kids, sometimes I really do get on her nerves! I know all the right buttons!
Nat, Jo, everyone – that strength that carries us when things get astonishingly tough - and the true source of the contentment you spoke of is only ultimately to be found outside of ourselves. Happy are they whose God is the LORD, with respect, not Star Wars, not Jo, not Nat, but the LORD.
As the minister said earlier, Christian marriage is held in the highest esteem in the Bible. Husbands are told to love their wives ‘as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her’. Now THAT is love divine all loves excelling – you see, we’re not only charged to love our wives like that, the Greatest Command Jesus ever charged us with was (Mark 12:30) thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength
Of all the things Jesus wants of us, that is the most important to him, to God. How are you doing with that? How am I doing? Well of all the things I try and do for God, that’s the one I fail the most at. And failing at that is not a minor thing. When we offend a lesser being we can expect to be punished – so if an animal gets mistreated the law has a proper punishment for you, if you break the law about behaviour towards a human, the punishment is more severe, and should it be less so if we break God’s law? The love of Christ is such that he gave himself for his bride (the church) – took upon himself the punishment for sins that sinners deserved, he dies in my place so that I can be forgiven, know peace with God – we all need to know that before we pass from this life
’Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, God’s own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.’
As Isaiah says, we all need to stop carrying the gods we choose and own instead the God that has carried US all our lives. That is the path to the contentment and strength that you will need in your lives together.
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