On Friday, over a million people crowded London streets to see the Royal Wedding. It was called the wedding of the century? Over 2 billion people were said to have watched it!? I thought it was pretty interesting that the future King of England, Canada, Australia.....etc... was actually followed around and mobbed by other countries most especially the United States of America?? I thought it was interesting to hear people speculate about why things were done a certain way. For example: why was President Obama not invited? Why did he wear the "Red Coat"?...etc. Growing up with the monarchy and having been commissioned in the Canadian Armed Forces I appreciate the pomp and circumstance but this was not even a state wedding. Although William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are someday going to be the King and Queen, the heir apparent is still Prince Charles the Prince of Wales. For this reason it is not a state wedding, just a royal wedding. I also thought that the USA had problems with "Red Coats" yet William wore this color, not as an afront to the people across the pond, but because he is a Colonel in the Irish Guard, which is his highest rank in his Military service at this point. But the fairytale of a commoner, albeit a rich commoner, marrying THE future King is pretty exciting for many worldwide.
Today we look at the truth of the Covenant the Lord has made with us HIS people. In 1 Peter 2:9-10 the Lord says through Paul:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So we should pay attention to Royal Weddings but ours is with the Lord. Christ used marriage to explain the relationship he has with His Church in Ephesians 5
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Or in Revelations 19:7 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready".
This is not only in the NEW Covenant. God in the Old Covenant used the marriage relationship to express His relationship with His people.
Isaiah 54:5 "For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth."
Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion."
Hosea 2:19-20 "I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD."
He really wants this relationship with us and that is why Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our redemption and the empty tomb we celebrated on Sunday proved God cut the covenant with us through Christ's Blood.
God is not pleased when we do not appreciate the love and relationship HE has done everything in order to establish. He speaks quite clearly about how important this Covenant is to HIM in Malachi 2:13-16: Another thing you do: You flood the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. “I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
Or in the Gospel of St. Matthew 19:3-6 "Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
It is a reminder of Genesis 15 where Yahweh "cut the covenant" with Abram even while Abram was sleeping! Now it is time for us to appreciate the relationship and covenant HE has made with us and walk in the oneness of the marriage covenant with our LORD! "One flesh" is the biblical language of Marriage. In the Royal Wedding on Friday it was interesting that William said everything I am and have is yours to Kate. I think that is soooo important for us to appreciate in our relationship with the God of the universe that we "Yaddah," "know" in Hebrew, the intimacy that our God wants to have with us in Christ and that His love is everlasting and more amazing than we will ever truly understand. I know in the Lutheran Church we do not have Marriage as a sacrament (latin for mystery) because it does not offer the forgiveness of sins, although there is a lot of forgiveness in marriage all around:) but I think we should always appreciate the intimacy of being ONE! I know I love being married and the relationship I have with my wife and I know the Lord desires this to be an example of the relationship he wants with each one of us!
May we as the Royal Priests, a HOLY nation, a people belonging to God, understand the Covenant of Love the Lord has made with us! May we walk with the confidence, love and hope that comes from knowing the Lord and walking in His love, grace, mercy and power!!
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