Wedding Sermon: God's Abundance

I had the joy of officiating for the beautiful wedding of my dear friend Marissa and her husband (!) Joe. It took place in a beautiful vineyard outside of San Diego. The text they chose was from John's Gospel, the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine (appropriate for the setting!). Anyway, here is the sermon I preached for the beautiful occasion:

Marissa and Joe Wedding Sermon

May 15, 2015

Orfila Vineyard, Escondido, CA

Joe and Marissa, what a great honor it is to be here with you this day in this capacity, to officiate your wedding and in the name of God to bless you on your way to a beautiful marriage and life together. This is a day of great joy – for you, of course, and for me, and for this cloud of witnesses surrounding you this day.

Full disclosure for the sake of all you gathered: Marissa and I have been friends for many years, and I first got to know Joe through the stories I heard from Marissa. In the weeks preparing for this day, I have also had the pleasure of getting to know Joe a little more personally. For what it’s worth, “I’m Johanna Rehbaum, and I approve this marriage!”

I have been delighted to hear about the wonderful relationship you two have – your ability to have fun together, whether traveling the world or listening to your newest old vinyl record in your loft; your commitment to understanding one another and your different approaches to life and faith; your continual striving for better communication, knowing as you do that this ability is the bedrock of any good marriage. You take life and each other seriously, even as you know how to have fun. You are grounded, but still know how to be silly. You are thoughtful and considerate in your interactions with each other. You know how to enjoy each other’s company. It is beautiful to see this.

I had all this in mind as I read this text from John’s Gospel in preparation to preach at your wedding. This text, the Wedding at Cana, recounts Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine. On

this blessed occasion in this lovely setting, the line that struck me especially was, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” It’s truly an apt image for a couple embarking on a marriage. Just look around: gorgeous setting, fabulous dress, beloved family and friends all around, love on everyone’s mind – can it get any better than this? This is about as fine a metaphorical wine as anyone could hope for, right?

But no, this text tells us that with God, it works otherwise. The wine of today is wonderful, rich, and inspiring, like the love you feel for each other this day. There is so much good in your relationship, so much strength and love on which to build. But by the grace of God, that good will only get better and better, and grow more and more abundant.

Of course, the challenge about life, and especially marriage, is that as life goes on, the showering of divine abundance often happens in ways that are not only unexpected, but in fact are ways you would never have chosen for yourselves – I know you know that, because I know you have already experienced it. It is easy to notice God’s abundance in your life when you are surrounded with joy. But God’s love, grace and abundance sometimes become most apparent when you face struggles, challenges, and conflict. It may be harder to see at these times that God has some miracle in mind that will show you just how overflowing divine love can be. What you see may look like the party is just about over, the good wine has run dry… but God has in mind some spectacular and surprising way to lavish blessing upon you. Part of the beauty of your marriage will be in helping each other to see that – to remind each other of the blessings that surround you, to leave behind what Maya Angelou so eloquently calls the “ancient histories of pain,” and to cling to one another and to the promises you make today, always trusting that God will provide, God will reveal that abundant love.

And this is the true blessing of this day, this day that marks a new chapter beginning in your lives together: it is the recognition of the promise that this marriage isn’t up to you alone. God has shown us, in the story we heard today and in so many other ways, that just when we might be at our wits end and thinking the party is over, that we’ve done all we can do… grace will abound. God does

not leave us to fend for ourselves. God’s love and grace will be in and around the vows you make to each other today, and with you as you walk down that aisle to embark on a life together that will not be without its struggles, but also will not be without the assurance of God’s abundance. God is with you in this thing called marriage, holding you up and guiding you and providing for you when you aren’t sure what else to do. That indeed is a blessing.

Joe and Marissa, I pray that your marriage will be like a fine wine, aging richly with each passing year. But more than that, I pray that when the barrel seems to be running empty, that you will find there is still more abundance to be experienced – and that you will have the faith to trust God and each other that the promise of that rich abundance is true.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.