Rectory Ramblings… August 2024
Tuesday, 23 July 2024 13:44
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
We are in the middle of the wedding season. I expect many of you will have been to at least one this year (or are going to one soon), and that some of you will have heard these words from St. Paul already. By the time this year ends I will have personally conducted seven weddings across the deanery, In four of those the couple have chosen most popular by a long way wedding reading, from Pauls first letter to the Corinthians.
A few years ago I discovered an original marriage register in one of my churches from when they were first introduced in 1837. Looking back, I noted three things. Firstly, that in 1837 the age of the couple was only recorded if they were under 21. Over 21 years it was “Of full age”. I suspect this is because many people were not actually sure of their age. Signatures have also changed. In 1837 over half of the signatures were not names but crosses. Through the 20th century the crosses were slowly replaced with beautifully legible signatures, which have then devolved back into illegible squiggles. The most noticeable change however is in the professions recorded. In 1837 most were either some form of farm labourer or domestic servant or a local trade, and included job titles I didn’t even recognise. These have mostly disappeared. Now the registers record social workers, financial advisers, consultants, and occupations equally unrecognisable to previous generations. All this is a reminder that we live in a rapidly changing world, technologically, politically, financially, ecologically; we live in a world with an uncertain future. And yet some things do not and never will change. And one of these is LOVE. William Shakespeare wrote that it is “an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken” (Sonnet 116).
Marriage celebrates a depth of love between a man and a woman that is a model of God’s love for us and Christ’s love for the church. It is a love that is intended to unite two separate individuals and make them one complete couple. But that love is also not intended to stay within the couple, just as Christ’s love is not intended to stay within the church. During the marriage service I usually pray for the couple that their love will overflow to neighbours in need and embrace those in distress. We are all commanded by Christ to love our neighbours as ourselves, not out of duty, but as a response to his first and greater love for us.
If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Revd Eddie