“This One, At Last!”

Genesis 2:18-24
Psalm 128
I Corinthians 12:31-13:8
Mark 10: 6-9

Good afternoon, friends and family of A and E and especially to our very soon-to-be bride and groom.  It is a pleasure to be here with you to celebrate and witness to this joyous event.

My name is Ned and I am a former teacher of E’s.  I taught her when she was a senior at Mercy and I was a first year teacher.  I don’t always remember every student, but E is extremely memorable.  Unforgettable even.  At 18, she had an exuberate personality and a deep well of kindness.  When I met with A and E over the summer, that was something that A said that drew him to her, as well.  She is constantly writing thank you notes to people and giving them gifts.  She has incredible patience for the people she serves as a dental hygienist and an overall good attitude.  I am so glad, after reconnecting with you, to see that those qualities have continued, E.  And I am thrilled to be presiding at your wedding here in a few minutes.  Just as you were in my very first class at Mercy, this will be my first wedding!

E said of A that she admires his work ethic at his job as an aircraft mechanic, his positivity, his humility and willingness to do anything for anyone else without hesitation.  He never complains.  He’s great with kids, especially his nieces—a real kid magnet.  “He keeps me grounded,” she said.  “He’s real chill.” 

In this brief time, I would like to tell the story of the two of you, of your relationship, and of God working in your lives. 

In the reading from Genesis today, we heard the first words of a human being in sacred scripture.  Did you catch what they were?  A love song!  The man Adam had been alone.  It was a very painful situation for him – any long-time single person who longs to be in a relationship will recognize Adam’s longing.

During the creation story, God declared every created thing to be good and human beings to be very good.  For the first time, then God says something is not good.  “It is not good for the human being to be alone,” he says of Adam.

God tries to rectify his loneliness by leading a parade of animals before Adam.  Unsurprisingly, Adam found all the zebras, panthers, cockatiels, dolphins, aardvarks and beetles to be unsatisfying and unsuitable partners.

It was not until God created Eve and brought her before Adam that he felt complete.  Hopefully, she felt the same way.  Adam sings of her, “This one at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!”

I don’t know if E and A felt as lonely as Adam did before they met 7 years ago.  I don’t know if A’s first words to E were a love song, though that would be surprising. Here is what I do know: there was a party at a mutual friend’s house.  E had just seen the Nutcracker.  A was there first.  He was playing a game with friends when he saw her. 

He stopped what he was doing and this normally reserved, introverted guy said aloud, “I gotta meet this girl.”   And that is where the story of A and E began.  I love this first meeting because it seems to go against their natures.  A is the reserved, quiet one.  E is loud.  Very loud!  At least, that’s how she was at 18.  She charms everyone.  But at that moment something stirred in A.  He was the one doing the initiating and charming. Like Adam, he felt a connection and completeness that he hadn’t know before.

Now almost seven years later, we are here to see the two of them married in this beautiful space.  A said that church is very important to them, even though it has been difficult during the pandemic to come to worship.  He said that to them, marriage is a sacrament, something that God does in cooperation with both of them.  As we heard Jesus say in the Gospel, “the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

This church is where A’s parents and grandparents were married.  Both he and E spoke about great role models of marriage that they have in their own parents.  Like your parents, I hope God blesses you with many decades of happy, fulfilling married life.  Years in which you continue to eat tacos four nights a week, cook and watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and take long walks.  May he give you continued faithfulness to each other, service to the world, and the six children that E wants … or the three to four A wants. 

Okay, are you ready?  Let’s come down here in front of the altar, before your friends and family and God to see the two of you take each other in marriage.