For Love
A Wedding Homily
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
for Chris Dowdy
and Cathleen Schneeberger
July 11, 2014
at Hilton Head,
South Carolina
John 1: 1-5
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For
your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
And
in your loving name we pray. . . Amen
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All
things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into
being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life
was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness did not overcome it.
From
the very first day of the existence of this Earth, when God divided the waters
from the waters, when the Spirit was flying over the waters, right before God
said let there be light, there was darkness. . . and that is all there was. . .
and God. . . and on that first day God brought the light from the darkness, and
God has been making the light from the darkness every day since, and such is
what life is: a cycle of darkness and light, but what we testify to today is
that God's hands are in both, and Love is.
Love leads us from darkness to light. Love redeems us, from darkness to
light. Love shapes our darkness, carrying us through it, and brings us to
light, and this is the world. It is a long road and it goes on forever[1],
the road goes on and on, rolling hard, rolling fast, rolling by, and it
is of darkness and light, for such is the mysterious Way of Love, and it is
such a long, long way to ride just to
hear her say your name when you reach the other side, and you find the one that
you won't ever leave again.
Because
long before then, when the darkness
falls, and kindness fails, and you
feel that you are living on the Dark Side
of the World. . . when you are on the outside of the first Hello and the last goodnight good bye. .
. When you are wondering what you did to deserve this, wondering if you
committed some dreadful selfish crime
that you are still paying for, and so
now you're dying of thirst, and in the
travelling storm, enveloping all around you, and as you go down that dusty trail, there's just not a drop of rain, and the broken end of love is all you think
there is. . . and your eyes start to get used to the darkness, because you
think that darkness is all there is, until you get to the point, running with the night, where you can no
longer even recognize the darkness and all that exists are just shades of gray. . . and the world tells
you to accept it, for that's the way it
goes around here, yes that's the way the wild wind blows, and so you've
reached the point of no return. . .
wondering forever who'll be looking out
for you, because it's time and
you're gonna start giving in.
Hey what can I do? The gravitational
forces are just against me, and I'm
going nowhere. It's like I'm standing out on the beach and the storm is
coming, and I have only two choices in that statistical anomalous choice
between getting struck by lightning and or just heading into the water to face
the sharks, and at this point both choices seem strangely appealing.
It
is at that point where the dawn breaks, God says let there be light, and it is.
. . and in that darkest night, when it is the darkest, the coldest night of winter, and you are about to start giving in,
that God brings something into your life, and you see a bigger piece of sky, and it all begins again. Something, but more
often someone. . . and they become a light to you, and you become a light to
them, and in the gathering light,
love comes in, it comes walking in. .
. and you wanna know more, you wanna
be more, and everything changes, and for a moment, you stop, you challenge what
you had been taught by the darkness, you
think it over one time, and you believe again in love. That's what the
Christian story is. It's what the life story is, and often, so often it mirrors
our love stories. At the right time, in the right place, it all just comes
together. . . and it feels good feeling
good again, and you want to share that love, you want to show the world. Love becomes not just
something that saved you, but something
that you do, something that you share, and the world is better for it. And
you look back at your life up to this
point, every twist and every turn, every scar, every heartbreak, and you look
into the hope in each child's eyes in this new family, and you say without
reservation. . . I did it all for love my
friends, for love I did it all, and everyone here present today can look at
the two of you, and your beautiful new and perfect family, and see the
testimony, see the proof, see the love light in your eyes, and feel it
reflected in our own faith, hope, and dreams. . . this is the power of what
love does, this is the world that God makes and remakes, and this is the world
saved by the love that is the very fabric of it all. . . What I really mean. . . is I'm glad that I've been here. . . I'm
glad that all of these people are here. . . for even though love is a word we don't often throw around,
we recognize it when we see it and it sheds new life.
And
so now let's let God do His work in binding together this new family. . .
Chris, Cathleen are you ready. . .
Chris,
Cathleen, since it is your intention to marry,
Join
your right hands, and with promises
bind
yourselves to each other as husband and wife.
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