Bishop Curry's sermon at the Royal Wedding was everything a modern wedding sermon should be: well presented, well crafted, well sounding and entirely devoid of any depth or meaning. A perfect match for the modern wedding, where the meaning and purpose of marriage has been long lost and shows no sign of being found. The wedding sermon of hidden shallows fits a culture obsessed with how things sound and not with what things mean,
Bishop Curry's message was on love and how love would make the world a better place. Well, duh. This is a message a child could have written. It's like stating that water is wet or the sun is bright to look at. True, but so obvious it's of no value. For what's there to disagree with in his message? A utopia of love sounds perfect. But there still remains an unanswered question and in the unanswered question there is a big problem: where, Bishop Curry, is this love?
2 Comments
Last month, I attended a wedding of a friend, up in Scotland and a very happy occasion it was. This wedding though gave me much pause for reflection as five days later I attended a funeral of a lady at my church. The contrast between the celebration of something new and the sorrow of something gone was stark.
I remember reading a blog post by a Scottish Presbyterian about how he appreciated funerals more than weddings (and it would be a Scot who said this) because there could be no idolatry at a funeral, only reality. While understanding this point, I profoundly disagree. Weddings are a celebration of beginnings, they are full of hope and beauty and potential, often so very joyful, full of laughter, dancing and champagne. Funerals are an end, always too soon, with no hope outside of Christ and the promise of heaven to those who believe. There can be no dancing at funerals, little laughter and despite what people say there can be no "celebration" either, not in death. My thought from attending both so quickly was how they so perfectly encapsulate life – so much blessing; so much sorrow and there is sorrow within blessing and blessing within sorrow. Perhaps all of life is lived between weddings and funerals. |
Archives
October 2018
Categories
All
|