I conducted a wedding on Saturday, as well as doing a few other things. As I look back on my "performance" as a celebrant I feel like I made a mistake. In the service I gave a brief "homily" - some advice on marriage. There were three simple points: Love is a commitment to respect the other; Love is not two people looking at each other but two people looking in the same direction together; thirdly - love is a long series of forgiving and being forgiven.-overlooking the bits that annoy and looking for and celebrating that which we love.
My mistake lay when I was talking about the second point. I pointed out that having a common purpose that was bigger than us, drew a couple together. That just looking at each other will often end in finding faults, but that when together we serve a common purpose, we discover a togetherness that enriches our relationship. Then I made my mistake. I said, "For me that greater purpose is found in the Christian faith". As soon as I said it I felt like taking it back. "The Christian Faith" is a dead, often propositional, institutional thing that I am in fact growing to dislike, avoid and even loathe. I should have said something like, "I find that greater purpose in following Jesus" or "seeking to live out the Jesus way." More and more I see my self as not "Christian", but a follower of Jesus. "Christian faith" has a whole lot of baggage I no longer own. It tends to have an imperialism, a set of "must believe" doctrines and institutionalism that I see as distorting the way of Jesus.
Anyway if I use that "homily" again I will use different words.
Photos: I think I should have become a high country musterer... I love the tussock country. Tonight it looked sweet. Lately I would gladly swap jobs with a musterer. A colleague suffered a heart attack today. She looked fine on Friday.... scary stuff.
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