On Sunday mornings, we make confession as the bride of Christ to Him who has sacrificed everything for us. It is a general confession and, as you know if you read my pages, not really a substitute for private confession, but there is something to be said for it. We admit not only that we have sinned in what we have done and not done right but that love is built upon this thing called forgiveness. Love does not mean never having to say your are sorry to God any more than God's forgiveness is a trivial little detail in the manifold cornucopia of gifts and graces He has provided. The little give clue to this everything.
Just as we begin with confession and absolution, so do we hear the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified for our sins. We pray because His blood has cleared the way for us to pray and to pray confidently (without forgiveness there is no real assurance to prayer at all). We feast upon the foretaste of the eternal and are reminded by Christ's own words that this is given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins. We confess the creed not as some sterile collection of words but as a people who have been loved laud Him who loved us even to the end. The benediction is not some promise of everything working out just the way we want it as much as it is God sending us out the door as He bade farewell to the woman caught in adultery -- Go and sin no more. This is no appeal to law or condemnation or punishment as motivation to strive for the narrow way but the acknowledgment of blessed Peter who admits there is nowhere else to go. We have seen love and it looked like the cross and now it beckons us to renounce the easy and sinful ways of our lives because He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Love requires forgiveness but does not presume it. This is what we learn in church that we learn to practice at home between husband and wife who will surely fail each other and the lofty vows they once made. This love manifests itself in forgiving not because it is deserved or earned or even because it knows the sin will never happen again. No, this love manifests itself in forgiveness because this is what we have learned of God's love for us and this is the beating heart of love between husband and wife and, in particular, between this man and the wife whose faithfulness is most profound and beautiful in the way she continues to love him and forgive him. God bless marriage. God bless the married. God teach husband and wife the way of forgiveness for this is the true path of love.
1 comment:
Indeed, marriage between a husband and wife is a covenant which God ordained, and those who take it seriously will learn to keep it afloat by communicating, loving, forgiving, and listening to one another. I think it is especially wonderful when a couple grow through the years into a mature love, accepting one another’s quirks and keeping the flame of love alive by word and action, albeit imperfectly. My wife and I met when she was 20 and I was 23. We were married after a year and a few months, as I was mostly away in the military. We wrote regularly. I think marriage between one man and one woman, with a desire for children, is less common today, as I have met many couples who live together without marriage, and some do not want to have children. Many American women want only a career and no kids, which is sad. I pray this trend will eventually fade, with marriage becoming more common again. At the school bus stop near my home, only about two or three children are waiting now. When I was young, there used to be a long line, and children played everywhere after school and on weekends, and the sound of their voices was delightful. Just musing. Soli Deo Gloria
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