Bible 1-1
Marriage in the Bible1
Bible 2.5Experience Marriage Rite
GREETING AND PRAYERPThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love
of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.CAnd
also with you.
ALet us pray. Eternal God, our creator and redeemer, as you
gladdened the wedding at Cana in Galilee by the presence of your
Son, so by his presence now bring your joy to this wedding. Look in
favor upon [name] and [name] and grant that they, rejoicing in all
your gifts, may at length celebrate with Christ the marriage feast
which has no end.CAmen
2ExperienceINTRODUCTION TO THE VOWSAThe Lord God in his goodness
created us male and female, and by the gift of marriage founded
human community in a joy that begins now and is brought to
perfection in the life to come.Because of sin, our age-old
rebellion, the gladness of marriage can be overcast and the gift of
the family can become a burden.But because God, who established
marriage, continues still to bless it with his abundant and
ever-present support, we can be sustained in our weariness and have
our joy restored.P[name] and [name], if it is your intention to
share with each other your joys and sorrows and all that the years
will bring, with your promises bind yourselves to each other as
husband and wife.
3ExperienceI take you, [name],to be my wife/husband from this
day forward,to join with you and share all that is to come,and I
promise to be faithful to you until death parts us.GIVING OF
RINGSThe bride and groom exchange rings with these words:I give you
this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness.
4ExperienceANNOUNCEMENT OF MARRIAGEThe bride and groom join
hands.P[name] and [name], by their promises before God and in the
presence of this congregation, have bound themselves to one another
as husband and wife.CBlessed be the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit now and forever.PThose whom God has joined together let no
one put asunder.CAmenBLESSINGThe bride and groom kneel.PThe Lord
God, who created our first parents and established them in
marriage, establish and sustain you, that you may find delight in
each other and grow in holy love until your life's end.CAmen
5Discussion & reflection:Marriage is not well understood in
this country!
Fewer and fewer people are choosing to be married.
Even fewer ask God for His blessing.
Does this make you happy?
6Discussion & reflection:Many people, young and old, in some
places the majority, want to live together without the benefit of
marriage.
Some will say they intend to be married later. And some do. Is
there anything wrong with this? Isnt better to find out first if
your boyfriend/girlfriend is really the one you want to live with
before you make the commitment of marriage?
To answer this question, we can either do a survey of the
community and find out what people think, what they do. Or we can
begin with the Bible and ask What does God think about
marriage?7Discussion & reflection: Marriage is as old as the
creation of the world!
Genesis 2: Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had
taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be
called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man."For this reason a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
they will become one flesh.8Discussion & reflection:Proverbs
18:22He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from
the LORD.
Proverbs 19:14Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but
a prudent wife is from the LORD.
Deuteronomy 24:5If a man has recently married, he must not be
sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is
to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has
married.
9Discussion & reflection:Matthew 19:4-6"Haven't you read,"
he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and
female,'and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and
mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one
flesh' ?So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has
joined together, let man not separate."1 Corinthians 7:1-16Now for
the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry.But
since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own
wife, and each woman her own husband.The husband should fulfill his
marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.The
wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband.
In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone
but also to his wife.Do not deprive each other except by mutual
consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to
prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you
because of your lack of self-control.10Discussion &
reflection:Colossians 3:18-19Wives, submit to your husbands, as is
fitting in the Lord.Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh
with them.
Ephesians 5:22-23Wives, submit to your husbands as to the
Lord.For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head
of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Hebrews 13:4Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage
bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the
sexually immoral.
11Discussion & reflection:Sadly, there are those, even in
the Church that do not understand our Gods intention for us through
marriage.
Here is part of an editorial in the Washington (DC) Post, by
Jennifer Wright Knust, who says she is a Baptist
pastor.12Discussion & reflection:If we do take the time to read
the Bible, we are likely to discover that the biblical writers do
not agree with us, whatever version of sexual morality we are
seeking to promote. Written more than 2,000 years ago at a
significant historical and cultural distance, the Bible gathers
together a diverse collection of ancient books, edited over time,
not a coherent, divinely inspired set of instructions that can
easily be applied.13Discussion & reflection:Whats wrong with
her thinking???
1. She treats the Bible like a book, instead of the Word of
God.2. She has adopted Progressive Theology without praying the
Bible she is dismissing.3. She is ignoring 2,000 years of faithful,
Christian witness!14Discussion & reflection:Bede the Venerable:
Genesis 2:28 And God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful
and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.
This multiplication of people and filling of the earth could not
be completed except through the union of the woman and the
manMarriage vows, therefore, which God instituted by the granting
of his divine blessing for the propagation of the human race and
for filling of the earth, must not be cursed.15Discussion &
reflection:Did not our Lord attend a wedding at Cana in
Galilee?
John 2: Onthe third day there was a wedding atCana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.2Jesus also was invited to the
wedding withhis disciples.3When the wine ran out, the mother of
Jesus said to him, They have no wine.4And Jesus said to
her,Woman,what does this have to do with me?My hour has not yet
come.5His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells
you.16Discussion & reflection:Jesus often spoke about the
Kingdom of God using the image of a wedding.
Matthew 9: 14Thenthe disciples of John came to him, saying,Why
do we andthe Pharisees fast,but your disciples do not fast?15And
Jesus said to them,Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the
bridegroom is with them?The days will come when the bridegroom is
taken away from them, andthen they will fast.16No one puts a piece
of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from
the garment, and a worse tear is made.
17Discussion & reflection:Matthew 22:And again Jesusspoke to
them in parables, saying,2The kingdom of heaven may be compared to
a king who gavea wedding feast for his son,3andsent his servantsto
call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would
not come.
Luke 12: 35Stay dressed for actionandkeep your lamps
burning,36and be like men who arewaiting for their master to come
home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him
at once when he comes andknocks.37Blessed are those servantswhom
the master findsawake when he comes. Truly, I say to you,he will
dress himself for service andhave them recline at table, and he
will come and serve them.
18Discussion & reflection:Luke 14: 7Now he told a parable to
those who were invited, when he noticedhow they chose the places of
honor, saying to them,8When you are invited by someone to a wedding
feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more
distinguished than you be invited by him,9and he who invited you
both will come and say to you, Give your place to this person, and
then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
Romans 7:Or do you not know, brothersfor I am speaking to those
who know the lawthat the law is binding on a person only as long as
he lives?2Fora married woman is bound by law to her husband while
he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of
marriage.3Accordingly,she will be called an adulteress if she lives
with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband
dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she
is not an adulteress.
19Discussion & reflection:There is another side to
marriage!
Revelation 19: 9And the angel saidto me, Write this:Blessed are
those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he
said to me,These are the true words of God.20Discussion &
reflection:Every marriage is meant to look like the relationship
that our Lord, Jesus Christ, has with the Church.
As He sacrificed Himself for the Church, we are to sacrifice
ourselves for Him and for each other.21Discussion &
reflection:Three things you need for a happy Christian
marriage!
1. Gods blessing!2. A faithful spouseA. A living faith of your
ownB. Both of you loving Jesus and each other.3.. Both of you
working to help the poor!
Is this the kind of marriage you want???22
