Sermon Tone Analysis

Wedding Service

The Convocation

We are gathered here in the presence of God and of this company to join in holy marriage B and G and to bear witness to the transforming power of love.

Love is a quality of spirit and an attitude of emotions, but a marriage is a life’s work, a spiritual art form.

Therefore this is an occasion of both profound joy and great responsibility, and we who partake in it bind ourselves as witnesses to the labor of love that B and G are undertaking here.

In acknowledgment of this holy purpose and of the power of this occasion, let us pray.

Prayer

The Giving Away of the Bride

Minister: Who presents this woman to marry this man?

Father of Bride: Her mother and I do.

The Reading

Love is a major key in a lasting and joyous marriage.

The apostle Paul expressed such love in .

[Read .]

The Address

As we have heard in this reading, love in this form is the greatest of virtues, the highest spiritual work.

Love is both enduring and transcendent.

Such love has the capacity to deliver marriage from being merely a domestic arrangement or supportive partnership and elevate it into a spiritual enterprise.

When we speak of marriage in spiritual terms, we are inviting ourselves into it at a much higher level.

To participate in a marriage of this kind is not only to enter into it as the estate that will bring us happiness, but to see it also as the spiritual crucible of transformation, of suffering, and also of great joy.

Therefore, as you step into marriage, you must remember first of all that marriage is a process of transformation.

Because of it, inside of it, and in response to it, you will change most remarkably.

And not necessarily or exclusively in the ways you had hoped or imagined.

For marriage is the spiritual grinding stone that will polish you both to your brightest brilliance.

It will cause you to become not only who you wanted to be, but also the person you have no choice but to be.

In marriage you will be re-formed, for in choosing to love and make your whole life with this person, you are choosing to be affected.

You will be polished through the actions of your beloved on you, through the praise, criticism, frustration, excitement, actions, and inactions of the person you marry today.

In this regard it is important to remember that, more than you can possibly imagine, you are unconsciously drawn to precisely that person who possesses the attributes you need to be affected by in order to change.

These are the very qualities that, because of their capacity to irritate and inspire you, will encourage in you the very dimensions you lack, the qualities that, as you acquire them, will represent an enlargement of your soul.

Whatever is missing in your character will gradually be developed.

You will learn to be kinder, or more gently critical, to be empathetic, or more trusting.

You will be met with an invitation to transcend your own limitations—your judgments, stinginess, lack of trust, fear of intimacy, pride, self-focus—and to strive instead for their beautiful opposites.

I charge you both to grow to the place where each gets major satisfaction from sharing such love with each other.

Cherish the vision of this day.

Let it not be tarnished by the common trials of life.

Believe in this ideal you both share; it is binding; it is inviolate; and in all human relationships, it is the final truth.

Expression of Intent

G, do you take B to be your wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony?

Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?

Groom: I will.

B, do you take G to be your wedded husband, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony?

Wilt thou love him, comfort him, honor and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?

Bride: I will.

The Vows

G, please repeat after me: “I G, take thee B, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s hold ordinance and thereto I give thee my promise.

B, please repeat after me: “I B, take thee G, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance and thereto I give thee my promise.

Ring Ceremony

And now you are privileged to further seal these vows by giving and receiving the wedding rings.

This golden circle from time immortal has been a symbol of wedded love.

It is made of pure metal and should always symbolize the purity of the love which binds your hearts together.

As an endless circle it should remind you of the unending love which unites your lives.

May these rings be worn with great honor and be a reminder of this moment when your lives were united.

And may you always endeavor to keep your vows ever before you.

G, will you now take this ring and repeat after me as you place it on your bride’s finger: “With this ring I thee wed, and upon the union of our hands and hearts, I pray the blessing of Almighty God.”

B, will you now take this ring and repeat after me as you place it on your groom’s finger: “With this ring I thee wed, and upon the union of our hands and hearts, I pray the blessing of Almighty God.”

Pronouncement of Marriage

Forasmuch as G and B have consented together in holy wedlock and have witnessed the same before God and this company and have pledged their faith and love to each other, and have declared the same by exchanging vows, and by giving and receiving rings, I pronounce that they are man and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

You may kiss the bride!

Presentation of Bride and Groom

And now it is my privilege to present to you Mr. and Mrs. .