Transcription of J and K's wedding service

The Wedding of John Juhl and Kaylin Wood

MUSICAL PRELUDE: "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Sheep May Safely Graze"

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

We have come together today to witness the marriage of John Juhl and Kaylin Wood, to ask God’s blessing on you, and to share in your joy and commitment. In the ebb and flow of life we are given ritual and symbol by which and with which to mark the meaningful and the significant in the passing of our days. We are given feast days and fast days. This is a feast day, a day of celebration. I am happy for you. I am happy that Harry and Bailey and Oliver are here with you. I am happy for the blending of the old and the new on this special day in your life journey.

The Apostle John wrote that "God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them."

Let us pray: Holy God, we thank you for John and Kaylin and for the love they share. That you should give us life is grace, but that you should give us someone special with whom to share life and love is grace upon grace. For this grace and for these two who love one another, and for their children, we offer a special prayer of blessing on them today and everyday as they make their journey together.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE: "This Is My Father's World"

THE RABBINIC TALE… (Vic, the minister, didn't write this down, but it's a story of two brothers who share a field. They grow the wheat together and harvest it together, then divide it in half and then each stores his own wheat in his own granary. At some point, one brother thinks, "I'm single but my brother is married and has several children. He needs more grain than I do." So, at night, he smuggles some of his own grain into his brother's granary. Around the same time, the other brother thinks, "I have several children who will take care of me in my old age, but my brother doesn't. He needs more grain than I do." So, at night, he smuggles some of his own grain into his brother's granary. This goes on until one night they run into each other... at which point, an angel appears and tells them that they have been such a good example of love, that God will build his temple there.)

Bring from the granary of your lives, from the rich storehouse of your gifts and talents, and from the treasury of your love that which you have received--from the fields of you common labors, from the rich and beautiful traditions of your faith, and from the nurture and nature of your families--and place them before each other in the home of hospitality and grace which you are building together. For if you bring what you have and who you are into this covenant journey you begin today in a special way, God will smile and build his temple within your lives.

READING: From 1 Corinthians 13

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends... And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

REFLECTIONS

John and Kaylin, your marriage is the establishment of a covenant, the making of a holiness in the common and ordinary things of life. And as with any covenant, there is profound risk and deep courage, there is steadfast faith and generous love, and there is a great sharing in all that life brings. Life will bring both joys and sorrows. So the marriage covenant turns out to be not only the sharing of ecstasy but also the sharing of tragedy. And we must say this if we are to say the truth and not turn the marriage ceremony into a damaging and ludicrous fantasy. Marriage turns out to be a life long education in forgiveness and sacrifice and suffering as well as joy and celebration and fulfillment. This is so because life is so. Strangely, as with all great risks in life, marriage offers both comfort and terror, suffering and pleasure, a mixture of great foible and profound depth.

But at the heart of your lives now is the making of this covenant, this holiness. It is the holiness of companionship and friendship. It is the holiness of commitment. It is the holiness of love and loving. It is the holiness of watching and waiting and hoping and being and doing and growing and sharing in the covenant of love.

John and Kaylin, receive this covenant today as a gift for your nourishment and fulfillment, undergirding your life together with forgiveness and grace. And may this gift of covenant love enable you to look back with gratitude, inward with understanding and acceptance, outward with compassion and conviction, and forward with expectation and hope. May your marriage bed be one of mutual fulfillment and respect. May your family table be one of open welcome and generosity, and may your common home be one of refuge, hidden in the sovereign love of the very heart of God.

THE CONSENT TO MARRIAGE

John, will you take Kaylin to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and protect her, and forsaking all others be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?

Kaylin, will you take John to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and protect him, and forsaking all others be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?

THE WEDDING VOWS

I, John, take you, Kaylin, to be my 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 us do part, according to God’s holy law. This is my solemn vow.

I, Kaylin, take you, John, to be my 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 us do part, according to God’s holy law. This is my solemn vow.

THE EXCHANGE OF RINGS

Wedding rings are exchanged as symbols of unending love and faithfulness, to remind us of the vow and the covenant which we make with our beloved.

Let us pray: Holy God, bless Kaylin and John as they exchange rings this day and declare their love and their intentions for life together.

Both will now say in turn, starting with John, then Kaylin:

I give you a ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body I honor you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God.

THE WEDDING PRAYER (John, Kaylin, Oliver, Bailey, and Harry joined hands; Vic wrapped his stole around John and Kaylin's joined hands to symbolize God's love surrounding us)

Holy God, we praise you for all the ways love comes into our lives. We pray especially for John and Kaylin as they share their lives together. We thank you for bringing them together. We thank you for their growth in love and trust. We thank you for the families from which they come and for the family which they make together. Give them strength, loyalty, faithfulness, joy, fulfillment, honesty, patience and an abiding respect and love. Amen.

PRONOUNCEMENT OF MARRIAGE

In the presence of God and before all of us, John and Kaylin have given their consent and made their marriage vows to each other. They have declared their marriage by the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of rings. I therefore pronounce that they are husband and wife.

KISS

POSTLUDE: "Ode to Joy"