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"

I just lost my job

Don't really know what else to say. No warning. Beginning an afternoon of job-hunting and resume polishing now.

Happy Birthday, Scott and Mary!

Hoping your birthday(s) be festive and snowy!

Day care is a petri dish

It turns out that pneumonia is going around Harry's day care center, and he's got it. >:P He's acting 95% normal, but has a bad cough that isn't going away and wakes him up at night, which seems to be the most obvious symptom for the other kids in his daycare as well. We don't know if it's viral, bacterial, or another kind (I don't remember the name of that one) but the treatment is basically the same: leave it alone to heal itself, which can take weeks, or use antibiotics. So we're using antibiotics. It's been awhile since the last creepin' crud decimated the day care, so I guess I should have been expecting something like this - it seems to be cyclical.

Unfortunately, he can't go back to daycare until his cough is gone (to try to protect any kids who may not have been exposed yet), so I may be taking some sick leave next week to take care of Harry. The good part of it is that I have the leave to spend, and Harry isn't really feeling sick, so if we have to hang out at home for a few days, that'll be okay - I'm sure I'll read every Thomas book in the house until I'm about ready to pitch them out the window, but there are worse things!

Let us eat cake!

So John and I are trying really hard to get everything set up for a teeny little 2-adults-plus-3-kids-no-guests wedding in two weeks (Feb. 7th, at around 10:30am-ish). So far, we've got the really important things covered - O and B are coming into town; we're getting the license tomorrow; we've arranged for the church, minister, photographer, Harry-wrangler (in case Harry decides to run around screaming during the wedding), and outfits for John and me. We're working on getting John's ring ordered and we're using the ring we bought for my engagement ring as a wedding ring, and I'll have a band made for it later as an anniversary ring. No word yet on an organist, so we may end up using recorded music, and we haven't yet decided whether to take the kids with us for lunch afterwards, or drop them with a friend and have our first married meal as just a couple. It's gotten a *little* hectic, but the nice thing about having it just be us is that it's all very low-key. Of course, it will be a major undertaking to get us all out of the house on the morning of the wedding, but it usually is anyway! :D

I do have a rather strange favor to ask of one of you guys in DC, though. We've all joked around about the passionfruit cake from Alexandria Pastry Shop being the secret glue that makes Wood sib marriages last... and since I'm the only one who didn't have that cake at previous weddings and I'm the only one who's divorced... what do I know??? So I contacted APS. They don't ship cakes, but they can make one for us and freeze it solid, if one of you guys wouldn't mind picking it up from them and overnighting it to us. The cake will be in a regular pastry box, so it will need to be put into a more sturdy box (and probably padded between the pastry box and outside box). Also, it's apparently important for the cake to go directly from their freezer to the post office (or other shipping place) since their freezer is much colder than a regular home freezer, and it ought to be as cold as possible during shipping. Would one of you mind doing that for us?

Two Guys and Two Girls

Lisa, TK, and Tommy arrived after supper and I put them to work helping me make Obama placemats for all. We did red and blue designs on white paper and cut photos and cartoons of Obama to add to the mix. They got put into the plastic make your own placemats. Tommy is keeping a journal for school and kept one of the news photos for that.

Lisa isn't feeling very well, but hopefully will be better tomorrow. TK's friends arrive later tonight. We'll probably go into DC for a little while tomorrow, then see what will work for Tuesday. Scott has Sean's large van to take us all to the Metro on Tuesday. Getting parking at the Metro garages is pretty chancey.

The electricity was out for awhile in West Virginia --- not fun when it's cold outside! Heard that many deer were sighted. They watched some of the mall concert on TV. I could listen on the radio. Anyone else catch it? Fun to hear Pete Seeger among the younger performers. He's the only one I've ever seen in person. Gheema

Five Guys!

Ben and I made it out to the Westernmost Five Guys in Beaverton last Saturday. All was as we were used to, except, of course the location was bigger than any we'd been to, much more crowded, and much more heavily staffed. They had our BC and LBC (respectively) ready in about 7 minutes, and were, as always, very generous with the fries. It was great to get there and great to see it so hopping! It's not as close as Springfield was, but I thought we were leaving it behind when we left. The East Coast officially has one less draw on us! ;)