Seeing Double

Good afternoon! Today is a very special day for all of us, especially for these two who have come before God – Anton and Aire – to make a very important covenant: the covenant of marriage.

Covenants or agreements are very familiar words in our times today. We also call them contracts, which basically are deals, pacts or promises made by at least two parties who agree on some very important things which bind them to act and work for its consummation or realization. And today, Anton and Aire are going to come together to agree to become one as husband and wife not just for a couple of weeks or months or years, but for a lifetime.

Weddings during the Christmas season are causes for double celebrations as we celebrate not just the coming together of two persons, but also because of the season’s very reason –  the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ through his birth.

I would say that getting married in Christmas, with all its preparations, is very much like preparing and celebrating Christmas itself.

Take for example the celebration of the weeks before Christmas itself. The Christian community started to get very busy especially at the very beginning of the month of December. Aside from the commercialism that has somewhat overtaken the busyness of those who are preparing for the season, the Christian community led by the church celebrates Advent. Advent is a celebration of waiting and preparing for the coming birth of Jesus. There are four advent weeks that we celebrate before Christmas day.

I can say that celebrating Advent in preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth is like Anton and Aire’s as well as their family’s preparation for these lovely couple’s wedding today. It is always filled with anticipation and excitement. In our Christian calendar, the anticipation that we call Advent has been given themes for its celebration, and these themes I can also very well identify with what and how the family must have felt in their preparations as well.

The first week of Advent is known as the Advent of Hope. The theme of Hope is very much relevant in the lives of God’s people, Israel as they were in such a dire condition when they cried out to God for help. In their cries for help, God answered them and promised them a Savior who would free them from their oppressors and lead them to new life. This promise was given to them through the prophets of old and this promise was what sustained them even through the most difficult moments of their lives.

I say that the whole wedding preparations, even in the very early stage of these lovely couple’s decision to be wedded, has been an Advent of Hope—hope that soon, you two will finally be together as husband and wife, that you will not be lonely and alone anymore, hope that soon your parents will finally have grandchildren.

The second week of Advent is the Advent of Peace. Peace is something that is very elusive nowadays. We usually equate peace as the absence of war or hostilities. However, there is more to peace than just the absence of war. As we all have experienced peace is something that flows out of our lives in knowing that despite difficult times, we will live through them. God’s people longed for peace in spite of the difficulties that they have experienced. War was a reality in their times but the peace that they longed for was not just the ending of war but something that is experienced from within.

Our wedding preparations can also be likened to the Advent of Peace. Every one little detail in the preparation that gets to be done is one block of peace that builds up to the eventual consummation of the wedding ceremony. That is why in our preparations we get very uneasy when there are things that are not yet that clear. We want everything to be black and white as far as the preparations are concerned, we don’t want anything left unturned. And of course, the final peace that we all long to see is that peace that we all will experience in a little while when finally these two will emerge from this sanctuary as husband and wife.

The Advent of Love comes next in the run-up to the Christmas celebrations. The coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the result of the greatest love story of our faith. Because of the wrong that we have done and the selfish tendencies that we all have, all of us have become sinful before our perfect God, and we all deserve to be punished and put to death. However, out of God’s great love and abundant mercies, God sent Jesus Christ, God’s son, to suffer and die on our behalf. This is love, the people long time ago, longed for this to happen in order for them to live new lives, lives not under the harsh and cruel tenets of the law but under the care and comfort of God’s great love through Jesus Christ. Our most favorite verse in John 3:16 says it all: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.” Wow!

Of course wedding preparations are very much like the Advent of Love. Obvious ba? These two are very much in-love with each other! It is just my prayer that this love that you have for each other will follow the kind of love that God expects from his people, the kind of love that Paul told the people in Corinth to have in their dealings with each other, and we have heard this read awhile ago, the very famous I Corinthians 13, the love chapter. As you make your vows, consider this very seriously, for love unlocks the very secrets of marriage.

The last Advent is that of Joy. Joy is something that we don’t need to explain, for even babies know what it is. During Christmas we sing the song, ‘Joy to the Word, the Lord is come.’ Today, we just don’t sing that song but we also sing it loud in our hearts for today’s celebration of Anton and Aire’s coming together.

God’s coming to earth through Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel—’God with us’ is the fulfillment of that promise that God made with the people. Jesus’ birth is the execution of that covenant that God made long ago to his people.

Today, therefore, as both of you Anton and Aire, make your covenants to each other, remember that you are doing these before God, rendering it holy and precious, not only for the both of you but also for the people who are here to witness your love for each other and especially for God. May your coming together be a source of hope, peace, love and joy not only for the both of you but for all of us and God. Amen.