2-9-2022

 Good Morning All,

Matthew 22:2; “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.”

     We are gearing up for some weddings this summer. We will begin the premarital counseling soon. I cannot get over how the brides and the grooms look younger and younger each wedding but that is a different devotion. The thing that fascinates me the most is how, during the actual wedding ceremony, everyone is scared to death. When I perform a wedding, I always tell the bride and groom, “Focus on me, it is just the three of us. All that matters is that you say ‘I do’ or ‘I will’ at the right place. After that we don’t worry about it.”  Yet at every wedding; the nerves are always there. The tension is just below the surface.

    However, the reception is a different affair. I always smile when the bridal party is introduced.  In our region, at the start of the reception, the entire bridal party is usually introduced as they walk up to the head table.  As they enter, they dance and wave their hands and really enjoy it. They laugh and everyone applauds. It is such a contrast to the way they walked into the church a couple of hours earlier where they were so solemn and sober. Yet the reception, the wedding feast, is a grand celebration.

    As the entire community celebrates the marriage of these two people, they also celebrate life and family. Some only come to the reception and then they celebrate all evening. You watch as friends and relatives who have not seen each other for a number of years get re-acquainted and laugh at old times and share “what’s new” at the present time. They gather around in little circles and laugh and talk the evening away. Then the circles will disperse, and new circles form, and the cycle begin anew. The merriment, the joy, the fellowship involved is one of pure celebratory time.

    I think this is why the new creation, after Christ’s return, is compared to the wedding feast.  This will be a time of celebration. This will be a time of joyfully speaking to each other and remembering the good and sharing the new and great. The kingdom of heaven is the time of the most wonderful celebration. We are alive in the heavenly kingdom, and we celebrate our presence there with Jesus our king and with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ in our perfected bodies.

   The wonder of this all is that our life in the church is to be a fore taste of this feast or celebration. Our time here is part of the “not yet” of Christ’s kingdom. We are in his kingdom just “not yet” fully glorified, not to the feast yet. We are living in his time of grace, and we get to know a little of the heavenly celebration that is to come. The best is yet to come!!

 Dear Father, as we wait for the wedding feast of the kingdom of heaven; keep giving us a taste of it through your mercy and love. Keep us focused on Jesus so that we may know the way home. In Jesus, name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret