Epiphany Lutheran Church | Dorr, Michigan
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Beliefs
    • Our History
    • Our Pastor
    • 25th Anniversary
    • Photo Gallery
    • Contact Us
  • Worship
    • The Singing Church
  • Resources
    • Food Pantry
    • Related Sites
  • Publications
    • Bulletins
    • Sermons
    • Monthly Newsletter
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Give Online

The Wedding of Catrin Marie Steffens to Christopher Michael VanDenBerg

10/21/2017

0 Comments

 
What is love?  Chris and Catrin have heard this question several times in the last few months as we have met together.  We’re accustomed to thinking of love as an emotion, something we feel.  As we opened Scripture and looked at the picture it paints of life in this world, we learned that love is not an emotion.  Love is an action; love is a verb.  Love is certainly tied in with emotions, but love manifests itself in action.  Love demonstrates itself in how we act towards one another.  That’s what St. Paul was driving home in his great “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13.  Love is patient and kind, it does not envy, it keeps no record of wrongs and all the rest.  Chris and Catrin, the love you feel for one another today will change.  Ask your parents.  The love they have for one another now is different from the honeymoon phase puppy love they had years ago at their own weddings.  The emotional side of love is now deeper, rooted less in how one makes the other feel and more in how much both realize that the person to whom they are married is the fulfillment of God’s Word in Eden: “It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make him a helper comparable to him.”  All of us who are married can speak to that.  Love changes and matures.  Love as an emotion changes.  Love as an action does not change.  The actions themselves may change, but love will always be manifested in its purest form as an action.
That’s why, in the vows, Chris and Catrin will say “I will.”  They promise that their love for one another will manifest itself in lifelong action—loving, comforting, honoring, keeping in sickness and in health, and pledging marital fidelity towards one another as long as they both shall live and everything that entails.  We ask them to make promises about their actions, not their emotions.  Their emotions will fluctuate.  There will be times when they don’t feel happy with one another and times they can’t imagine how they could ever feel one ounce of anger toward the other.  And sometimes those two wildly different emotions will come in the same conversation!  They can’t control or predict how they will feel.  But they can control what they do and therefore they can promise to love, honor, and keep one another even in times of sadness and anger and disappointment.
 
As St. Paul explained in the Epistle Reading we heard just a moment ago, this love that Chris and Catrin have for one another that will show itself in their actions is not their own, but is a reflection of the love God has for each of us in Christ Jesus.  That love was costly.  God loved the world by giving His only-begotten, innocent Son to be tortured and killed for sins He did not commit.  God handed over His only Son as the payment the Law demanded for our sin.  Jesus was our Substitute, an offering made in our place so that we would be spared the accusations against us.  By the selfless, giving love of Christ we are made clean, spotless, without blemish or sin.  Heaven is opened to us and all believers.  God has been faithful to us, even in the face of and despite our own unfaithfulness.
 
Chris, that is the kind of love God expects you to have for Catrin.  Men—married or not—this is the kind of love God expects you to have for your wives or that woman who might be your wife someday.  God expects you to do everything to protect, care for, and nurture the one who has been given to you as your helper, your companion.  This love doesn’t walk away when it’s angry or give up when it doesn’t want to go on.  This kind of Christ-like love continues to act in spite of how you feel.  Just as you feed, support, and take care of your own body, you are supposed to feed, support, and take care of your wife.
 
Catrin, in exchange for this selfless love, God asks you to obey Chris.  Women—married or not—this is the kind of love God expects you to have for your husbands or the man who might someday be your husband.  This is not an archaic tradition, wording we use because it is steeped in history.  If your husband is acting in Christ-like ways, always putting you in front of himself, you are asked to do what he asks of you, knowing that he isn’t asking from self-gratifying motives.  He is asking you out of love, love manifested in how he acts towards you, how he does everything in his power to support you. 
 
Chris, Catrin.  You’ll fail at this.  Ask any of us who are married.  None of us are perfect.  When your love for one another is imperfect, when it has faults and failures, don’t give up, don’t wring your hands.  Turn to Christ.  His love for both of you as individuals and as husband and wife is perfect, it never fails, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Just as God in Christ forgives you all of your sins, extend that same forgiveness to one another.  That love, showing itself as forgiveness—not counting the other’s sin against them—covers a multitude of sins. 
 
You can do this, we can all do this, because God is love and He first loved us.  His love frees us to love Him and to love one another, to love our neighbors, our spouses, our children.  In Him and by Him who laid down His life for us, who is always eager to forgive the penitent and restore the fallen, we learn to lay down our lives for one another, to be actually and truly tolerant of one another’s weaknesses.  That doesn’t mean we excuse sin, but we look past the flaws in one another, seeing the loveable even when they seem unlovable.  Everyone is struggling.  Everyone is hurting.  You never know what people are going through or why they do what they do.  But God does, and He loves them anyways.  In Him, we can also. 
 
Chris and Catrin, let Christ be the center of your marriage.  Find forgiveness, comfort, consolation, and joy in Him.  You are Baptized, forgiven all your sins in the Blood of Christ.  That love of God, which is demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus, will sustain you all your days.  As your love for one another grows and deepens, may the love of God bless your marriage.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    About

    Why does the Pastor preach?  Scripture explains that the role of preaching the Word of God is how saving faith is created: “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ … So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:14-17).  The Augsburg Confession, seeing this connection between the Preaching Office and saving faith, summarizes Scripture on the Office of the Holy Ministry in this way: “To obtain [saving, justifying] faith, God instituted the Office of Preaching, giving the Gospel and the Sacraments.  Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit who produces faith, where and when He wills, in those who hear the Gospel.  It teaches that we have a gracious God, not through our merit but through Christ’s merit, when we so believe” (AC V 1-3).  The whole reason the Pastor preaches is so saving faith can be created, so we know that “we have a gracious God” who loves us and has saved us from our sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
     
    Preaching at Epiphany is centered in this Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Every sermon approaches the Scripture Readings for the day by explaining what they mean by way of confessional Lutheran hermeneutics and applying them to our lives as Christians in the Church and in the world. 
     
    The Sunday Readings used at Epiphany are from the Church’s historic lectionary, or calendar of readings, that has been in place for nearly 1,000 years.  We use this lectionary because we are an historic Church and we acknowledge the value of what has been handed down to us.  We use this as a way of obeying the Fourth Commandment, honoring our fathers in the faith and trusting their wisdom that assembled this annual cycle of readings.  It also helps with the training of adults and children alike as we come back to the same Readings year after year and learn from them.  We strive for a deep knowledge of key passages of Scripture rather than a limited knowledge of a breadth of Readings.  Though a system like this is neither commanded nor forbidden in Holy Scripture, we voluntarily use it to shape our time together, to ensure that we learn from the whole counsel of God, not just the Pastor’s favorite verses. 
     
    May these sermons be beneficial to you for growth in knowledge of the Word of God and a stronger faith in Jesus Christ, your Savior!  They provided for devotional use and for those who might like to reference them.

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017

    Categories

    All
    1 Corinthians 11:23 32
    1 Corinthians 11:23-32
    1 Kings 19:3-8
    1 Peter 1:3-9
    1 Timothy 5:3-10
    Acts 1:1-11
    Ad Te Levavi
    Advent 1
    Advent 2
    Advent 3
    Advent 4
    All Saints
    Annunciation
    Ascension
    Ash Wednesday
    Baptism Of Our Lord
    Cantate
    Christmas Day
    Christmas Eve
    Christmas Octave
    Commemoration
    Confirmation
    Deliverance From Pestilence
    Easter
    Easter Sunrise
    Easter Vigil
    Ember Wednesday Lent
    Ephesians 5:20-33
    Epiphany
    Epiphany 2
    Epiphany 3
    Epiphany 4
    Epiphany Octave
    Esther 13:9-18
    Exaudi
    Exodus 20:12-24
    Ezekiel 36:23-28
    Funeral
    Gaudete
    Good Friday
    Holy Monday
    Holy Tuesday
    Holy Wednesday
    Holy Week
    Invocabit
    Isaiah 62:11 63:7
    Isaiah 62:11 - 63:7
    Jeremiah 11:18-20
    Joel 2:12 19
    Joel 2:12-19
    John 10:11-16
    John 10:22-38
    John 1:1 14
    John 1:1-14
    John 1:19 28
    John 1:19-28
    John 12:1-11
    John 12:1-36
    John 1:29 34
    John 1:29-34
    John 13:1-15
    John 14:23 31
    John 14:23-31
    John 15:26-16:4
    John 16:16 22
    John 16:16-22
    John 16:23 33
    John 16:5 15
    John 16:5-15
    John 19:28
    John 20:1 18
    John 20:1-18
    John 2:1 11
    John 2:1-11
    John 3:1 17
    John 3:1-17
    John 4:46 54
    John 4:46-54
    John 5:24-29
    John 6:1 15
    John 6:1-15
    John 6:60-69
    John 8:42 59
    John 8:42-59
    John 8:46-59
    John 9
    Jubilate
    Judica
    Katharina Von Bora Luther
    Laetare
    Last Sunday
    Lent
    Lent Midweek
    Leviticus 19:1-19
    Luke 10:23 37
    Luke 10:23-37
    Luke 11:14 28
    Luke 11:14-28
    Luke 12:13 21
    Luke 12:13-21
    Luke 1:26-38
    Luke 1:39-56
    Luke 14:1-11
    Luke 14:15 24
    Luke 14:15-24
    Luke 15:1-10
    Luke 15:11-32
    Luke 1:57-80
    Luke 16:1 13
    Luke 16:1-13
    Luke 16:19 31
    Luke 16:19-31
    Luke 17:11 19
    Luke 17:11-19
    Luke 18:31 43
    Luke 18:31-43
    Luke 18:9 14
    Luke 18:9-14
    Luke 19:41 48
    Luke 19:41-48
    Luke 2:1 20
    Luke 2:1-20
    Luke 21:25 36
    Luke 21:25-36
    Luke 2:21
    Luke 2:22-32
    Luke 2:22 40
    Luke 2:22-40
    Luke 2:41-52
    Luke 5:1-11
    Luke 6:36 42
    Luke 6:36-42
    Luke 7:36-50
    Luke 8:4 15
    Luke 8:4-15
    Mark 10:17-22
    Mark 14:1-15:46
    Mark 16:1 8
    Mark 16:1-8
    Mark 7:31 37
    Mark 7:31-37
    Mark 8:1 9
    Mark 8:1-9
    Matthew 10:26-33
    Matthew 11:12 15
    Matthew 11:12-15
    Matthew 11:16-24
    Matthew 11:2 10
    Matthew 11:2-10
    Matthew 12:38-50
    Matthew 15:1-20
    Matthew 15:21 28
    Matthew 15:21-28
    Matthew 17:1 9
    Matthew 17:1-9
    Matthew 18:21 35
    Matthew 18:21-35
    Matthew 20:1 16
    Matthew 20:1-16
    Matthew 20:17-28
    Matthew 2:1 12
    Matthew 2:1-12
    Matthew 21:1 9
    Matthew 21:1-9
    Matthew 22:1 14
    Matthew 22:1-14
    Matthew 24:15 28
    Matthew 24:15-28
    Matthew 25:1 13
    Matthew 25:1-13
    Matthew 25:31 46
    Matthew 25:31-46
    Matthew 28:1 10
    Matthew 28:1-10
    Matthew 4:1 11
    Matthew 4:1-11
    Matthew 5:17 26
    Matthew 5:17-26
    Matthew 6:16-21
    Matthew 6:24 34
    Matthew 6:24-34
    Matthew 7:15 23
    Matthew 7:15-23
    Matthew 8:1-13
    Matthew 8:23-27
    Matthew 9:1 8
    Matthew 9:1-8
    Maundy Thursday
    Michaelmas 1
    Michaelmas 2
    Michaelmas 3
    Michaelmas 4
    Michaelmas 7
    Michaelmas 8
    Michaelmas 9
    Most Holy Name Of Jesus
    Nativity Of John The Baptist
    Oculi
    Palmarum
    Palm Sunday
    Passiontide
    Pentecost
    Pentecost 21B
    Philippians 2:5-11
    Populus Zion
    Presentation Of The Augsburg Confession
    Psalm 118
    Psalm 119:73-80
    Psalm 91
    Purification BVM
    Quinquagesima
    Reformation
    Reminiscere
    Revelation 12:7-12
    Revelation 7:9 17
    Revelation 7:9-17
    Rev. Jeffrey Miskus
    Rogate
    Romans 5:6-11
    Rorate Coeli
    Second Last Sunday
    Second-Last Sunday
    Septuagesima
    Seven Last Words
    Sexagesima
    St. John Passion
    St. Mary Magdalene
    St. Matthew Passion
    St Michael And All Angels
    St Titus
    Tenebrae
    Thanksgiving
    Third Last Sunday
    Third-Last Sunday
    Titus 1:1-9
    Transfiguration
    Tre Ore
    Triduum
    Trinity
    Trinity 1
    Trinity 10
    Trinity 11
    Trinity 12
    Trinity 13
    Trinity 14
    Trinity 15
    Trinity 17
    Trinity 19
    Trinity 2
    Trinity 20
    Trinity 21
    Trinity 22
    Trinity 25
    Trinity 26
    Trinity 27
    Trinity 3
    Trinity 4
    Trinity 5
    Trinity 6
    Trinity 7
    Trinity 8
    Trinity 9
    Trintiy 7
    Vicar Burgdorf
    Visitation Of The BVM
    Wedding

    RSS Feed

Location

Saved by God's Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

Contact Us

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Beliefs
    • Our History
    • Our Pastor
    • 25th Anniversary
    • Photo Gallery
    • Contact Us
  • Worship
    • The Singing Church
  • Resources
    • Food Pantry
    • Related Sites
  • Publications
    • Bulletins
    • Sermons
    • Monthly Newsletter
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Give Online