Marriage on Cup Final Day

What do you do when your local team is playing in the Cup Final at Wembley on the very day at the very hour you have organised your wedding. This address was to cheer up all those in the congregation who were missing the match. The men actually went out of the church smiling. The names in RED were the Newcastle United Team players that day.

Welcome all of you to the marriage between D and D.

May I invite you all to sit back and relax, especially those who have worked so hard to make this day a success.

I would just like to say to you, words that were said to me many years ago, on my wedding day, which were:-

“Just relax and make the most of every precious moment!” And I can still to this day remember it all.

So please don’t hurry the day away, enjoy every single minute, all of you.

It’s a very special day today, not only for D and D, but also for thousands of Newcastle football fans in the North-East of England, whose team play in the cup final today

We can learn a lot about marriage from football.

In fact today we gather here to pray that D and D, from this moment of their marriage together, will both work as a team, keeping their eyes focussed ahead, without dwelling too much on any mistakes they might make.

They must both aim for a common goal, remembering not to put a foot over the line.

I pray that they will be given God’s strength and his blessing to play the game by the rules without committing any fouls against each other, right from the kick off today to that moment when the final whistle blows.

I pray that in their commitment to one another, they will find themselves in a league of their own, quite above anything else they’ve ever witnessed before.

A good marriage though must be created, if it is to reach the premier league. A lot of hard work must be done, giving as well as receiving, defending one another, and attacking problems together.

And that’s as far as I am taking the football analogy for today! No more football talk please, for the rest of the day.

It is fairly obvious that D came at great SPEED to be GIVEN away to HAMANNN at the altar today.

She BARTON nice wedding dress, nay a gorgeous wedding dress, you can see the delicate BRADY all round the hem.

Indeed we all take our DABIZAS off to her.

She looks so beautiful DOMI. Does she to you?

(By the way, I sincerely hope you all know the names of ‘The Lads’ who are playing today or you’ll think that I’m a right idiot!)

In the future when she looks back, with three or four KETSBAIA, perhaps some daughters ANDER SON, David and Debbie will SA, “HA did our families come to organize such a wonderful day?”

I spent a lovely evening with D and D the other night.

SHEA- RER- ferred to when she first met .

I was told cHAR- VET met, through a friend. How it wasn’t love at first sight but at second sight!

But that’s SOLANO.

But they seem so in love with one another, don’t they? and so commited, no wonder we pray today that they will both live HARPER LEE ever after. I’m sure that later, you will want to raise a GLASS or two to them, but don’t put too much down the HULLIT, I mean the GULLIT, and remember to focus on them rather than the big match this afternoon,so that their marriage this day will be one HUGHES success.

And GRIFFIN the future they have any minor problems to sort out , I know they are surrounded today by their families and a whole host of close and dear friends who I know will support them, and I hope they can count on me as one of them. Enough of teamwork!

I suppose D and D are sitting here quite nervously, and I am reminded of the story that there was once a very nervous bride, who was very anxious just before the service. She had forgotten everything that had taken place at the rehearsal the day before, and the vicar was trying to reassure her.

“Look all you’ve got to do,” he said, “is come up the AISLE, then go up towards the ALTAR, and then we’ll sing a HYMN. Just remember that, and the rest will fall into place.

As she processed into church, she began muttering,

“AISLE… ALTAR… HYMN”

When she reached the front the bridegroom had disappeared, and who could blame him!

D and D come together today each with their unique gifts and their different characters and personalities, and they will become truly one today, before God in His presence, and we hope that they will come to complement one another in and through those wonderfully different natures.

Sometimes in marriage, some sadly seek to change each other to make their partner into a carbon copy of themselves, or try and base their marriages on what they have known. But each marriage is unique and a journey of discovery in itself.

Marriage is all about not being ‘single’ anymore, but about being joined in union by God, himself.

It’s about WEDLOCK, a holy and blessed union.

It’s not about PADLOCKS or DEADLOCKS.

It’s something open, fresh and free.

Our reading today reminds us of the main ingredient in marriage without which it cannot survive. Rather like the game of football cannot survive without a ball.

This essential ingredient is called LOVE.

The love shown to us by Jesus himself, a sacrificial love.

Love never fails. It will never let you down, if you both keep on giving it, and giving it, and giving it.

Amen.