Marriage and a sense of humour

I think we can honestly say that V has loved W almost half of her entire life… ever since she saw him at the age of twelve, she was smitten. 

This was a schoolgirl crush she never got over. That’s why she’s here today…and may I say looking very lovely indeed.

It wasn’t until some years later after school, at a club in town, that W, bumped into this ‘little friend V’, whose charms he had been so blind to, even though her eyelashes had fluttered at him for so long. He found that she had grown into a very beautiful young woman.

Then it was then his turn to be smitten, and he fell in love at first sight, so he tells me.

They both swapped numbers and the phone bills soared from that day on.

You can tell when you talk to W, how much he loves everything about V.

I said to him not long ago, ‘What do you most love about this young lady?’

He replied, ‘She makes a nice cup of tea!’

V has not just got married to what we might call a ‘romantic’, but she certainly has found herself a husband with a great sense of humour.

Being married to someone like that myself V, you can take it from me it’s much more fun!

Of course V is already used to humour in her family.

Take for example her mam, C.

She makes no bones about it, W is wonderful, and if ever this marriage should come to nothing, (which it won’t because I’ve done the marriage preparation quite thoroughly and they would have me to answer to if it ever did!!)

But if it should…C says, ‘then W is coming to live with her family, and V is out!

But you know I didn’t have to go into very great detail about ‘how to have a happy marriage’ in those preparation classes, with these two…because V and W just have to look at their respective families to find fine examples of wedded bliss, which has stood the test of time, as in their parents’ and their grandparents’ lives. 

This young couple told me this themselves and seemed very proud to have been set such ‘silver and gold’ examples.

V and W each have been surrounded with the right kind of love, happiness and security which has helped them become the fine young people they are today.

Our prayers today will be that this pattern will be perpetuated when their own family eventually comes along.

But what is that magic ingredient that turns a crush or just a first glance into a love that is ‘EVERLASTING’? Our reading tells us, that love is not just to be expressed in words or speech but in truth and action.

God encourages us to make a deep and lasting commitment to one another; he has commanded it be so.

Tomorrow is what the Christian church calls the Fifth Sunday in Lent.

 It has another name; it’s called Passion Sunday.

Now before you all begin to go ‘Nudge, nudge , wink wink at the word Passion. It’s actually to do with suffering, it’s to do with sacrificial love.

Christians believe that as we approach Easter, and hear its wonderful story unfold we must renew our commitment to love in the way Christ has loved us. God may be calling some of us to do exactly that today.

In our Lent course and bible study at present we’ve been asked to look at a film called ‘The Phone Booth’ and in it, a man has to choose between the woman he loves and his own life. One of them must die. The sniper has his eye trained on them.

The man suddenly plucks up the courage and rushes out of the phone booth, yelling, ‘Take me, save her!’  

This is what Jesus cried out to the world he loved

‘Take ME, save them!’ 

To find that suddenly you love someone even better than you love yourself, and that you want the best for that person is when you know you have it.

It’s my belief that these two have found it in each other already.

But remember marriage isn’t always plain sailing. Circumstances change, and so do we but we must learn to adapt.

Like the old couple who found themselves in bed one night. The wife turned to her husband and whispered,

‘Do you remember when we first got married? Before we went to sleep each night you would give me a kiss. So he kissed her.

A while later she spoke softly a second time,

 ‘Do you remember when we first got married? Before we went to sleep each night you would hold my hand. So he lovingly took hold of her hand.

Then again she whispered to him,

Do you remember when we first got married? Before we went to sleep each night you would nibble my ear?

The old man jumped out of bed, and his wife said, ‘Where are you going?’

He said to her, ‘I’m just going to get my teeth.’

Just remember, Love bears all things. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails, when you’re willing to work at it.

May I be the first to say…

 Mr and Mrs M , may the very obvious love you have found for one other never ever diminish, but grow deeper and richer and fuller in the years that lie ahead, now that you are husband and wife.

God bless you both.

Amen