Posts tagged “Weddings”

Hot young bride at Immanuel

Posted on February 1st, 2013

I’d heard this story from Immanuel’s oldest members when I arrived, but I didn’t know it was recorded for posterity. The following is from Immanuel’s archives, which we are in the process of digitizing: Elsie C. Herfurth and Paul B. Snyder were married in November [1932].  In passing over the furnace register toward the alter Elsie’s train began to scorch.  Brother Wallace retrieved it before damage was done. I bet Elsie and Paul found many an occasion to recount their fiery marriage ceremony!

Categories: Humor

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Sermo Dei: The Marriage of Jena Pasko and Jeffrey Mammen

Posted on September 1st, 2012

My friends Jeffrey and Jena, I have waited eagerly for this day. The Lord Jesus said, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” That’s ‘mammon’ with an ‘o’, meaning money, wealth, property. Jesus says you cannot serve God and mammon (money, property); but I say unto you that in your marriage, you serve God by serving Mammen (with an ‘e’), your new last name, Jena. I know you’ve been anxiously awaiting this new name. As Baptism washed away sin and stamped a new name, God’s name, on you, so this marriage stamps a new name…

Categories: Sermons

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Sermo Dei: The Marriage of Leslie Bolz and Rev’d Braun Campbell

Posted on August 29th, 2012

Braun and I were sitting at Malek’s Pizza for lunch one day, and after our usual discussion on deep, weighty topics such as specs on the next iPhone and coming video game releases, Braun said, “So I’ve been seeing somebody; her name is Leslie.” And I don’t remember his exact words after that, but the gist of it was, How do you know if you should get married? Not wanting to scare him off, I didn’t share with him what I was thinking, but I will now. It’s the answer of Socrates on whether or not a man should marry. He said: “By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a…

Categories: Sermons

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Sermo Dei: The Marriage of Melissa Hulsey and Steven Pauling

Posted on July 21st, 2012

Rejoice, Gregory and Susan! For God gave you this daughter, you brought her to baptism, and she remains a disciple of Jesus. Rejoice Fred and Barbara! For God gave you this son, you brought him to baptism, and he remains a disciple of Jesus. Rejoice, my friend Steven! For the Word of God says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing.”  Rejoice, dear Melissa! For as a princess you are led before the King, and the LORD has covered you with the robe of righteousness, “as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Melissa and Steven cause a pastor’s heart to rejoice, for when we planned this service together, they asked if they could have the Scripture verses from their Confirmations read…

Categories: Sermons

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Sermo Dei: The Marriage of Karen Maurer and Eric Gorr

Posted on June 29th, 2012

Since Karen is one of the outstanding teachers in our classical school here at Immanuel, I’ll begin with a quotation from a classical thinker, Socrates. On the topic of whether or not a man should marry, Socrates said: “By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.” Eric, today we have gathered to pray that you not become a philosopher! And I am confident that you will not, for more important than all her other virtues, Karen is a faithful, pious woman who trusts in Christ Jesus. But let’s ponder the words of another philosopher, Mark Knopfler, of the Dire Straits, and the composer of the score to the best…

Categories: Sermons

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Do weddings make couples, or families?

Posted on November 25th, 2011

In a recent post I outlined problems in the way Christians view sex and procreation. Russell Moore observes that this is reflected in Christian wedding sermons. One area of needed reformation in our preaching is in wedding sermons. Too many of our weddings, even in the most conservative churches, pretend as though the event is about the formation of a “couple.” The language of older wedding ceremonies, which mention procreation and the children of the union, seem quaint and anti-quarian to our ears. We’re the ones who are odd, however, not our forebears. Marriage is about the formation of a new family. What would happen if our wedding ceremonies were less about a “celebration of the love of Joni and Todd” and more about…

Categories: Theology

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The Marriage of Davin Dumar and Dana Wille

Posted on October 11th, 2011

Note: This wedding took place at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, where the groom is hospitalized for injuries sustained in the war in Afghanistan. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” So spoke the Lord Jesus in the hours before His arrest. His words were not theoretical. He knew that by the next afternoon He would be dead. Dead for His friends – the friends that would abandon Him, deny Him, betray Him. So-called friends that boasted of their faithfulness, but were unfaithful. Today, Davin and Dana, you take vows of faithfulness. And implicit in those vows are these words of our crucified God: “Greater love has no one than this, than to…

Categories: Sermons

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The Marriage of Rebekah Breitbarth and Noah Rogness

Posted on September 28th, 2010

From the wedding ceremony at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Fairmont, MN, on Sept. 4. Absolutely nobody got the line about the keg of Schell’s beer. I should have listened to my wife and taken it out. Oh well. In the late 1960’s there was a terrific TV series called The Prisoner. It starred Patrick McGoohan, who had also been the star of another series called Danger Man; its title in the US was Secret Agent Man, and the theme song became a popular song that you’ve all probably heard. The Prisoner is a kind of sequel to Secret Agent Man, where a former British secret agent is held captive in a village that is a prison. Everybody is assigned a number, and they are…

Categories: Sermons

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The Marriage of Bethany Richeson and Stew Regan

Posted on September 27th, 2010

Homily at the wedding service held September 18, at Immanuel. When a bride and groom get married, they will often thank certain guests for traveling a great distance to come to the wedding. In this case, it is the groom himself who has traversed an ocean, navigated a sea of bureaucratic red tape, sold his possessions, quit his job, and abandoned his native land so this happy day could come about. It is written in the Word of God, “A man shall leave his father and his mother, and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Well, Stew, you seem to have the first part down quite well! And dear Bethany, you know that Scripture compares the Church to…

Categories: Sermons

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The Marriage of Sarah Mellott and Edward Cadagin

Posted on August 12th, 2010

July 31, 2010 Sarah is a thorough and orderly person, which was evident as she planned this wedding. Last night at the rehearsal, I discovered part of Ed’s own thoroughness, as he asked me for a copy of the vows so he could practice them. That always makes a pastor happy — but the truth, Ed, is that the real practice comes after the wedding, when you have to actually put them into practice. I know you will, but I admonish you again to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest those vows, and most of all, pray regularly that God would give you the strength to keep them always. Now you’re the kind of person who likes things laid out plainly, and God’s Law…

Categories: Sermons

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