"Grafted as One into Christ"
Elizabeth Weigle/Donald Novacek Wedding
St. John 15:4-5, 9
September 18, 2008
Eighteenth Week after Pentecost
James Arthur Vineyards, Raymond, Nebraska
[Jesus said,] 4"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless
you abide in Me. 5"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides
in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do
nothing…. 9As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My
love."
IN NOMINE JESU
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, especially Donnie and Liz, my dear sister,
This text is no ordinary wedding sermon text. Then, again, this is
no ordinary wedding. The brother of the bride is celebrating the Rite
of Holy Matrimony rather than your pastor. The wedding is taking
place outdoors at a vineyard rather than in a church sanctuary. Even
the couple is not ordinary; the groom is marrying after a half of a
century of life, and the bride is being blessed by marrying for the
second time. Please do not misunderstand me: these are not complaints
but merely observations of the unusualness of this wedding this
evening. In fact, I was about to remark about the unusualness of the
bride, my oldest sister. What can I say? Among other things, I can
gladly say that through you, Liz, the Lord has blessed me with the
gifts of the greatest niece and nephew an uncle could ever want. It
is good for us to remember that the Lord Himself acts in ways we do
not expect, coming in human flesh, bleeding and dying on the cross in
our place, for our forgiveness, which He gives to us in His Word as it
is read and proclaimed, and attached to ordinary water and to ordinary
bread and wine.
These words of our Lord in our text came at a most unusual time as
well. He spoke these words to His disciples on Maundy Thursday
evening, the night on which He instituted His Last Supper and was
betrayed. He was about to leave His disciples for the cross. Their
hearts were heavy, for the Lord had prophesied about His death. He
gave them words of comfort, that He would abide in them; He would
always be present with them, for He had given them His very Word, the
same Word which created the world, the same Word which has given us
the holy estate of matrimony, saying through Moses, "Therefore a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they
shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). Our Lord comforts us in and
through His Word. He gives us comfort that, as we abide in Him, He
has promised to abide in us. He makes you this same promise this
evening and always—not just for your wedding but also for your
marriage.
You see, through Holy Matrimony the Lord is taking two branches and
grafting them into one. He who created the branches by a word also
grafts them by a word. He is grafting you two into one branch,
grafting you into the Vine that is Christ the Lord. There is more to
this grafting than just the two of you becoming one, one in each other
and one in the Lord. There are two more branches that must be
included—two branches smaller in stature but equal in importance—the
branches that are Mikayla and David. Not only are you two being
grafted into one couple, but the four of you are being grafted into
one family…one family in Christ and under Christ. You four have all
been branches of the Vine through Holy Baptism. Now you become
members of the same branch, connected to the same Vine, Jesus Christ,
through this holy estate.
For this marital and familial branch named Novacek to grow and
prosper spiritually, it is important that the branch be and remain
firmly rooted, rooted in Christ, the Root of Jesse. As St. Paul
writes, "Remember that you do not support the root, but the root
supports you" (Rom. 11:18b). It is Christ who supports you, doing so
in the Divine Service, giving you His Word and His body and blood,
given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, given in, with,
and under the bread and wine. However, as a branch you wither away if
you make it a point to stay away from the Lord's house. You wither on
account of the sins you have committed and not yet repented, sins you
have committed separately as well as collectively and for which you've
not yet sought the Lord's forgiveness. These are signs of a branch
not bearing fruits, fruits in keeping with repentance, as John the
Baptizer would say. This is true of each and every one of us, for we
all daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment, as long
as we do not repent of our sins. So that we branches would bear
fruit, God the Father, the Vinedresser, prunes us, using as His
pruning shears His Holy Spirit, convicting us in our sins, convicting
us by His Law. This is contrition. This is to bring us to
repentance. This is to turn us away from our sins and toward our
Lord, who earnestly and eagerly desires to grant us His forgiveness.
This is how we grow as branches of the Vine who is Christ: we grow in
the forgiveness of sins. We grow as Christ forgives us and when we
forgive each other. It is through the forgiveness that Christ won on
the tree of the cross that gives us the opportunities to forgive each
other, and you will have many, many opportunities to forgive one
another, for you will surely sin against each other in thought, word,
and deed, just as we all do against the Lord. You will do and say
things that are not God-pleasing and do not lift up one another in
Him. It is imperative, for your marriage and your family to remain
firmly rooted in Christ, to forgive one another—not seven times but
seventy times seven—to confess your sins to one another and to forgive
one another…and to remain in a confessing and forgiving state of
being, for our Lord desires to be forgiving of you…and of me…and of
each of us gathered here this evening. It is also imperative that you
be equally able and willing to extend this same forgiveness to these
children grafted into the family branch, Mikayla and David. They are
continually in need of your forgiveness and of your love for them.
They, as well as each of you, as well as each of us, are continually
in need of hearing that the Lord loves us as well. Therefore, it is
truly good, right, and salutary that you as a family, and we all as
branches of the Vine, come regularly to the Lord's house, to come each
Lord's Day, to be pruned and fed on the Word of God, the Word read and
proclaimed in your hearing, as it is this evening, as well as the Word
who became flesh and dwelt among us, taking our sins with Him to the
cross, where He bled for you and where He died for you, where He won
the forgiveness of your sins and now gives them to you in His Word, in
Holy Baptism (lived daily in the confession and forgiveness of sins),
and in the body and blood of the Lord. There in the Divine Service
you—individually, as a couple, and as a family—are pruned, watered,
and fed, so that He would abide in you, and you in Him, for as the
Father has loved Him, Christ also loves you and desires that you abide
in Him. To this end, He has given you the Holy Spirit to strengthen
your faith as you hear the Word of the Lord.
All of this is most unusual…by the world's standards. But it is God
who has set His standard higher than the world can attain, higher than
you or I can attain. But let not your hearts be afraid. Christ has
achieved and perfected this standard for us, for His Bride, the
Church. So by His grace we get to rely on the merits of our heavenly
Bridegroom who not only died for us but is risen, that we would live
with Him in eternal wedded bliss in heaven. Let us close this
meditation with the words of a very popular hymn sung by the bride of
Christ, the Church:
Chief of sinners though I be,
Jesus shed His blood for me,
Died that I might live on high,
Lives that I might never die.
As the branch is to the vine,
I am His, and He is mine. [LSB 611:1]
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
--
The Rev. Pr. Mark A. Schlamann, Lincoln, NE
Sermons available at http://lcmssermons.com/Schlamann
Catch the NEW "Issues, Etc." at http://www.issuesetc.org
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