At the beginning of August out of the blue I was delighted to receive the following email.

"Hello Father Reynish,

                                   I hope you don't mind my sending you an email.  I would love to know are you the same Rev'd David Reynish who used to be at St. Botolph's Church in Boston in 1979, if you are that's wonderful.  I just wanted to let you know that my husband Les and I are renewing our wedding vows next year on the 28th March 2009 (you married us on the 24th March 1979)."

I was able to write back to Karen, after all these years, and confirm that I was indeed curate of Boston in the late 1970s.  '"There's only One Rev'd David Reynish" and I am he'!  Karen kindly then forwarded a couple of wedding photos and, lo and behold there was a thin, brown haired young curate standing at the chancel step of Boston Stump as the happy couple signed the marriage register.

Marriage is so important and from Genesis to Revelation the Bible shows a consistent interest in it.  The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis informs us that marriage is something intrinsic to the divine plan.  Alas, we only have to turn a few pages in the Old Testament to find people diverging from the ideal in one way or another.  The first three kings of Israel - Saul, David and Solomon were hardly paragons of the monogamous ideal and scripture refers to their polygamy with disapproval.

Yet this erosion of the ideal did not go unchallenged.  God raised up a great prophet Hosea to tell people how far some of them had fallen from the ideal.  Hosea was a man who unfortunately had a deeply unhappy marriage.  His wife Gomer was constantly unfaithful to him.  However, instead of divorcing her, Hosea believed that God commanded him to take her back.  He came to realise that his marriage reflected God's dealings with his chosen people - Israel.

What did Jesus have to say on the subject of marriage?  Well the answer is - quite a lot.  It is not without significance that Jesus chose to perform his premier miracle at a wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, when he turned water into wine thus bringing to the bride and groom and all the wedding guests much happiness.

When Jesus was asked - "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?"  he responded, as he so often did by answering a question with a question.  "What did Moses command?"  "Well Moses said it was O.K."
"Moses may have said it was O.K.", replied Jesus "but from the beginning it was not so."  The Lord then went on to set out the Genesis ideal adding the words we use at each and every Christian marriage - "Those whom God hath joined together, let no one split asunder."

Here our Blessed Lord is quite specific in upholding the ideal.  Alas, the history of the Christian Church, no less than the history of Israel before it, is one long story of attempts to beat the rules, to evade the ideal.  That is why the insight of St. Paul is so important.  His words from his First Letter to the Corinthians about "faith, hope and love" are often read at Christian marriage ceremonies.  Elsewhere in his writings he recognises that marriage signifies "the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his church".  Just as Hosea in the Old Testament recognised God's relationship with Israel as being like a marriage to his faithless wife, so too St. Paul saw clearly that the Church is the bride of Christ.
Is she faithful?  No!
Is she lovely to behold?  Not really!
Does she love him?  Sometimes, but so often in a half-hearted sort of a way!
Will he forsake her for another?  Never, Never, Never!!! for she is his wife and He will be ever loving for - of those three things that will last for ever - ìfaith, hope and love, the greatest of these is loveî.

So, when reading the Bible we clearly see that in marriage we haven't got a man-made institution whose rules and ideals we can alter to fit in with us, we have nothing less than an image of Christ and his church.  The Lord remains faithful to his bride "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health".

It would be lovely if I were to receive out of the blue similar emails to the one above in 2038, when I shall be well into my 80s, from the many couples that I have the joy and privilege of joining as one this year.  Emails telling me that they are about to renew their marriage vows and seek again God's blessing upon their union as they celebrate their Peal Wedding anniversaries.

So God bless you Karen and Les and God Bless all who have made their sacred and binding marriage vows - "Till death us do part".

Every Blessing,

Father David