I love gay weddings

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:7

          I was at a rehearsal dinner last night for a wedding I am going to officiate at today. I knew virtually no one except for the grooms. We sat with a very pleasant couple and as often happens with me, the subject gravitates to religion and spirituality. This couple presented themselves as a mixed marriage, he Roman Catholic, she Lutheran. The same situation as the grooms in fact. As we get older I think we begin to realize what the really important stuff of life is. Consequently our image of what religion is (or is not) changes.

          No matter what restrictions a religion places on it's faithful, the overriding rule and the foundation of all religions is love. This passage is probably on of the most famous and easily quoted in Scripture for that very reason.

          But we begin to think that religion is all about the rules. Had this been a Roman Catholic wedding, three quarters of the guests would not be welcome for Communion even if they identified themselves as Christian and lived exemplary lives. At one time, not very long ago, even had the couple been heterosexual there would not be a Catholic wedding become one spouse was not Roman Catholic.  As it is, the fact that there are two grooms excludes them from a whole variety of churches that would very likely deny them outright or try to stone them. 

           This is sort of where I come in. With no particular allegiance to any formal religion*, I lean heavily on the aspect of love in a rather conservative way. I believe strongly in the two great commandments and I believe love is the foundation and arbiter of all decisions. Here we have a couple who have been together for 20+ years. The have lived in a committed, monogamous relationship and live out the Gospel message in the lives they lead.  Committed, loving, monogamous? I think that's pretty conservative.  So there I will be, later today, leading a ceremony blessing the commitment of these two souls who have found true love in each other and want nothing more than to express such in front of witnesses, family and friends alike. They are choosing to make legal, what has been a de-facto marriage for two decades.  What a joyous celebration of love. 

            These two guys exemplify today's passage and I am sure God will be smiling even more than I will. Mazel Tov!

* Although I am formally an Episcopalian and they would welcome two grooms - if at least one of them were of the Episcopal faith.

But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.