February was my month again to submit an article to the local newspaper on behalf of the ministerial. It includes some excerpts from my “sermon” from Patrick & Liz’s wedding. Enjoy.

It was an unconventional wedding. We had gathered in mid-January on a frigid Ottawa Saturday afternoon. Guests and attendants were coming from many different places and hadn’t been able to spend much time together before the actual wedding day. The couple met before hand to take photos. Contemporary weddings are often void of many of the rituals and images that were once viewed as normal, so maybe now the convention is to have a non-traditional wedding.
I was honoured to have been asked to officiate at this wedding. Knowing that the guests would be coming from a variety of religious traditions and faith experiences, I wanted to be careful not to overwhelm anyone with overly spiritual language or excessive Biblical imagery. However, I had been given the freedom to preach “the way I normally do, just shorter.”
I was surprised by the number and style of comments I received. Some of the “churchie” folk complimented me on my “pleasant homily,” despite the lack of pulpit, crosses or ornamentation in that log cabin chapel. At the other end of the spectrum, one girl told me that she liked my sermon because it was funny and it “wasn’t too religious,” despite the numerous references to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and that it was centered on a key Biblical text.
Since this week’s Gazette comes out on Valentines Day, I felt it might be appropriate to share some of the thoughts from my wedding reflection.
Throughout history, humans have set out to explain why we should love, what it feels like to love and to be loved, what love actually is, and where it comes from. There is no more frequent subject in music, poetry or drama. Yet all these creative expressions put together have not been able to encapsulate what love is. The technical definition of love, the rational understanding of love, wouldn’t leave room for many of these notions. Love is an emotion - an affection. According to the scientific ways of looking at things, love is merely the result of a chain of chemical reactions within the body that set off a series of electrical impulses. I don’t know about you, but for me, that description is simply inadequate.
With all the books I read, songs I listened to and movies I watched, I still wasn’t prepared for love. In fact, I thought that I was too rational to be swept up in love’s games. I thought that I was far too civilized and mature to ever use cutesy nicknames with my girlfriend, and if I did, that would surely stop when I got married. The unfortunate ones who have seen my honey-bunny and I together know that I was wrong. Just like the scientific definition of love, my preconceptions were inadequate. Love is not rational or predictable, and so it cannot be approached solely with routine and formulas.
Students of history will know that the image of an angry, vengeful God has been used to keep people fearful and obedient; parents with children, teachers with students, church leaders with their congregations and government authorities with their citizens. This image has also been used to justify military aggression and the brutality of war.
Now some of you may be suspecting that this is where I talk about God so that you’ll think about love in a more divine way. However, I want us, in our reflection of love, to re-envision who God is. “Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Isn’t that a nice image of God? So much better than the image of a God who blesses self-righteous people for being holier than everyone else or the God who justifies unnecessary wars. God is love, plain and simple. May we, God’s creation, be people of love as well.