Palm Sunday Wedding March

Yes, folks, it was Palm Sunday last Sunday. And what a Sunday it was. Now, as you may have noticed, you who were there, that I spoke at length about confirmation being compared with a marriage. And the longer I think about it, the better a comparison it is. Not just are you in front of everyone in church, wearing a white dress, making vows, but also something else happens.

Your vows that you make are vows that you make until death. That is some seriousness. When else do you make vows until death? Like, never, that's when. You only vow lifelong commitment to your spouse, and to God. But what does it mean to be faithful until death? Oh sure, you may think that it means one thing - you think that it means that you will be faitful to your spouse, to remain married to them, until death does you part. But that can, and does, lead to its own set of problems. If you have the idea that your marriage is just a matter of remaining technically in the marriage, then you have a different idea of your level of commitment.

It's the same with the perception of confirmation, and church membership. We have some pretty serious things to say about your church membership. We drag thirteen-year-olds out in front of everyone in the congregation, and have them swear lifelong alleigence to their church, and to God Almighty. But what does it mean to have a lifelong commitment, what does it mean to not have anything but death divide you from this congregation? Is it as simple as imagining someone putting a gun to your head and threatening to pull the trigger if you admit your Christianity? It's a common enough scenario in our heads, but it's not exactly likely in Saskatchewan, is it? Who's gonna run up to you and threated to murder you over your Christianity? More than likely nobody. But something else will happen, something else that we don't necessarily consider as part of the issue.

It's a life or death issue, absolutely. But we feel about it as just that, living and dying. But we don't think about giving up part of our lives while it's going on. And that's what's at issue. You may be prepared to go up in front of everyone, and swear to never forsake Jesus until death, and mean it, but will you be prepared to give up your life on a weekly basis? Odds are, that's more difficult.

How quickly we all forget what it means to die for someone. We think it means one action, one life or death decision, pushing someone out of the way of a car, shoving them away from a sniper's bullet, jumping on a grenade for them, all that. But that's not all there is. There is also the very real activity of each day giving up minutes of your life for someone or something that you love. In a marriage, what does that look like? It looks like passing over the remote control and watching income property instead of MMA. Or MMA instead of income property. It means going out for sushi instead of indian food. Or indian food instead of sushi. It means not selfishly insisting on your own way (which love apparently doesn't do), but saying to the one whom you love "I love you enough to die for you. Let me give you minutes of my time."

And yes, that's what church is like, too. We think it's all about the one big moment, the life or death persecution, but it's probably not. It's, instead, more than likely about priorities. It's about saying perhaps every day 'How important is this to me, really? Would I die for it? Then why not give it a few moments right now. Usually, for us in Canada, that's much more of an issue.