Montag, 5. September 2011

A wedding sermon on Matthew 19:26

Wedding-Sermon on Matthew 19:26 "With God everything is possible".

I removed the names of the couple and the city and country they met to protect their privacy.
But I can reveal that someone put 42,- Euros in the collect - you'll see, why.


Dear Y, dear Z,
dear relatives and friends,

if we look at our life, we have the notion we „made“ it.
Our mothers gave birth to us,
our parents brought us up,
supported us, helped us discover and develop our talents.
But at a certain age or stage we start to take over from them.
We decide not to take piano lessons any more.
We decide that math is fun and history is boring.
We find friends which influence us,
develop a style, like a certain kind of music and so on.
And one day we find out what we'd like to be,
we'd study, lets say, biology.
We meet someone we really like,
someone who is very special, we fall in love, we marry.
We find a good job we're satisfied with,
we have a flat, or a house and a garden, and so on ...

If we look back at our life it often seems to us,
that we made all these steps deliberately.
They were all our decisions.
We „made“ our life.
So it seems.
But I think, quite the opposite is the case.
In truth, we don't make our life so much
as we are kind of „made by life“.
Chances develop, possibillities emerge
that we didn't think of before,
and as they stand before us,
they seem quite interesting,
or we just fancy that idea, and we do it.

There's a book by Douglas Adams,
"The hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy".
I don't know if you know it,
it surely is not a must-read,
anyway,
in these book the two main characters
are thrown out of a starship into outer space.
And as space is so incredible vast and empty,
the chance that they get rescued is, as the book states it,
two to the power of two hundred and sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and nine to one against,
which, by coincidence, is also a telephone number
of an Islington flat.
Considering this number (and the facts),
it's impossible that these two get rescued.
But the book says, no, it's not impossible,
it's just very, very improbable.
There is an ever so tiny possibility.
And so they get rescued - and the book continues.

The chance, that two people meet
who are meant for each other,
is not as low as two to the power of two hundred and sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and nine to one against.
But it's still so little that we often consider it as „coincidence“ or „luck“ when it happens.

For example, who would have thought
that a student, newly arrived at M
and overwhelmed by the city
and quite at her wits end where to stay and how to find friends, sitting in the office of a professor who's out for lunch
and who allowed her to use his computer
to finally contact her parents and friends
and who is quite irritated, to say the least,
about a young man popping in on search of this professor - who would have thought that this student
and this young man would sit together today
in the minster of Riddagshausen?
The fact that you do is very, very improbable.
Some might say: Coincidence.
Others, with a more fatalistic concept of life, might say: Destiny.
You say:
With God everything is possible.
Of these three I find yours is the most charming concept.

Life often is disappointing.
Thinks don't work out as they should,
as we expected them to work out.
We don't always get what we want
or what we think we deserved.
We get hurt - in a physical way,
and also hurt by people we thought were friends.
If one experiences this,
one can get the feeling of life as a malicious power
that stands against him.
But you don't regard the deficiencies,
you see the possibilities life offers to you.
For you, a glass is not half empty, it's half full.
That's a very special gift of yours.
And it sure is more than an attitude.
You don't get to see life that way by thinking about it.
But by experiencing that there are often, if not always
people who mean well.
Who are helpful.
Who prove themselves as friends.
Like that young man that popped into the professor's office.
He proved extremely helpful to the student
by helping her find a room,
by introducing her to his friends,
by showing her the beauty of M,
introducing her to the way of life in his home country.
You two got friends, you fell in love,
and now, after all, you're here,
at a very improbable, but also a very perfect spot.

With God everything is possible.
God reaches out to us through people who mean well,
who are helpful and friendly.
Those who were and are such people in your life
are gathered here today.
God unites us in spite of all differences in denomination or religion,
and so gives us the chance to offer each other possibilities. Mistakes are being made,
plans have to be altered,
work has to be re-done.
That's annoying.
Exhausting.
Disappointing.

You say: it's a possibility.
And this helps you see the advantages of a new situation,
it helps you see the chances it offers, the beauty.
It makes you feel Gods presence in your life.
And by the way you look at life,
you change the views and opinions of others.
You help them see what you see:
The possibilities. The beauty.

My wish for you is that you may always look at life that way.
And that you always look at each other that way.
That you may see not so much each other's mistakes,
but each other's possibilities,
not so much the flaws and failures,
but each other's beauty.

I wish you that the love of you family
and the help and sympathy of your friends
may accompany you on your path of life together
and that you always feel confident:
With God everything is possible.
Amen.