Trevor Bron - Do you ever get tired of going to weddings, being in weddings, hearing about weddings? Over the past 15 or so years I have officiated over 300 weddings. Conducting a wedding ceremony is an amazing honor and I have to say that I think it is better than simply attending a wedding if for no other reason than I have never had a bad seat. I always have the best view of the couple. I always hear what is being said and I am one of the first people to see the Bride as she walks down the aisle.
In all of those weddings I have never noticed a Bride with a stain on her dress. There has never been an unfortunate accident with wine, ketchup or errant make-up. It really is quite remarkable. Or maybe what is even more remarkable is that the stains have happened but through quick thinking and secret home remedies the stains were successfully removed.
In all of those weddings I also never noticed a wrinkle in a dress. While I am sure that great efforts are made to ensure that there are no wrinkles, it occurs to me that I have not noticed a wrinkle because unlike a stain they are less obvious. I am not prone to look for those types things.
In one of the most misinterpreted passages of the Bible, Ephesians 5: 21-33 teaches us a message about the Church. The analogy of marriage is used to teach us what the Church is like. All too often however, this passage is used to teach us about marriage and that the Church is like marriage. This simply is not the case. Marriage is like the Church, not the other way around. And from these remarkable verses we can learn some things about the complicated relationships between men and women but more importantly we can learn about Bride of Christ, the Church!
What we learn is that the Church radiant is at her best when she is without. We learn that her radiance comes from her natural beauty instilled in her by Christ. And we are to make sure she remains naturally beautiful, radiant.
The Church is at her best when she is without stain, wrinkle, blemish or blame. (All of this is found in verse 27). The stain is the obvious. The wrinkle is the subtle. The blemish is the ugly and the blame is the condemnation.
You and I are the Church. We are the Bride and Jesus is the Groom. There will come a day when His Bride is presented to Him. He will look upon us and we will be without stain, wrinkle, blemish or blame. Until that day let us work to be that Church. To rise up and be that Church. To be radiant. To be without.
