Today we celebrate and witness the vows of fidelity spoken between Nathan Thompson and Denise Sebasigari.

What an honor it is for me for us to witness the joining of this couple. Your heart has been turned toward God for as long as we have known you and we believe that God has prepared you both for this day and for one another. To the Audience: Join with me in an ancient Jewish blessing upon the bride and groom: We praise you, O God of heaven with pure blessings. May you be praised forever! May you be praised because you have given us joy! Things have turned out better than we had expected, You have shown us your great mercy. We praise you for having mercy on these two children. O Master, give them mercy and safety. May their lives be filled with joy and mercy. As I struggled to come up with some word for this occasion I was reminded of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. The Scripture says, And the LORD God formed a mans body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person. The Hebrew word for man in the story is Adam, the reason he is called Adam, and it sounds like the word for dirt. Some may appreciate this as an appropriate symbol for boys and men, but the idea is that without Gods breath Adam was nothing more than lifeless dirt. So we might say that God was Adams first helper, his first rescuer, the power that breathed life into his lifeless body. And God was Adams first companion. Besides giving him life as an abstract quality, he blessed him with a place, Eden , and a job, caring for the garden. It is interesting to note that the word used to describe the work given to Adam is the same word often used for worship in the Hebrew Bible. The first man was blessed with work, which was also received as worship by the God who had created him. But just as Gods creation of the human being was incomplete when he made the lifeless body of Adam from dust, it was incomplete without a

companion for the man. The Scripture tells us that God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him. We learn from the New Testament that God is not alone, but lives in eternal, joyful, ecstatic companionship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And if we are to be in the image of God, companionship and fellowship with others is the way we must travel. We cannot be fully human and fully alive without this deep cry within us being fulfilled. This tells us that none of us are fully human as God intends for us to be without the companionship of a community, family and friends. It is a second breath of life. It is not good for a person to be alone. So God said, I will make him a companion who will help him. Now, most people use the older English phrase help meet for him instead of companion who will help him. Meet for means appropriate to. Sometimes I hear these two words transformed into one helpmate. And I have even seen it spelled help meat M-E-A-T, God help us! The Hebrew phrase is ezer knegedo which means power equal to or helper suitable for. But in English when we use the word helper we usually think of someone inferior or lower in rank. In Hebrew, however, the word ezer is never used for someone inferior and almost always used to describe God as the one who helps by rescuing Gods people. For example, when Israel against all the odds defeated the superior Philistine armies they commemorated their victory by setting up a stone pillar in honor of Yahweh, the God who had given them victory in war and they called the stone Eben Ezer, meaning Monument Dedicated to our Helper. So, when God said he would make a companion to help Adam, he meant that he would make someone who would represent or re-present God to the man. The helper would represent God to him, just as he would represent God to the helper. So the LORD God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird. He brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and Adam chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, birds, and wild animals. But still there was no companion suitable for him. The Bible story is meant to be

seriously funny at this point as we imagine Adam trying to see if his deepest needs could be met with the owl, the rhino, the zebra or a giraffe! So, the Bible says, the LORD God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. He took one of Adams ribs and closed up the place from which he had taken it. Then, the Hebrew Bible says, the LORD God built a woman from the rib and brought her to Adam. When the man saw her, a spontaneous show of praise to God came out of his lips: At last! She is part of my own flesh and bone! She will be called woman because she was taken out of man, which might be translated, Finally, God, this one is it! Man o man o man! This is woman! That explains, by the way, according to the Bible, why a man would leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two become united as one person. It is no accident, then that Adam named his wife Eve, which means Life Giver, for just as God had breathed a breath of life into his lifeless form, now God had put Eve, the Life Giver into his life and rescued him from loneliness. So, in this story of the first couple each one re-presents God to the other and in their intimacy they re-present God to the world, both now more fully exhibiting the image of God than either could alone. Nathan tells the story of meeting Denise as part of his search for God. In that search he had decided that it would be best for him to be alone. Yet into that aloneness God put Denise. Denise told her grandfather, I have fallen in love with a monk and he doesnt even notice me. But the day came when Nathan noticed her and began to desire her companionship. He prayed, I thought it was just going to be you and me, Lord! Give me fidelity! Today we witness the amazing way that God has answered that prayer. I dont mean to minimize Nathans request at all. Fidelity to God is beautifully expressed in fidelity to the helper he gives you. As I prayed about what to say today, I believe the Lord led me to consider the old Anabaptist tradition of wedding ceremonies. Anabaptists were a persecuted and marginalized group of peace loving Christians which got its start the 16th century. Little survives

of records about their first generations since many died as martyrs. But what the limited records of their wedding services show is that into the nineteenth century wedding vows were most often celebrated as an appendix to the regular Sunday assembly. The couple would come forward in order to hear an admonition by the minister concerning the joys and pitfalls of conjugal life. The text most often chosen was taken from the 8th chapter of the apocryphal Jewish book of Tobit. The story of Tobit is a wonderful tale of a man who dedicated himself to practical acts of charity at great cost to himself. When he became old, poor, and blind he cried out to God for help at the same time that a young girl, Sarah, who had seen seven prospective husbands die, was also crying out for deliverance from the demon that was killing every one of her would be husbands. God sent his Angel Raphael to answer the prayer of both at the same time. Tobit sent his son Tobiah on a quest to recover the family fortune. On the way he finds Sarah and marries her, and breaks the power of the demon in her life. The tale of their wedding night reaches back to the story of Adam and Eve. After they had feasted, Tobiah wanted to go to bed with his bride. So the young womans parents took him to the bedroom When the parents had left and shut the bedroom door, Tobiah got up from the bed and said to Sarah, Stand up, dear wife. We must pray to our Lord and ask him to grant us mercy and deliverance. So she got up, and they began to pray, asking God for deliverance. Tobiah said, We praise you, God of our ancestors. May your name be praised in all generations forever. Let the heavens and all creation praise you forever. You made Adam, and then you made Eve, As his helper and support. And the entire human race has come from them. You said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him. I do not take this woman as my wife for any lustful reason,

But to show my fidelity. Grant us your mercy, And may she and I grow old together. And they both said, Amen, Amen. Then they went to bed and slept together. The story ends with Tobiah being the man God uses to heal his fathers blindness and restore the family fortune. Nathan Hudson Thompson, God wants you to know that he is granting you your prayer for fidelity to him by sending Denise as your helper. She re-presents God to you. God has sent her into your life to rescue you from being alone and so that together you may re-present the light of God in the midst of a wicked, perverse and evil world. There may come times when you feel crowded, burdened or frustrated. Today Denise is dressed in the finest gown she has ever worn and has especially prepared herself for you, but you will wake up some morning and she may have frazzled hair and saggy---pajamas, (you get the picture). The cares of supporting a family may seem heavy, but remember that the way to God is together. A Haitian wise man once said, If you want to go far, you must go together with others. If you want to go fast, you will not get far. Denise Sebasigari, you may have heard from someone that God never gives us more that we can handle. But I dont think that is true at all. The only way we can know God as a Savior and Helper is when we get in over our heads and are forced to cry out to him. There is no test of faith so universally available and so effective as marriage. Marriage is uniquely suited to send us to God, to take us to the cross and reveal our weaknesses. Marriage is also a place to find the resurrection power of God when we come to the end of ourselves. God will send you trials too big for you to handle so that together you can trust him for his help and rescue you out of the darkest times. I encourage you both to ask God to show you the missions to which he is calling you and to accomplish them together relying upon Gods help. Charge:

Hand in Hand you enter marriage, hand in hand you step out in faith. The hand you freely give to each other, is both the strongest and the most tender part of your body. In the years ahead you will need both strength and tenderness. Be firm in your commitment. Don't let your grip become weak. And yet, be flexible as you go through change. Don't let your hold become intolerable. Strength and tenderness, firm commitment and flexibility, of such is a marriage made, hand in hand: Also remember that you don't walk this path alone. Don't be afraid to reach out to others when together you face difficulty. Other hands are there: friends, family, and the church. To accept an outreached hand is not an admission of failure, but an act of faith. For behind us, underneath us, around us all, are the outstretched arms of the Lord. It is into his hand, the hands of God in Jesus Christ, that, above all else, we commit this union of husband and wife. Amen. Pledge: Nathan, will you have Denise to be your wedded wife, to live together in the covenant of faith, hope, and love according to the intention of God for your lives together in Jesus Christ? Will you listen to her inmost thoughts, be considerate and tender in your care of her, and stand by her faithfully in sickness and in health, and, preferring her above all others, accept full responsibility for her in every necessity for as long as you both shall live? Denise, will you have Nathan to be your wedded husband, to live together in the covenant of faith, hope, and love according to the intention of God for your lives together in Jesus Christ? Will you listen to his inmost thoughts, be considerate and tender in your care of him, and stand by him faithfully in sickness and in health, and, preferring him above all others, accept full responsibility for him in every necessity for as long as you both shall live? Exchange of Vows

In the name of Jesus, I ___ take you, ___, to be my (husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, for as long as we both shall live. This is my solemn vow. Lighting of the Unity Candle Denise and Nathan will now light a candle to symbolize the end of their separate existence and the beginning of their new life as one together. The two outside candles have been lighted to represent both your lives in this moment. They are two distinct lights, each capable of going their separate ways. As you join now in marriage, there is a merging of these two lights into one light. This is what the Lord meant when He said, "On this account a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall be one flesh." From now on your thoughts shall be for each other rather than your individual selves. Your plans shall be mutual, your joys and sorrows shall be shared alike. As you each take a candle and together light the center one, you will extinguish your own candles, thus letting the center candle represent the union of your lives into one flesh. As this one light cannot be divided, neither shall your lives be divided but a united testimony in a Christian home. May the radiance of this one light be a testimony of your unity in the Lord Jesus Christ. Exchange of Rings "May I have the rings. Let us pray. Bless, O Lord, the giving and receiving of these rings. May Denise and Nathan abide in Your peace and grow in their knowledge of Your presence through their loving union. May the seamless circle of these rings become the symbol of their endless love and serve to remind them of the holy covenant they have entered into today to be faithful, loving, and kind to each other. Dear God, may they live in Your grace and be forever true to this union. Amen." Groom: "Denise, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

With this ring, I thee wed." Bride: "Nathan, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. With this ring, I thee wed." Pronouncement Because Nathan and Denise have desired each other in marriage, and have witnessed this before God and our gathering, affirming their acceptance of the responsibilities of such a union, and have pledged their love and faith to each other, sealing their vows in the giving and receiving of rings, I do proclaim that they are husband and wife in the sight of God and man. Let all people here and everywhere recognize and respect this holy union, now and forever. Holy Communion As their first act as husband and wife together, Nathan and Denise will now share Holy Communion together. According to the biblical teaching of the priesthood of all believers, in the home they will be priest to one another and to God for one another. Closing Prayer The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his continence upon you, and give you peace. Kiss Nathan, you may now kiss your Bride. Presentation of the Couple: It is now my privilege to introduce to you for the first time, Mr. Nathan and Mrs. Denise Thompson.