This is a remarkable coming together set within a weekend of celebration for Courtney and Orjan. We come to rural Sussex from rural Norway and many other places, some less beautiful than this, to see Orjan and Courtney ‘present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God’, to Him and to one another.
It is my privilege to celebrate their love before God and bless their aspirations in the presence of their families and friends joined by their marriage.
They met as they worked together at Schlumberger oil field near Orjan’s home in the little Norwegian town of Os near Bergen. In working together to harvest gifts from below the earth they paved the way for reaping a harvest from heaven, where Christians believe marriage is prepared. Today they welcome the anointing of the Holy Spirit from heaven. Previously as Christians they have each welcomed the anointing of the same Holy Spirit in baptism, confirmation and Holy Communion. Today they seek that anointing to bless their forward journey in life together.
Courtney grew up near here in Tunbridge Wells where she was involved in St John’s. Church, spent time volunteering and was part of the youth group. After studying Geology at the University of Bristol she spent a year studying abroad in California which broadened her vision and led her on to work in oil in Malaysia and then Norway, where she met Orjan who worked at the same company. To quote Courtney on Orjan: ‘Kind and charitable…when we did start dating, I don’t think it took me very long to realise this was the man I wanted to marry. There’s never been anything left unsaid between us to fester, we address issues quickly, partially out of fear that this might take away from our sense of intimacy... Marriage isn’t something either of us wanted to enter into lightly, but see it as the next challenge and commitment to each other’.
Orjan describes himself as being a sports and nutrition fanatic throughout his youth. He joined the military for a year (Norwegian National Service). After that, 13 years ago, he started working for Schlumberger and met Courtney around 6 years ago. I quote Orjan: ‘I’m looking forward to marriage, it’s the love of my life who I want to be with forever. I want our marriage to be our commitment to each other throughout the darkness and light, using communication and honesty’.
Both Courtney and Orjan are inspired by and deeply grateful for the example of their parents’ marriages: Mark and Jodie for 35 years and Nina and Leifgunner for 36 years. As in the first reading they chose, they seek their young love to develop in beauty into that sort of old love, held ‘in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part’.
The couple’s aspirations are also expressed in the scripture they chose from the letter of Saint Paul to the Romans Chapter 12 especially verses 9-13: ‘Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers’.
As Orjan and Courtney join their lives before God today, they seek a special anointing from the Spirit to build more of his outgoing love within their lives.
A Christian marriage is designed to be a beacon of unity in a divided and disarrayed world, a place where God's universal purpose is revealed in the joining of two people of his making.
Christian marriage as a sacrament is a sign of something very beautiful and far reaching - God's purposeful drawing into unity of all things.
Thank the Lord however that Christian sacraments are not just signs but effective signs. Today God promises Orjan and Courtney help to effect the harmony marriage is called to become.
No way in human terms can husband and wife achieve that total love and unity the Bible speaks of. They need - and on their wedding day receive - an open line to the Lord himself, a special account of grace that can be drawn upon when the going gets rough. This is the grace that is given in the sacrament of marriage, something Courtney and Orjan have lacked up to this day and something that will develop in significance according to their faith.
Like many couples before them they will discover that prayers are answered, like "I can't bear with this, Lord, anymore, but please, since you can, you bear with this through me. I can't forgive - you forgive through me. I can't be patient, you be patient in me by the gift of your Spirit."
In this way couples draw on the account opened for them today with the Lord, so to speak. It is always sad to see a husband and wife giving up at a human level when they have the supernatural resources of the sacrament of marriage at hand - if only they had faith, as a sort of cheque book, to draw on this account. St. James is right when he says in Chapter 4v2 of his letter "you do not have because you do not ask".
May Orjan and Courtney not go without God's richest blessings. May their marriage be a truly effective sign of unity in a divided world ‘extending hospitality to strangers’ becoming a shelter to many from the storms of life. May they live to see their children's children and a world growing more into the unity which is God's purpose.
Let’s reflect for a minute or so on God’s word to us before we proceed.
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