There is no more appropriate place for holy matrimony to begin and to continue than the Liturgy of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament. For that is where your life is found in both body and soul. And that is where husband and wife are recreated in the Image and Likeness of Christ Jesus and His Bride, the Church, and united to Him and to each other in His Cross and Resurrection. Thus are you launched from this Feast of His Body and Blood, upon the waters of Holy Baptism, aboard the Holy Ark of His Christian Church — to weather the storms of this body and life on earth by His grace alone, through faith in His Word alone, unto the Life everlasting. For how else shall you believe in Him, pray to Him, or live in Him, except by the preaching and hearing of His Word.
That is likewise the case for the disciples in this Holy Gospel. They’re in the Boat where Jesus has put them, making their way across the sea according to His Word. They’re doing what He’s given them to do, in the place where He has called them to be. And yet, for all that, the way is difficult, exhausting, and stressful. Indeed, they’ve been out there, hard at it, for most of the night already; and even now, in the early pre-dawn hours of the morning, they’ve still got a long ways to go.
So, then, as you also go about your own callings and stations in life — in your marriage, home, and family — do not be dismayed or despair, though you are tried and tested in various ways. Not that you’re always where you ought to be and doing what you ought to do! But even on your best day, it is still the case that life can be very hard. Your hand is on the tiller, your shoulder to the plow, your nose to the grindstone, but still it may seem that you’re doing no good and going nowhere.
Does it not appear to you and all the world that you are on your own, that Jesus is not with you, even when you’re following the path on which the Lord Himself has set you? Your own little boat on the water and even the Great Boat of the Church, the Holy Ark of Christendom, are tormented by the waves and tossed about by strong, persistent headwinds. Your progress is slow and hard, your destination remains distant and elusive. You’re tired and worn out, maybe ready to give up.
In truth, the Lord has not forgotten about you, not once, not ever, not even for a little while. Nor has He left you to fend for yourself. His Word attends you, for one thing, and it remains sure and certain, come hell or high water against you. He has provided the boat, and He preserves it for you, even as the waves that trouble you uphold the boat, and you in it, through the long dark night.
But there is more to it than all that. It’s not as though the Lord has just left you with supplies for the journey while He’s gone away and left you alone. I know that it can feel like that, but not so. He has gone up to the Father whence He came — in being lifted up as a Sacrifice upon the Cross, and in His Resurrection from the dead and His Ascension to the Right Hand of God — yet, in all this He does not leave you or forsake you. For He fills all things and upholds them with His own Flesh and Blood, even as He contains all things and preserves them by His Word and Holy Spirit.
He has gone to the Father by His Cross and Resurrection, not to leave you, but to open up the way for you, and to bring you to His God and Father in Himself, in His own Body, crucified and risen.
He has gone up the mountain to pray as the beloved Son who relies upon His Father in all things; as the true Man who lives by faith and calls on the Name of the Lord; and as your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God, in order to make intercession for you, and to prepare a place for you within the household and family of God, as a member of His own Body and Bride, the Church, and so also as a son or daughter of His own God and Father in heaven. Just as Moreah becomes Ariksander's wife on this day, and therefore also my daughter, so have you become, by the Word and Spirit of God, a member of the Bride of Christ and a son or daughter of His God and Father.
As the Lord Jesus thus bring you to the Father in Himself, He is no less with you on your journey. He comes in the flesh and draws near to you in the midst of the chaos and deep darkness of sin and death in this fallen and perishing world. As the Father spoke His Word to create all things out of nothing, to bring forth Light out of the darkness, and to bring forth Life in His own Image, so does the same Word of the Father come to you in the Ministry of the Gospel in order to save you. From heaven He has come — and He still comes — to seek you out and love you as His Bride.
He comes by ways and means that are in some respects surprising and perhaps even suspicious, unexpected on the basis of your prior knowledge and past experience, and so incomprehensible. He plants His footsteps on the sea and comes to you upon the water; and not by the water only, but by the water with His Word and Spirit, and with His holy and precious Blood poured out for you.
Not only that, but He comes to you, cares for you, and serves you through the neighbors He has set beside you in this body and life, in this poor life of labor: Pastors and teachers; brothers and sisters in Christ; pilots and sailors, engineers and auto mechanics; doctors and dentists, nurses and hygienists; and, not least of all, your father and mother, your siblings, and your husband or wife. So are you surrounded on this day, Ariksander and Moreah, with your family, friends, and fellow Christians, even as the Lord in His mercy, by His Word and Holy Spirit, gives you to each other.
In all of these tangible ways and means of His grace, these agents and masks of His mercy, He is not a ghost, a disembodied spirit, a lost soul wandering the depths in search of peace. No, He is the very Word of God in the Flesh, by whom, through whom, and for whom all things have been made and exist. He is the Lord, your Savior and God, who was crucified for your sins, who is risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever as your Righteousness and Holiness and eternal Life.
Take courage, and do not be afraid. He is with you in the Flesh, a very present help in every kind of trouble. He is not here to haunt you, but to deliver you from every evil of body and soul. He can and will do it. He is the One who has already passed through the gates of death on your behalf, whose bodily Resurrection is the dawning of the beautiful New Morning of the eternal Eighth Day.
Proceed, then, at His Word. Continue in the way He sets before you. Trust and do what He says, even when your reason and all your senses defy and contradict the Truth of His Word. Honor your parents, love your siblings, cling to your spouse, and care for your children in the faith of Christ.
All of that, of course, is easier said than done. I get that it’s hard. If you’re like the disciples, your life in this world is a mixed bag of mixed emotions. You’re pushed and pulled this way and that, you’re torn between doubt and faith, between the fear of death and the fear of the Lord. You want to believe, and by God’s grace you do fear, love, and trust in Him. But God help your unbelief!
Do you not find an example of your own perils and predicaments in Peter? He tries and tests the Lord, and he begins with such boldness and confidence when he climbs out of the boat onto the wild water, only to sink into doubt and descend into fear. It’s not the last time, either, that Peter will rush forward only to fail miserably. Peter the Rock often seems more like a tossing wave!
And are you really any better? Different, no doubt, in personality and temperament, but no better. You’re proud when you ought to fear the Lord, and afraid when you ought to be courageous. You step out in bold confidence, but then you’re easily overcome by the trials and tribulations of life. The first step is the one you believe in, but the second one might be profound.
The plain and simple fact is that you will not make it to Jesus on your own, no matter how sincere and well-intentioned you may be, and no matter how hard you may try. Take your eyes off Him — in order to look to yourself or to look anywhere else for help — and you’re going to sink. You cannot save yourself. To whatever extent your faith in Christ falls short and fails, so will you.
But do not doubt His Word and promises, even when hell and high water assault you on all sides. No matter how hard things may get, no matter how daunting your obligations and responsibilities may be, and no matter how many the overwhelming obstacles that threaten to capsize your boat, the Word of the Lord remains sure and certain for you within His Church and in your vocations.
It is the Way of the Cross that He has set you upon — by His preaching and Baptism of repentance, and in all your callings and stations in life, whether as husband or wife, married or unmarried, with or without children. And though it feels like the problem, that Cross is the Lord’s own solution. By it He brings you through death and the grave into His Resurrection and His Life everlasting.
It’s not a game that God is playing with you. It’s not a sadistic maze that you must navigate. It is the Cross of Christ, which puts you to death in order to save you. That is why the relentless wind assaults you, and why the wild waves surround you and overwhelm you; for not only must they obey the Lord’s voice, but they are constrained to serve His divine purposes. Thus do you drown and you die in the depths of the sea, in order to arise and emerge, a new creature in Christ.
That is true with all the joys and sorrows of marriage and family in this fallen and perishing world. The good and happy times are surely God’s gift of grace; but so are the difficult and sorrowful times, as well. You pledge yourself to each other, Ariksander and Moreah, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, in the confidence that God the Lord has pledged Himself to you in Christ Jesus. By the way of His Cross, in all the ups and downs of this body and life, your heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, cleanses you inside and out with the waters of your Holy Baptism, and He adorns you in the white wedding gown of His own perfect Righteousness.
Now, to be sure, it is not comfortable or pleasant to bear the Cross, to be crucified, put to death, and buried — as you are confronted by your sins, your shortcomings and failures, out there on the waves with the wind whipping your face and tossing you around. Caught in the heart of the storm, you know that you must die entirely to yourself and to all your own self-reliance. If you are going to be saved, then you must have a Savior; and there is only One of those, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do not suppose that you will ascend into the heavens to bring Him down; nor that you will descend into the depths to raise Him up. You cannot do it, but neither do you need to. For this Word of God is near you. He has drawn near in the Flesh, and He stands upon the waves before you.
So it is that, by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, you are taught to cry out for mercy, and to call upon the Name of the Lord. “Kyrie, eleison!” “Lord, save me!”
In this respect, St. Peter is a beautiful example for you. He is brought to the point of doing what Jesus has already and always been doing for you and all His people; that is, he is brought to prayer. And as Peter prays to the One who ever lives to pray and intercede for him — to his merciful and great High Priest — so does the same Lord Jesus Christ immediately act. St. Peter’s prayer is heard and answered. And so is yours. For whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.
The Lord Jesus stretches out His hands to save you. He takes hold of you and gathers you to Himself in both body and soul. He preaches repentance and faith, that you not doubt but trust in Him, and He restores you to the Boat of His Church, in which the wind stops: To the Boat which is also His own dearly-beloved Bride, made beautiful by His love for her, by the bestowal of His royal Righteousness upon her through His Word of the Gospel, by which you also have such peace and rest and quietness as this world neither knows nor can give. Oh, yes, the world still rages all around you, fierce and furious. But here in the Boat with Jesus and His disciples, you are at peace; and here you are safe, because here your sins are all forgiven by the Word and work of His Gospel.
It is to this Church, and to her life in and with Christ Jesus, that every human marriage points. Not that any of us gets it just right or achieves it on our own in this body and life, but that the Lord remains forever faithful, ever true. And so it is that every Christian husband and wife are given to find and receive the life to which they are called within the Body and Bride of Christ Jesus.
Here then, in the Boat, you worship Him, the Son of God — in His Word — and in His Body of flesh and blood like your own, given into death upon the Cross for the forgiveness of all your sins, and given to you here to eat and drink for the bestowal of that forgiveness, for Life and Salvation with Him in both your body and your soul forevermore. He is no ghost but the true Man who has become your true Husband, and you a member of His beloved Bride. You hear and you receive His Word; you believe and you confess what He has spoken; you eat and drink His Body and His Blood; you worship and bow down before the Lord, your Maker. And by His grace you are saved.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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