"PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE" PROF. HAROLD SENKBEIL & DR. RICHARD WARNECK CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY: CAPTION FIRST, INC. P.O. BOX 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 1-800-825-7234 * * * * * This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in Order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings * * * * >> With all our cultural diversity here in Los Angeles, I find a lot of people have different expectations when it comes to what a wedding should be like. How do I work with a couple to plan and conduct a wedding that is meaningful to them and, yet, in harmony with Lutheran doctrine and practice? >> Well, Nick, of course there are all kinds of wedding ceremonies these days that one observes. And it seems like wedding practices are all over the map in our diverse culture. There are, of course, governing principles and boundaries that govern a Lutheran wedding. And we'll talk about those. But first it might be said that a conscientious pastor will of course be sensitive to the needs and concerns of the couple that come to him and the expectations of their families and their community. So the kinds of things that happen in wedding ceremonies, in your situation, in your area, are things you want to be aware of. A pastor, of course, will want to take these and put them within the framework of the governing principles of a Lutheran wedding service. Now, what might they be? Well, we want to first of all deal with the churchly rites. Our Lutheran worship agenda currently about to be a new�-- the "Lutheran Service Book Agenda" is something you'll want to consult. You'll want to obtain a copy, be thoroughly aware of those rites. And that rite�is a very short rite. All of it, I think, would encompass not more than perhaps 12 minutes at the most. Now, that would be the core of the wedding ceremony. That rite, that marriage rite, which consists of first of all, a statement, a cat e key assists of what marriage is on the basis of the Bible, God's institution of marriage, his intention to bless the couples who enter into this estate of holy marriage, and then their mutual consent and finally their public vows of mutual love and submission for the sake of Christ within holy marriage. Then the prayers of the church and the blessing of the couple. This comprises the marriage rite. Now, what else might happen within the marriage ceremony? That is, the wedding service. That, I think, is one of the things we want to impress upon couples. It's not about you. It's Jesus Christ, your Lord, that at the heart and the center of your life, of your marriage. And we want him to be front and center in this wedding service, as well. How might this best be done? Well, I think in these days it's very practical to provide some guidelines for a wedding that you can have an objective statement on paper as to what marriage is, what a wedding ceremony is, and how the wedding service will be laid out and conducted, not in rigid detail but certainly in clear enough outline so that we can clearly be understood. You might even�-- many pastors have found it very helpful, in consultation with their parish musician, to list some of the songs and hymns that might certainly be considered to be part of that wedding service. All of them, of course, whatever suggested to be critiqued not on the basis of its effect or a personal attachment of one or the other of the wedding party or their families, a song that they like or that they heard at some other wedding, but, rather, we always want to ask the question: What does it say? What does it confess regarding God? For what does it pray? These are the boundaries of all public worship services and it holds true also for weddings, too. One of the problems I think we find these days is a very practical concern when it comes to wedding ceremonies, and that is that people often go for a very elaborate kind of ceremony, far beyond what they or their parents can ever begin to pay for in the near future. And maybe it would be time at this juncture in history to remind people to get again back to the basics. Maybe in the current climate and culture in which all kinds of Godless and pagan people are having this very, very elaborate ceremonies, it might be time for Christians to have a very simple ceremony, one which clearly confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, prays his blessing together with the father and the Holy Spirit upon their life together. Maybe such a service, such a wedding ceremony could be a clear confession to their friends and neighbors, a terrific testimony to the clarity and the truth of the Gospel in our very confused age. In other words, maybe less is more. There are some practicalities, of course, when it comes to these kinds of services. And above all, we want to stress that it's again not something that's up to me. It's not my personal preference. Rather, as a husband or a wife, I'm entering now into a marriage estate that God has instituted and blessed and in which he has promised to bless all who enter into it in accordance with the way he's given it. So, in other words, marriage is bigger than any two individual couples, two individual people who come together as a couple to be joined together in marriage. It was instituted already in the Garden of Eden where God brought Eve to Adam and explained: This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. For this cause, God tells us there in Genesis, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and they two shall be one flesh. This, the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5, is a great mystery. It is a foretaste, an earthly image of the very relationship of Christ and his bride the church. It's a wonderful gift. And we enter into it, then, in accordance with how it's given. With those kinds of expectations, a certain amount of reverence, joyful reverence, to be sure, but reverence at the presence of God and at the awesome privilege that's now being given to these two to be united in marriage ought to kind of govern whatever we do within that ceremony. So those are the broad parameters. Perhaps that's helpful. And in further discussions with your mentor or in conversations with your instructor in this class, we can clarify some of the details. Great question there. * * * * * This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in Order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings * * * *