Unconditional Commitments

Even if you think that you know every freckle and dimple in each other's life, you don't know all about your potential spouse, because you don't know what your spouse will yet become; you don't know the future.

But there is at least one thing about which you no longer have to worry.

Until these promises are made, one is always wondering whether something said will be taken in an unfavorable way and the other person get up and walk away.

But hereafter, Pam and Peter can relax with each other, knowing that whatever direction things open in the future, they will face them together,

that day to day tensions will not drive them apart,

that problems will not overwhelm them,

because they make today an unconditional commitment to each other:

I love you. I will love you.

I will grow together in love with you.

I am yours and you are mine.

And all of the other ways that can be said.

No strings attached.

No limits placed upon it.

Unconditional commitment... except for the one condition which we cannot avoid... death.

I promise to be faithful to you until death parts us.

How can we say this?

How can we live this way?

The one thing that makes it possible, that allows us to take this dare I will love you is the knowledge that the Lord Jesus has lived out this love completely.

When he says I love you, and you are mine forever, it is a promise that will be kept fully, completely, and eternally.

We know that he will continue to give us the gifts that we need to live from day to day.

We know that he will not abandon those to whom he has declared his love, his commitment to the future, eternally.

With that knowledge,

with these gifts,

with the promises of Jesus behind us,

we can dare to live,

we can dare to offer our love to our spouse,

we can dare all that is unknown to us, because it is all held within the love and mind of Christ Jesus.

I'm thinking of a highway south of Catawissa.

At one point where the highway crests one mountain, the driver can see across to the next mountain where he is going.

But what one cannot see is all of the twists and turns as one descends the mountain and moves across the valley toward that distant goal.

We know where we are headed.

Jesus has shown us the goal in his death and resurrection.

So here are Peter and Pam, ready to drive down this life-road together,

ready to make as unconditional a commitment to each other as we can possibly make.

They're ready for the dare, because we know the goal,

we know the one who makes it possible,

we recognize the gifts that he provides for us,

and we trust that his word is good forever.

I will love you, they will say to each other, because Jesus has first loved us, made us, sustains us, gifts us, and commends us to each other. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.