This is not the first time that Tracy and Andy and I have been in the same place. Of course we stood here yesterday for the rehearsal but there is more to relationships than going through the motions and making sure you know what page you're on.

I've known Andy for months because that's part of preparing for a marriage- the couple and their priest meet and talk their way into understanding, anticipation, connection and context. Of course we talked about the ceremony, but we also talked about the covenant a couple makes between themselves and under God's loving gaze. We took liturgies apart like shade tree mechanics analyzing how fuel and fire held in metal becomes power and motion. Andy and Tracy and I now hold a shared scared language and an understanding of how words and song and the power of the spirit move liturgies forward in ways that change people and things.

Andy and Tracy stand here knowing the power of what they are about to say and seeking God's blessing with their eyes and hearts wide open. And this is very good. All our preparation makes this a time not only of joy, but of spiritual depth. What a rich beginning for marriage as words set a seal on two willing hearts and bind them into one.

This image of sealing runs through the liturgy. The anthem sung by the Madrigals, the lesson read from the Old Testament and the Blessing on the couple we'll hear after they are pronounced man and wife. A seal is an appropriate refrain for this liturgy for marriage requires intent, consent and a willing to embrace the other as they are.

Good marriage preparation models this. So Andy and I have talked about what it is like to lead and to be a military family. We share a bond by also knowing what it means to serve - both the joys and the costs of so doing. Andy serves in the Army and so does my married son. My father was a thirty-year Navy man and I grew up in a series of duty postings that took my mother and us four children around the world, three years at a clip.

Andy and I both know what it means to receive sealed orders. You do not know - you cannot know - what is in them when you let them be placed in your hands. But those of us who are under authority know that we will do what is asked - what needs to be done. For this is what it means to serve with honor. Whether one's oath is to the military or to the Church there are seals that shapes our lives.

In addition to the months I have spent in wedding prep with Tracy, my wife and I remember her from Sunday school. Fifteen years ago Debra and I were joined to the community that had promised at Tracy's baptism to support her parents and godparents in raising her to the full stature of Christ. And now all of us stand here in Christ's presence watching this next stage of Tracy's life flower before us. We are continuing to live into our earlier promise even as Tracy and we prepare to make new ones.

And this too is very good. It is a beautiful thing to live with integrity - to do what we say before God, and to act from our values. Christian community means we are all joined like members of a body- when one is joyful, like today - all should celebrate, when one member is in trouble or in sadness all have a responsibility to respond. We were sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and joined to one another by that act- and it is indissoluble.

There is another personal aspect I want to share as part of my support for Andy and Tracy.

Andy, Tracy, Debra and I share a love of, and a belief in, the power of the word. I mean the Holy Scriptures but I also mean the power of expression that dwells in the human heart. As you may know one of Andy's gifts to Tracy is time and freedom- the time to write and the freedom to discover a vocation whose voice has been calling to Tracy with increasing insistence.

Andy hears that voice that whispers to Tracy for their love for one another has created an almost telepathic resonance between them. I know how this works. I know the cost and the joy of listening to those voices because over twenty years ago I offered the same time and freedom to Debra, my beloved. I have never regretted this gift and our lives have been more wonderful than I could have imagined.

Andy and Tracy- May your marriage be fruitful, full of wonder love and grace.
May your travels enrich your life together and deepen the bond you already have.
May the costly freedoms you grant each other allow you be echoed by an abiding sense of being beloved. And, as one who wrote the Letter to the Colossians counseled, "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus." AMEN