I just had a very interesting conversation with some brothers last night about the nature of marriage, and I wanted to get some more opinions.
Basically, I'm a member of a young adult ministry, and am good friends with a lot of the leadership, but it's a collaborative effort of many of my area's proper churches so we get a lot of different perspectives on a lot of different things to break down among ourselves. One of those things was the wedding of a couple of our leaders. It was a very unorthodox ceremony, involving foot washing, a lot of barefoot hippie types, and a father/daughter dance to the Butthole Surfers. Needless to say, we were all curious to see the reaction of our most traditionalist member, but he had some really interesting perspectives.
I should clarify first that the ceremony itself was all very biblically rooted, and while I know them to be nutty hippies, they are most definitely strong siblings in Christ. They were very careful in the messages they were sending in their quirkiness, and it took some squinting but it was pretty beautiful. Our traditionalist agreed. He pointed out that, (coming from someone who has worn the hats of both devout catholic and 5 point Calvinist at various points in his life, before settling into where he has) while protestantism only accepts the sacraments of baptism and communion, marriage is at least very well up there.
Marriage. Not weddings. The ceremony and proceedings of the wedding are not ever codified in the Word, because that part is not important, what is important is the union itself. Weddings are one of the few places of intentional jazz left in scripture, one of the only places we are given the space to do as we see fit (within proper bounds). God loves weddings, and wants us to revel in the joy they bring, and I just found that whole idea so liberating. Personally, my wedding is getting closer and closer to view, and the strict, liturgical wedding has always felt so unappealing to me. To realize that, as vital as marriage is, its proscription is intentionally vague just makes me look forward to the day so much more, not cramped up in some second rate cathedral, but some place God has already made more beautiful than human hands could ever express.
What are your thoughts? Is this lunacy? Is it just a "duh" statement I was stupid to not have considered? Or am I a heretic for implying my marriage doesn't need to take place within the procedure of the mass (looking at you papist brothers, love you all)? I want to hear thoughts.