Wedding Sermon of Jonah Wendt and McKenna Hammack

The Marriage of Jonah Wendt and McKenna Hammack
October 21, 2023

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is good to be with you today for the marriage of Jonah and McKenna - to witness the beginning of their earthly lives being intertwined, grafted, and brought into full communion by God.  

As many of you know, this man and this woman met in the great, powerful, and often confusing city of Washington, D.C. – also known as the center and heartbeat of freedom.

In fact, their paths first crossed, and their courtship began as their offices worked to support the religious freedom case of Rev. Dr. Juhana Pohjola, the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland and Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a Finnish politician, as this pastor and politician were prosecuted for confessing their Christian faith and belief in marriage as it was instituted by God.

But what is freedom anyway?

I fear this has become a confusing question for us today.

If you trust the internet or the voices we consume, they inform us that freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without external hindrance or restraint.

Or maybe you view freedom as many today as the absence of being subjected to anyone or anything.

Well, maybe good old Martin Luther, the great German reformer, can help us frame things better. He once wrote in the same breath in his work, “The Freedom of the Christian," that:

A Christian is an utterly free man, lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is an utterly dutiful man, servant of all, subject to all.

At first, this also appears to be an absolutely confusing statement, providing little or no help.

But, if you ponder these words of Luther, there is a great, mysterious, and beautiful paradox for us, the Christian, especially in view of marriage.

There will be times, Jonah and McKenna, that you will not desire to be in subjection to anyone, let alone one another; you will crave freedom as defined by this world to roam about the country to see your beloved Horned Frogs or battle over the temperature setting of the thermostat (in the car or home) or continue the age-old struggle over whether to leave the toilet seat up (or down).

But, only when you are able to step back from these insignificant battles of the sinful flesh you both inherited from your first parents, Adam and Eve, will you be able to see the words of Luther more clearly through the lens of Scripture,

A Christian is an utterly free man, lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is an utterly dutiful man, servant of all, subject to all.

The secret and what’s at the heart of these seemingly paradoxical sayings is Jesus Christ Himself.

It's really that simple, yet we make this so hard in marriage (and life in general).

One of the reasons we get hung up on this is because of those words “subject to all.” Or, as we heard in the Ephesians reading, the dreaded word, “Submission.”

Our getting caught up on all of this, which I believe is somewhat anchored in our own subjective ideas of freedom and the culture we live in today, really hinders us from seeing Jesus in the midst of our own relationships and lives.

I mean, for a moment, reflect on how Jesus demonstrates submission and service throughout His earthly life.

As we confess in the creed, “Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and made man.” God submits Himself to our human flesh, being born of woman.

As a child, Mary and Joseph searched for the boy Jesus as He hung back in the temple. Why? Because He said, “I must be in my Father’s house.” Yet, as Jesus’ earthly parents found Him, probably full of a mixture of emotions (kind of like yours today), the Scriptures say, “Jesus was submissive (or subject) to them.”

Again, as Jesus nears the cross, the Gospel of John recounts how Jesus took the form of a servant, washing His disciples' feet, saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

Ultimately, the whole life of Jesus and the many more instances of His submissiveness and service to others finds its fulfillment upon the cross.

It's on the cross Jesus demonstrates complete submission to His heavenly Father’s will while sacrificing Himself for you, His bride, the Church so that today He can now serve you with His forgiveness and eternal life.

So, the linchpin to understanding Christian Freedom, submissiveness, and servanthood is found in Jesus Christ, His cross, and sacrificial love for you.

This is why the reading from Ephesians is the perfect image and icon of marriage.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word... In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Today, Jonah and McKenna are united in marriage. The two become one. And yet, today, you begin to learn to live as one.

So, what does this new life and freedom look like? 

It’s as the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (5:13)

Liberty seen through the lens of Christ is not autonomy from the world or, more importantly, one another, but rather being free from this world of sin and death, and as Paul wrote in Ephesians, learning to walk as husband and wife in “all lowliness, gentleness, and longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:2)

Because this peace granted through the work of the Holy Spirit will also allow you to “bear one another’s burdens.” (6:2)

To bear and encourage one another when work is difficult.

To rely on one another when children come, babies cry throughout the night, and McKenna needs help changing the most horrendous diapers, Jonah.

Or to walk alongside each other when illness comes, comforting and supporting one another as your final breaths approach and death and grief draw near. This is how you “bear one another’s burdens.”

In the end, marriage, along with the life of the Christian, is nothing like the world around you. But with Christ Jesus as the heartbeat of your marriage and life, it is greater and more powerful than any city or human institution on earth.

So, my friends, Jonah and McKenna, live in the liberty of Christ's forgiveness, loving and serving one another. Trust Him to guide you throughout all the days of joy and sadness alike so that in the end, you may both find yourselves at the eternal wedding feast of His kingdom. +INJ+