You're invited to a wedding!
This is a new beginning for Louise Denny and Jim Knight. Though you might not
know them, you've probably seen them Sunday mornings. Louis is pretty straight-laced:
the mother of three grown children; a nurse by profession; Finnish by ancestry;
and a Worship Leader by calling. Her fiance, Jim Knight, is retired, lives near
Mio, Michigan, and was recently widowed. He wears an earring in his right ear,
a pony tail in his hair, and almost always a smile on his lips.
Usually you invite your family to your wedding, and that's exactly what Louise
intends to do. It's just that her sisters and her kids are scattered all over
the country, and Jim has no kin left of his own. So when I asked Louise where
she wanted to hold the ceremony and who she planned to invite, she said, "Well,
Good Shepherd's the only family I have. So I thought maybe we could get married
during the service, Sunday morning, at Good Shepherd... among my family."
If the mark of Easter is the surprise that Christ has risen from the dead, then
there is surely a little bit of Easter in all this. For Louise and Jim, there
is Easter in the surprise that the death of love once is not the death of love
forever, that there's a person out there who loves you as much as you love them
and maybe even more, who loves you in a way you do not deserve and could never
earn. And for us who will witness their marriage, there is Easter in the surprise
of a wedding invitation, the surprise of discovering that you're considered
family by someone you barely know, the surprise that you're part of a church
that really works to embrace with love all the folks who walk through its doors.
In Easter we celebrate the Lord of surprise - and the surprising ways we encounter
the resurrection of our Lord.
We've set the date for Sunday, April 15. Louise and Jim will exchange vows and
rings after the sermon, the bride and groom will kiss, and when I introduce
them as husband and wife you will applaud their courage and hope and joy. Otherwise,
you won't find the service much different. We'll share the prayers of the people,
Jim and Louise will help serve Holy Communion, and we'll serve coffee and cake
in their honor after worship.
Join us for the season of Easter, my friends, and experience the resurrection
of love and life in ways you never imagined!
Pastor Jim
And I saw the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men... he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Revelation 21:2, 4
From the Shepherd's Song Newsletter -- April 2007
Copyright 2006 by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
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E-mail your comments and questions to Pastor Jim in care of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at gslc@sirus.com.