Hey folks! Our current unit in the kids curriculum is about the Church: what it is, what it does, and what it means to be a part of it.
Click here for a general overview of the unit.
For the next three weeks we'll be continuing to discuss the "Ecclesial Sacraments."
We've been saying that the Church’s mission is to go and to gather. As it gathers, we are to be learning everything Jesus commanded us (Matt. 28:20). This week we're talking about the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, or marriage.
The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, or marriage, is unique among the sacraments in at least two respects. First, it is the one sacrament of the Church that is common to all cultures: marriage predates the church, as it were at least in its arrival in history (cf. Gen. 2). Secondly, the uniqueness of Holy Matrimony is found in its capacity to communicate the nature of the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Church. Specifically (and famously), St. Paul draws these two things together to suggest that a normative Christian marriage is a sacramental enactment of the love of Christ for the Church, and the love of the Church for Christ (Ephesians 5). In fact, one of the most important and climactic scenes in all Scripture is the “Wedding Supper of the Lamb,” in which the Church is, at long last, presented to her groom, the Lamb of God crucified and risen (Revelation 19:6-9).
While marriage is a common institution, Christian marriage has some particular features. First, it is a permanent relationship. There are very limited circumstances for its dissolution: adultery (cf. Matt. 5:32; 19:9) and abandonment (cf. 1 Cor. 7:15). (Note also that abuse can be understood as a form of abandonment.) Its permanence is a consequence of its sacramental character: it is an institution that is to embody, or enact, the commitment of Christ to his Church, and vice versa. If this is so (and Paul says that it is), divorce and its causes are a mode of obfuscation, obscuring the image it is intended to be. In this way they “tell a lie” about the nature of the Church and Christ.
Secondly, at All Souls we joyfully receive the Scriptural and Traditional understanding of Christian marriage as an institution requiring the union of a biological male with a biological female. This characteristic is necessary for it to retain that which is perhaps its deepest meaning: the union-in-difference of marriage that so vividly illustrates the Christ/Church relation. It is also true, however, that this not the understanding of civil marriage in our time and place while the Church, as we've noted previously, is that community called to reach out to its neighbors in love and integrity. This only highlights the need for deeply committed Christian marriages: not only are they a means by which participants receive a unique instantiation of the transforming grace of God, they are the most persuasive means of demonstrating its beauty, goodness, and truth.
Scripture to consider:
Genesis 2:2-24
Ephesians 5:15-33
Revelation 19:6-9
Questions for your kids
What does it say about Adam in the Genesis story that he was lonely without Eve?
What does it say about how God feels about you, that he would call his people, the Church, his bride?
Holy Imagination
Learning the faith isn't just about memorizing facts. It's about seeing the world as it really is: "charged with the grandeur of God."
The Scriptures teach that when a man and woman are married, the two become one (a deep mystery indeed!). One way to illustrate this is with the "solution" (not a "mixture"...think back to seventh grade science) of your morning coffee (note sure if is coffee properly considered a solution but it works). Show your kids the clean water, then the beans, then the coffee after. This is sort of what we mean! Both the water and coffee are there, but they are also one new thing. And definitely more delicious together than apart.
Peace,
Danny+