Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match
Find me a find, catch me a catch.
Matchmaker, matchmaker look through your book
And find me a perfect match.
This is a story of an arranged marriage, something uncommon to us. We prefer to choose our own partners for marriage, first by getting to know each other, falling in love and then sealing the relationship with a wedding. As the musical Fiddler on the Roof makes plain, the use of matchmakers to arrange a marriage is old fashioned. But Isaac and Rebekah were matched and married before they learned to love one another. Let’s look at the story again to be sure of the important details.
The circumstances of life are what motivated Abraham to ask his servant to become a matchmaker. God, who had called them into a covenant relationship years ago had richly blessed Sarah and Abraham with a new land in which to live, a son that made them laugh and a promise that this family would increase to be more numerous than the stars. It was God’s intent for this blessing and this covenant to be passed down from one generation to another. So after Sarah died, when Abraham was old, he wanted to make sure that Isaac had a wife, that more generations would be produced. In order for this covenant blessing to continue, new people would need to become part of this family of God.
Perhaps because he was too old to make the journey himself, Abraham asked his most trusted servant find a suitable wife for Isaac. Abraham believed it was God’s will that this wife already be part of the family, someone who was familiar with God, who would gladly enter into God’s special covenant with Isaac. So the servant set off towards the land where Abraham’s brother and his family lived, trusting that God would reveal the right woman when he arrived.
When we read the servants prayer carefully, we see that he was specific in his request. He hoped to find a woman who was generous, hard working, bold and freely offered hospitality. But most of all, the servant prayed that God’s will be done. Remember he said, “let her be the woman you have picked out for your servant Isaac. Then I’ll know that you’re working graciously behind the scenes for my master.”
Another aspect of this arranged marriage that we can read in Genesis 24 is that even as the people of God seek God’s will for their lives, it is important that they align their own wills with God’s. Rebekah was asked, “Do you want to go with this man?” and she said yes. Likewise we can gather from the end of the story that Isaac was also happy to meet his bride and receive her into his home, and into his heart.
While arranged marriages aren’t so familiar to us, we at Wesley Church have received the services of a matchmaker named Aida, our District Superintendent. Just as the family in Genesis had recently lost their beloved wife and mother Sarah, a few months ago Wesley Church was at a similar point of transition preparing for the loss of your beloved pastor Kristin. Together you and Kristin had formed a family of God, a family of blessing, tied together in the covenant of baptism, and the special relationship between pastor and people. Yet like Abraham you knew that in spite of this change God’s covenant blessing for your church family was meant to continue, and so you asked for a new pastor. Like Abraham meeting with his servant, the Staff Parish Committee and especially June and Jean, turned to Aida, your trusted servant who had already done so much for you. You expressed your desires and hopes for a new pastor to her and sent her out with prayer that God would enable her to bring back just the right person. All of this took trust, not only your trust in Aida, but everyone’s trust in God, that by being open to God’s guidance, God would provide more than we could ask or imagine.
A few months later Aida returned – with me. Like Rebekah I was just going about my life not expecting what was coming, when Aida asked me if I would be willing to join my life to yours. And like Rebekah’s family I felt that this match was not just the matchmaker’ idea, but that it was the will of God, a match made in Heaven. Unlike Rebekah and Isaac, we were not total stranger. Kristin and I have been friends for a long while, and I worshiped here before, including the day Kristin announced her new appointment in Maine. I count it a great blessing that before my new role as your pastor started I could worship and fellowship with you several times over the past couple of months.
Even so our relationship now is still more like a traditional arranged marriage than like a modern day one. We have a lot to learn about one another. There will be several adjustments we will need to make in these first few months until we find a new comfort level of worshiping, playing and working together. Just as Rebekah could not replace Sarah, and probably had a different way of speaking, of keeping house and of relating, so I am not Kristin. Though I will try to honor your ways of worship, your traditions, your concerns, I come with my own preferences and practices. Through the process of getting to know and understand one another we can expect to learn from one another and make some changes together.
You can also expect that you will not like some things that I do. I’ve learned from my past appointments that it is far better to be open about such matters from the start. I once had a church that didn’t like the way I served communion, so much so that some were not eating it after I gave it to them. But it took 18 months for anyone to tell me. I’ve also learned that it is better to discuss a change I would like with the church members, rather than just surprising everyone. But even today the bulletin is a little different than the one’s Kristin gave to me. I genuinely want to know how these changes effect you. In many churches is quite common for parishioners, at the change of appointment to dislike something about the new pastor and just stop coming rather than venture a discussion. Please, I ask you, if I do or say something that bothers you, let me know. I promise to do the same so we can adjust to our new relationship and help it to grow.
I am encouraged by last weeks prayer for God to give us all “patience, courage and wisdom so to care for one another and challenge one another that together we may follow Jesus Christ.” I trust that God has truly been at work in this appointment and hope, that like the match between Rebekah and Isaac, our partnership will serve to sustain the covenant and blessings we have from God and increase the number of people who benefit from such a wonderful relationship with Jesus Christ and his church.
While this appointment has several similarities to Isaac and Rebekah’s arranged marriage, the most important aspect is the covenantal relationship between one another other and with God. This summer we will be spending several weeks looking at stories in Genesis to examine God’s special covenant with God’s chosen people. This covenant began with Abraham and Sarah, passed on through Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob Rachel and Leah and all the children of Israel. The covenant was renewed and strengthened through the leadership of Moses who, by God’s grace led the Israelites out of slavery back to the land God promised. The covenant was continued through the Judges, Prophets and Kings of Israel. Christians believe that the covenant was made new in Jesus Christ, so that the blessings and obligations of being God’s people are now offered beyond Abraham and David’s family tree to all the peoples of the world. New Christians, like Christina, Amber, Julia and Paul enter into the covenant relationship with God and with the church through the sacrament of baptism.
Covenants are agreements made between two parties who freely choose to be in a particular relationship. Each party promises something to the other. In the covenant between God and God’s people, we promise to worship, trust and obey God and God promises to bless us with life. The covenant Methodists make with the Church when we join includes a promise to support it by our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. In return the Church promises to be with us through the ups and downs of birth, growth, marriage, sickness, challenges, victories and death. Our Church family is meant to be a comfort and support, and sometimes to challenge us when we need to grow in our faith. Like the Israelites, we find that being in covenant with God as a people, not just as individuals, enriches our life of faith and magnifies God’s blessings many times over.
It is encouraging to me to know that you have been living out this covenant relationship with God and with one another for a long time. That you are genuinely committed to your faith and to one another, that you are bold to open yourselves to new brothers and sisters in Christ, even those who come from a vastly different culture. I feel very blessed indeed to be given the opportunity to join with you as companions in Christ, to walk along beside you as your pastor for a time. And I pray that just as the blessing of God’s covenant in Christ overflowed further than the Israelites, so our blessings will overflow beyond this sanctuary out into Medford and beyond.
If the sacrament of baptism is the entry point for Christians to become part of God’s Covenantal people, the sacrament of Holy Communion is the food for the journey. It is often compared with a wedding banquet, an image I love. For this reason I love a communion table set with fresh baked bread, where those who gather there take large chunks from the loaf and generous gulps from the cup so that we truly can taste and see – and smell – that the Lord is good.
In this wedding feast we will celebrate today, Jesus Christ is both the host and the bridegroom while the Church is his bride. You can find such images in the book of Revelation and in some of Jesus’ parables. So, let us take time to think once again about weddings. How happy and joyous they are. How lovely is the bride, how handsome the groom, how lavishly they are dressed, how full of hope everyone is that this covenant they celebrate will bring forth many blessings not only for them, but for all who meet them. Now imagine yourself as the one being united to Jesus your beloved.
Psalm 45 is all about the wedding of a King to his beloved. Traditionally the Church has looked at this as metaphor for the uniting of Christ and his church. As we prepare to participate in Holy Communion today let us reflect again on the wedding images of the psalm and imagine that they describe Christ and us. “Christ, you are the fairest of men; grace flows from your lips, because God has blessed you for ever.” “Your throne, O Christ, endures for ever and ever, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom; you love righteousness and hate iniquity. Therefore God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness…” “All our garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes, and cassia, and the music of strings from ivory palaces makes us glad.” “Hear, O Wesley Church, the king will have pleasure in your beauty; his is your master; therefore do him honor….all glorious are you as you enter; your gown is cloth-of-gold.” “With joy and gladness we are brought, and enter into the palace of the king.” “Beloved Christ, we will make your name to be remembered from one generation to another; therefore nations will praise you for ever and ever.” Amen.
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