7TH SUNDAY OF EPIPHANY, SUNDAY OF 24th FEBRUARY 2019
You are all welcome once again to worship with us in this service and thank you very much for choosing to come to St. Luke’s Chapel Mulago.
Church Canons are the Laws upon which the church operates administratively.
Under Canon 2:29.2 of the church of the province of Uganda, marriage is defined as a union, permanent and lifelong in faithful love between a man and woman that the marriage vows are a commitment of this Union for better or worse to the exclusion of all others on either side, until they are separated by death.
This canon continues to state that the purpose of marriage is mutual fellowship, support and comfort, and the procreation (as the case may be) and nurture of children, and right direction of natural instinct and affections for personal fulfilment in a community of faithful love.
The marriage vows are made in the presence of God, families, friends as witness and of an authorised minister of God (Clergy).
Therefore, it is from a marriage relationship that children should come as this Canon states; Children are indeed a gift of God; they are a blessing in the marriage. (Psalm 127:3). (For more information on marriage further reading of this Canon is advised)
What is God’s plan for every marriage?
Marriage was God’s idea and so God had a very beautiful plan for it. How grieved God must be when marriages of His people fall short of His perfect plan!
According to Genesis 2:7-25, God’s plan for marriages consist of the following;
1.A man shall leave his father and mother:
Though we should always honour and respect our parents, there comes a time when a man becomes the head of his own home, Then he is free to love his wife fully, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ love the church and gave Himself for it. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it.”(Eph. 5:25, 28-29)
2.A man shall cleave to his wife;
A man should stick to his wife, like glue, for life.
Jesus confirmed this plan for marriage and added, “What God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:6b).
Why do people want divorce? Jesus said that there is only one real cause. It is “because of the hardness of your hearts (Math. 19:8). But that is not God’s plan. God says “that He hates divorce” (Malachi 2:16). Instead of putting away our spouse, God wants us to put away all bitterness and wrath, “And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you” (Eph. 4:32).
3. A man and his wife shall be one flesh;
The physical union of bodies should be a beautiful expression of the unity of minds, hearts and Spirits.
“Marriage is honourable among all and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterous God will judge” (Hebrew 13:4)
4. They were naked and were not ashamed:
Before sin came into the world, this first couple were open with each other and with God. They had nothing to hide. When Adam and Eve sinned, for the first time they realised their nakedness (Gen. 3) God himself then made clothes for them, involving the first shedding of animal blood!
In Conclusion, God requires godly offspring’s from the marriage of His own people.
May God bless the marriages of St. Luke’s members and indeed those of His own people everywhere.
Udongo Albert Festus (Rev. Canon)
CHAPLAIN
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