I watched it. Yup. I surely did. But overall, every marriage is special, especially today, although I may not go with the full sacrament bit.
Sacraments are holy rituals that declare the gracious nature of the individual’s relationships to community and to God. Rituals of any kind mark time, and make meaning by creating liminal time, or time beyond time, when things are transformed from what they were to what they are to become. In the case of marriage, these two individuals have through their oaths and actions, and the blessing of the church entered into that comforting and grand place that the church describes as the holy estate of matrimony. And of course, we all wish them well.
But why did so many of us watch this wedding, either in real time or in the endless loops that are now permeating the media? Even some of us who rolled our eyes as the frenzy mounted felt caught a bit of the fever as we watched the church service, the excitement of the crowds and witnessed the couple kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Perhaps the reason for all the hoopla is that this royal wedding, like all weddings, became a very public affirmation of the power of making a covenant, even in — or especially in — the midst of chaotic and uncertain life.
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: The Royal Wedding As Sacrament.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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Well said… Yes…honour is the call!