22^nd December 2017

Christian Marriage Proposal: 

Presentation to the Uniting Church Synod of South Australia by Rev J Button. 2017 

Introduction

 This proposal, “on matters vital to the life of the church”, is procedural It acknowledges the mechanism in the Uniting Church’s Basis of Union and Constitution, that for the Assembly to make decisions “on matters vital to the life of the church”, it is “obligatory” that it “seek the concurrence” of the other councils of the church (BOU, para. 15.e., and Constit. Para. 39.a)

- The recent public discussion on marriage and sexuality clearly shows that matters of gender, sexuality and marriage are of vital importance to Australians on all sides of the debate across the whole spectrum of our society

- Given the significant meaning and place of the church’s doctrine of marriage within its theology and practice of the church, and the profound implications of replacing it with an alternative, it is a matter that is clearly of vital importance to the church’s life

- Therefore, given the event of the Assembly contemplating any alteration to the doctrine or practice of marriage, it is “obligatory” that it “seek the concurrence” of the other councils of the church, including the Synods, Presbyteries and the Congregations

- While due process is the focus of this proposal, it has also been necessary to outline the key theological reasons underpinning the vital nature of the doctrine and practice of marriage

- You have these in the rationale, so I don’t want to go through them in detail again, but just touch on a couple of very key points

- The very significant areas (under points 1, 2 and 4 in the rationale) of the integrity of the teaching of Holy Scripture on marriage, marriage as a crucial substructure to human society, and the implications of the integrity of the church’s received doctrine of marriage for ecumenical relations, are relatively straight forward

- The matter of the significance of the doctrine of marriage for our understanding of God, humanity, and His eternal relationship with humanity, (under point 3.a & b) is more illusive,– Paul called it “a great mystery” (Eph 5: 32) - and for that very reason it is the most important!

- When Paul uses the word “mystery” it is connected with revelation – i.e., “the mystery of [God’s] will, according to His good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Eph 1:9,10)

- I want to touch on this briefly...

 3.a. The image of God in male-female humanity

The marriage of Christ and the Church

- How is the creation of humanity as “male as female” the “image of God”?....

- We could go through the long and rich exegetical and theological tradition around this theme, from The Epistle of Barnabas, and Justin Martyr, in the Early Church, to Claus Westermann, David Clines, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and many others in more recent history, but....

- It’s like this:... Every time I interview a couple for marriage preparation, we read Gen 1:26 – “Then God said, let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness...” and I ask them, what do you notice about God in that verse?

- And it never ceases to fascinate me – and the amazing thing is that the completely non-Christian couples seem to get this the strongest - ...but they look at the verse,.. they look at each other,.. then they look at me - and sometimes one, or sometimes both at once – say with some surprise – “God’s an US!”

- And I think, bingo!... Then we get to talk about the fullest sense of this in the Bible: that God is not a lonely isolated individual, but a community, a “family” if you like, a communion of love – Father, Son and Holy Spirit - i.e., “God is love” (1Jn 4:8)

- Then we read Gen 1:27: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

- So then we get to think and talk about how they, as husband and wife, in their union of love, are going to get to live out and experience a part of the divine life and love right here in the world in their day-to-day lives! [– i.e., something of it’s selflessness, faithfulness, “belonging-ness”, beauty and mutual delight]....

- Whoa!... and they thought they were just coming to get “a bit of paper”!....

- ....Now, our relationships get messed up and broken in all sorts of ways of course, and we only come to fullness of love and relating through the grace of Christ... so then we get go on to talk about the Gospel...

- ...Which leads us back to marriage again: Christ, the Bridegroom, and the human race who love Him, the Church, His Bride, to whom, through the Gospel, He will be married forever! (The Bridegroom and wedding parables, 2Cor 11:2, Eph 5, Rev 19-22)

- And the whole creation will share in that glory too – heaven and earth being remade to accommodate it...

- And there’s the beautiful story of the universe – “the mystery of God’s will.... to gather up... all things in [Christ]”: from a marriage, to a marriage – i.e., The Marriage, that will never stop

- And every human being can find a place in that fullness through Christ: the single, the widow, and the married!....

- ....All imaged in true human marriage....

# Conclusion

 - The Uniting Church’s doctrine of marriage states that: “Marriage for Christians is the freely given consent and commitment in public and before God of a man and woman to live together for life.” [Declaration on Marriage of the Eighth Assembly].

- This teaching was received by the Uniting Church by virtue of her being a member denomination of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; it was handed down from the beginning of the Church’s history, deeply founded in Scripture

- It is vital... vital to human life... and most especially vital to the life of the Church, Jesus Christ’s Bride

- When we see this, we cannot and will not give it away!

P.S. The ACC Chair, Rev Dr Hedley Fihaki has stated, The ACC strongly encourages the July 2018 National Assembly to maintain the UCA’s position on marriage and warns that should the National Assembly redefine marriage or craft liturgies to bless same-sex unions, then the church “would stand no longer on biblical ground, but against the unequivocal witness of Scripture. A church that took this stepquest  would cease to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church”