Recognizing Love
Christopher B. Harbin
Romans 13:8-14
Almost twenty-six years ago (actually, twenty-five years and eleven months on Tuesday, but who's counting), Karen and I exchanged our marriage vows right here at the front of this sanctuary. Family and friends were gathered with us for that occasion to solemnize and celebrate the commitments we were making to one another. We were formalizing a commitment we had already made, a journey of giving our lives to one another which we had already begun in various ways more than a year before.
From the beginning of our relationship, we had shopped together, cooked together, studied together, played together, worshipped together, worked together, and supported one another according to each other's needs. We had made the welfare of the other an extension of our own welfare, instead of fretting over our own personal needs.
Long before our marriage, or even our engagement, people already treated us as ''an old married couple.'' They recognized something about our relationship that set us apart. Some people tried to peg us as married when we had known each other for less than a week. Others had us engaged when we were not officially even dating, when we had not officially accepted any long term commitment to one another. They picked up on something other than an outward display of romantic love. They picked up on our being attuned to one another's needs, concerns, and well-being. They recognized a kind or quality of love that we ourselves had not exactly perceived or expressed in words.
Paul's words to the believers in Rome, however, would have us recognize many of those characteristics in one another as a matter of course. Paul was not speaking of the romantic love that leads to marriage in our society. He was not addressing the kind of love we see portrayed in Hollywood. Instead of romantic or erotic love, Paul spoke of something much more akin to that ''old married couple love,'' but applied across a socie ...
Christopher B. Harbin
Romans 13:8-14
Almost twenty-six years ago (actually, twenty-five years and eleven months on Tuesday, but who's counting), Karen and I exchanged our marriage vows right here at the front of this sanctuary. Family and friends were gathered with us for that occasion to solemnize and celebrate the commitments we were making to one another. We were formalizing a commitment we had already made, a journey of giving our lives to one another which we had already begun in various ways more than a year before.
From the beginning of our relationship, we had shopped together, cooked together, studied together, played together, worshipped together, worked together, and supported one another according to each other's needs. We had made the welfare of the other an extension of our own welfare, instead of fretting over our own personal needs.
Long before our marriage, or even our engagement, people already treated us as ''an old married couple.'' They recognized something about our relationship that set us apart. Some people tried to peg us as married when we had known each other for less than a week. Others had us engaged when we were not officially even dating, when we had not officially accepted any long term commitment to one another. They picked up on something other than an outward display of romantic love. They picked up on our being attuned to one another's needs, concerns, and well-being. They recognized a kind or quality of love that we ourselves had not exactly perceived or expressed in words.
Paul's words to the believers in Rome, however, would have us recognize many of those characteristics in one another as a matter of course. Paul was not speaking of the romantic love that leads to marriage in our society. He was not addressing the kind of love we see portrayed in Hollywood. Instead of romantic or erotic love, Paul spoke of something much more akin to that ''old married couple love,'' but applied across a socie ...
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