A Theology of Celebration

This guy knows how to celebrate . . .

I'm going to "out" myself and other ministers. Most of us don't get real excited about weddings. Funerals are a different matter (something about captive audiences). For one, there are usually complex family issues at work in weddings that are beyond the scope of any one professional (minister, counselor, etc.). Second, there's almost always a decent amount of drama leading up to the wedding (poor planning, volatile relationship, nervous groom, etc.). Third, sometimes you feel like a mascot ("Now where did I put my monkey suit?"). Fourth, you know that at least a third of the weddings you perform are likely to end in divorce (Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians). I like to go 3 for 6 in softball . . . but not marriages.

Sometimes however, God sends people our way like Shaun and Jessica Hover. Shaun came to Rochester Church in the wake of a friend's tragic death (Nic Paradise). Nic was part of our family. On a Sunday, after I preached we laid hands on Nic, asking God to continue God's liberating work from addiction. Several people prayed.

Early the next morning Nic died in the bedroom of his apartment. Shaun found the body. I arrived shortly after. I've never seen someone minister to a grieving family, fiance, and friends the way Shaun did in the coming days.

Fast forward. Shaun was baptized. Spent several months doing discipleship training in Los Angeles. Served in China, Thailand, Spain, and India mentoring dozens of young adults from all over the U.S. who've come out of addiction, broken homes and identity crises.

In the midst of all that, he also managed to fall in love with a girl from Colorado (Jessica). This weekend, I'll perform their wedding. I would not miss this wedding for a Tigers seventh game in the World Series. It will be one of the highlights of my time in ministry to date. There will be lots of tears, dancing, laughter, music, and stories. Lots of dancing (did I mention that?). It will be a Jesus Wedding in every sense of the word. It reminds me that, as followers of Jesus, we need a theology of celebration. Celebration does not come naturally in white suburban culture (unless we're talking about our kids or sports ironically).

In the book, Sex God, Rob Bell describes the chuppah (pronounced hoopah) practice common to Jewish weddings. In some strands of ancient culture, a man and woman would place themselves under the chuppah, a cloth covering, which signified the covenant being instituted. Upon making the vows, the couple would then go to a nearby home to consummate the marriage (they were more concerned with living pure before God than the State of Michigan). In a moment of social awkwardness, the young couple would enter into a home to physically consummate the marriage, while everyone else waited outside (can you see Aunt Myrtle waiting anxiously?).

When the newly consummated couple emerged from the house, hopefully at least twenty minutes later, an intense celebration would take place. This was more than cake and punch on a Saturday afternoon in the church fellowship hall. This was laughing, crying, dancing, and consumption of large bottles of sparkling grape juice. A party that could last up to seven days because they had a theology of celebration that exposes our busy, over-scheduled, serious, palm-pilot driven culture.

I think the remedy for some of the depression weighing us down is a healthy dose of . . . celebration.