Faith and Marriage

Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 17th November 2019

Today I was playing mandolin and a little percussion in the worship band. So off to church early enough to catch the end of the first service. Post-service my wife and I journeyed back through Greenhead Park to look at the autumn colours. The trees are in their finest colours, it’s well worth a look.

Early was important, the church was used the previous night so there was a lot of setting up of sound equipment to do. We managed wit time to soundcheck before the service started.

The sermon, in the series Going for God, was on Faith and Marriage. Vicar Mike warned us that this was a contentious subject with a whole set of different opinions. He hoped this would be the start of a conversation. He said we would be looking at the whole subject of relationships in the future.

It was based on Matthew 19:1–12. Jesus was asked a question by some Pharisees about whether it is right for a man to divorce his wife. Writings from the times showed that the Rabbis were divided on this point. Rather than talk about divorce Jesus spoke about marriage, taking it right back to the beginning, Genesis chapters 1 and 2.

In Genesis, the Bible started with a marriage. Jesus says this is the blueprint for all marriage. God is relational and creates us to be relational too. While a lot of people talk about what we should not do, have sex outside marriage, watch porn etc. and there is a good reason for saying that, but Genesis does not say no not about sex, Genesis says do.

There was a lot more than that said, and I took more notes than this. But contentious things were said, and I did not agree with it all, just most of it. The sermon is already online at https://www.holytrinityhuddersfield.com/recent-sermons/ so you can hear it all there.