Saturday, August 05, 2006

Saturday, August 5, 2006

Today I marry Erica Daniela, my first and final losing argument, which is a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that none of my previous losing arguments compare to the loss of self I have experienced and continue to experience through my relationship with Erica.

Got it now?

5 Comments:

Blogger Mark Moore said...

Thom, You will hear these words in three hours but I wanted to publish them here for you to read since once you put on a tux you go deaf. Hauerwas speaks of the Christian Life as a Tragedy, rightly so, for we are the ones who embody the sufferings of Christ. Yet other lables of genre would likewise be appropriate. I would like you to consider two: Comedy and Irony. Particularly when Christians engage in marriage, we are enacting the eschatological comedy of Christ who comes in a decisive moment granting a twist to all our tragedy and establishing justice out of the wreckage we have (anti)created in this world. This apocalyptic final twist, and it alone, makes sense of our being church. Second, because of foreknowledge of God's decisive moment of second resurrection, we live with hope, a key virtue to be sure. It is this knowledge of God, his love, his justice, his power, that enables us to live in a tragic world as a suffering people with an impish grin on our faces. There is a reason we smile in the face of trajedy--we know the irony of which the world is ignorant. We carry about this 'secret' with hopeful hearts against all odds (not unlike the con-artist who knows the final play). Marriage, for the Christian, is thus a subversive act, declaring to society the unmitigated beauty of self-abnegation. Our little enclaves we call home are the very genetic seed of the broader church, and it is the first and best testimony of the intimacy we experience with Christ (Eph 5:25-33). Here we lay down our lives in humble service to the other, not often in a martyr's ultimate sacrifice of life, but in a much more greuling, mundane, and significant way of a thousand acts a day of self-abnegation. Marriage declares and embodies our hope of the ultimate wedding day with Christ. It enfleshes our testimony that greatness is in service. In our bearing of children it declares our faith in God's faithfulness to protect, provide, and enliven the very least of these. The kingdom of God is never smaller, hence never better than in what we call a Christian Family. So after all your philosophizing, proselytizing, and preaching on Jesus (especially via Hauerwas) it is time to put up or shut up. Because the truth of your lived sermon will not be inscribed in voluminous books but in the sketchy lines of your wife's face some forty years from now. Whether the crow's feet around her eyes take their best shape when she smiles or scowls will determine the shape of your most significant sermon to date. Her face is your canvass. Write well.

August 5, 2006 at 11:40 AM  
Blogger VinceandJoy said...

Congrads Bro, Marriage, what a great idea!

_Vince

August 9, 2006 at 9:17 PM  
Blogger shane said...

Congrats Thom!

August 11, 2006 at 3:24 PM  
Blogger Thom Stark said...

...

Thanks all! We had a great honeymoon in Queretaro, Mexico -- Erica's hometown.

...

August 13, 2006 at 6:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HAH! It all makes sense now!

You whispered the location of the honeymoon in her ear at the wedding didn't you?!?! You sly fox...

Thanks for the invite out to the wedding, Thom. I've since decided that I want flan cake at every event I attend, and I think I'll learn how to usher women to their seats at future wedding ceremonies.

I'll have a wife in no time.

I love you man, see you soon.

-Tony

August 13, 2006 at 11:33 PM  

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