“Something
old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” All you wedding planners have heard that a
time or two. It’s an old superstition involving
four good luck charms that a bride should have in her attire on her wedding day
to bring “good luck” and to ward off the “Evil Eye” which might cause
infertility. The bride isn’t supposed to
plan them into her own attire. They are
supposed to be last minute gifts from women close to her.
Each of
the charms has particular meaning. The
“something old” is usually given by a mother or a grandmother and is supposed
to represent continuity with the past and fertility in the future. It’s usually a piece of family heirloom
jewellery. The “something new”
represents hope for a good marriage and fertility. The “something borrowed” is supposed to be
something borrowed, like earrings, from a person who has a good and fertile
marriage. It used to be customary to
borrow undergarments from women who had had plenty of healthy children. The “something blue”; it was believed long
ago that the colour blue warded off the Evil Eye or wicked spirits that would
destroy a marriage or cause infertility.
It was usually covertly worn as a garter belt. More currently, the superstitious types say
that blue stands for “love, purity, and fidelity.” But, I think that’s kind of boring and, as
far as myself, I prefer the Hoodoo version.
But anyway, something old, something new, something borrowed, something
blue; no bride should ever be without them at her wedding.
Well, in
hopes of producing a short but fertile sermon here I’ll just get to the point. One of the biblical images for the church is
that we are the Bride of Christ. As
such, God the Father has made certain that Bride of Christ will be properly
attired on her wedding day in “something old, something new, something
borrowed, something blue”. He has given
to us the Holy Spirit through whom he has poured into us his very own love to
bless and prosper our marriage to Christ the Son. Thus, “Spirit old, Spirit
new, Spirit borrowed, Spirit blue.”
The Holy
Spirit dwelling in us is “something old”.
The Holy Spirit is not only our continuity with the past, but like Lady
Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs she is the Architect and Orchestrator of
Creation itself. She was there when God
created and through her work as a master builder it came to be. The Holy Spirit brought forth God’s good
Creation and continuing on is at work in us and all of Creation now bringing
forth the New Creation that is in Christ.
Thus,
the Holy Spirit is “something new”. The Holy
Spirit is the sign and seal of our future hope in Christ, that we will be
bodily raised from the dead to live in Creation made new and no longer subject
to sin, evil, and death. We know this
hope is real because we can feel the Presence of God in our midst when we
gather in worship.
The Holy
Spirit is also like “something borrowed”.
(This is where my wonderful analogy gets a little sketchy.) Through the
Holy Spirit we borrow New Creation life from God, life from our future as a
foretaste of the good full-filled, filled-full marriage that we will have with
Christ Jesus in the Age to Come. We will
have an unhindered relationship with God.
The Holy
Spirit is our “something blue”. The Holy
Spirit is God’s own love, purity, and fidelity dwelling in us making us able to
love as Christ Jesus has loved us each by laying down his life for us. The Holy Spirit is God’s own purity poured
into us. The Church on earth in this Age
will never have the moral purity that some think we ought to have and judge
accordingly. Rather, the Holy Spirit,
the Love of God, the Presence of God in us now is Refining Fire burning off our
impurities and healing us giving us faith and making us able to be faithful. The Holy Spirit even shields us from evil spirits. It seems weird to say in this day and age,
but no evil spirits can indwell us nor can Satan overcome us because the Spirit
of God his very self lives in us.
Spirit
old, Spirit new, Spirit borrowed, Spirit blue.
Today we
gather around the Lord’s Table to share a meal that like the rehearsal dinner the
night before a wedding when two families gather usually for the first time to
rehearse being one family, this meal is a rehearsal for the wedding feast that
we will have when Christ Jesus returns and all things will be made new. Adorned properly by the presence of the Holy
Spirit in us let us gather around the table of our Lord and joyfully partake of
a small foretaste of the Day to come.
Amen.
