Give me three words to describe a Mormon wedding and I’d say
this—short and sweet.
Although Mormon Christians use the term “wedding,” they will
also refer to their marriage ceremonies as “sealings,”
signifying that they are sealed together in marriage and as a family for
eternity. Mormon wedding ceremonies are unique in Western culture—or in any
culture for that matter. There is no walking down the aisle, no fancy orchestra
or organ fanfare, no wedding dress, and no “I do.”
Instead, in the privacy of a temple, “The House of the
Lord,”[i]
and in a room with no more than a few dozen in attendance, the bride and groom
kneel at either side of an altar facing each other. The kneeling is a show of
humility to God, and the altar is a symbol of a partnership built on sacrifice.
They wear simple but elegant attire that calls to mind a bride and groom’s
“robe of righteousness” described by Isaiah (Isaiah 61:10).[ii]
The atmosphere is hushed, and the mood is one of reverence.
Marriage vows are performed, and the bride and groom each in
turn offer a simple “yes” to accept the terms of the marriage. The terms however
are not only between husband and wife, but include a third party in the
marriage partnership—God. As husband and wife strive to stay true to their vows
to each other and to God, their marriage and family continue for eternity.
The ceremony itself is short, lasting no more than five
minutes, but after leaving the temple, many Mormon Christians choose to celebrate
their marriage with conventional cultural trends. Brides often change into
flowing, white dresses, and many couples may have a formal ring ceremony. But
the most central part of the wedding day is the sealing ceremony—short and
sweet.
A sealing ceremony seals together not only couples, husband
and wife, but complete families, including their children. In a typical
marriage sealing, children are not yet part of the picture. Any children born
to a couple that has been sealed together are considered born in the covenant, meaning that they are sealed to their parents
by virtue of being born to them, without having to go through the actual
ceremony. Children who were born prior to a sealing or who are adopted after a
sealing are sealed to their parents in a similar ceremony.
Although the vast majority of couples who have ever lived on
the earth have not been sealed for eternity, each couple will have that chance.
In the period of time after death, but before they are resurrected, they continue
living as disembodied spirits, and it is then that each couple can choose for
themselves whether or not to have their marriage sealed. But since they do not
have physical bodies to participate in the actual ceremony, we act as
stand-ins, representing them in a sealing performed in their behalf. Thus
anyone who so desires, living or dead, may be sealed together as husband and
wife—as an eternal family.
As individual families get sealed together one by one, they
begin to connect together. Just think of the branches of your family tree. If
you are sealed to your spouse, and the both of you are sealed to your daughter,
who is then sealed to her husband, and he is sealed to his parents, then that
means his parents are linked to you. And the links can actually go in any
direction—back through our ancestors, forward through our descendants, sideways
through siblings, and even jump from one family to another through marriage.
(Yep, maybe you’d better try harder to get along with your in-laws.)
As families continue to be sealed together, the entire
family of God will eventually be connected in one unbroken chain back to Adam
and Eve. Marriage and family is among the most beautiful joys of life, and is
in fact meant to be not just “till death do us part,”[iii]
but forever.
[i]
Mormon Christians consider each temple to be “The House of the Lord,” and such
an epithet is inscribed at the entrance of temples throughout the world.
[ii] See
also Job 29:14.
[iii] This
saying from the Book of Common Prayer was originally, “Till death us do part.”
Comments
Post a Comment