Was the Royal Wedding Evangelism?
Last Friday, early in the morning, we turned on our TV to watch Michael Scott’s last episode on The Office on our Roku box. As our TV flashed on, the Royal Wedding was in full swing, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams presiding over the couple as he read from the Book of Common Prayer.
Beyond all the glitz, glamor and gossip that surrounded this monumental event watched by around two billion people is the this: two billion people were watching a service of worship from the Anglican liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer. Think about that, two billion people hearing the order of service for the wedding, about Christ at Cana, about the Christian understanding of marriage, about the joy of spiritual union.
If Billy Graham or Bill Hybels or Rick Warren preached a sermon in front of two billion people it would most certainly be called the greatest single evangelistic outreach ever recorded.
Why not the Royal Wedding? What is it about the non-sermon parts of a service that condemns it to be the non-evangelistic portion?
This question has always befuddled me, and I think it stems from a misunderstanding of what is evangelistic, i.e. presents the good news. Evangelism is often thought of as a passive action. Someone listens, then he or she responds. But really, the good news is presented in participation: in song, in silence, in communion, in funerals, in weddings, in prayer, in confession, in dance and in preaching.
The marriage service presented the good news in clarity, for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see.
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I think you’re spot on here. I didn’t watch the wedding, but my assumption is that a wedding will tell better news than the typical ‘gospel presentation.’
Thanks for reading Brad. A wedding is good news indeed! The coming of Christ’s kingdom is not celebrated with a sermon—it’s celebrated with a wedding feast!
The sacrament of marriage displays in a physical way, that which is an unseen reality. In these ways we participate and enact the gospel and the nature of God.
I only read about the wedding and saw video clips, but I was struck deeply by the prayer they said:
“God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage. In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy. Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ”.
I think any Christian would be wise to adopt it as their own prayer.
Thank you so much for sharing the prayer.