The New York Times has the full text of Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon from the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. It prefaces it with some comments.
The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, the presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church, delivered a searing, soaring 13-minute speech, imploring Christians to put love at the center of their spiritual and political lives. Until that moment, the ceremony had been quite staid, stuffy even, with only the mention of “sexual union” to keep us on our toes.
“We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love,” he said. “And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world.”
Curry drew upon the words of the Bible, grounding his message in scripture, but also wove in threads of the black experience in America:
Now someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history, a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world. A movement mandating people to live that love. And in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.
I’m talking about some power, real power. Power to change the world. If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s antebellum south who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has the power to transform. They explained it this way. They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity, it’s one that says there’s a balm in Gilead. A healing balm, something that can makes things right.
Curry’s central theme of the power of love is certainly appropriate for a wedding ceremony — but he extends it to cover the world as well.
...Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial. And in so doing, becomes redemptive, and that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love, changes lives. And it can change this world. If you don’t believe me, just stop and think or imagine. Think and imagine, well, think and imagine a world where love is the way. Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way...
Read the whole thing — and think about saving a copy for inspiration. God knows we can use it these days.