Song of Solomon 2:8-16a, 8:6-7; 1 John 3:11-23; John 15:12-17

My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. ... Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely." My beloved is mine and I am his -- Song of Solomon 2:10-16a

Every summer, like many university chaplains, I am part of a number of weddings of University of Evansville graduates. One of the things that I enjoy about these weddings is that often they are not the traditional brief and nondescript Protestant wedding "ceremonies," but truly services of worship, a "setting of seals" in the contex…