?

Romantic Comedy

?

On occasion (read: rarely) I watch a romantic comedy with Ida. She really likes the Christmas romantic comedies on the Hallmark channel—you know, the ones that run from Thanksgiving through the new year celebrations and the ones that run from late June to August (aka: "Christmas in July"). If you're a guy, then you know the feeling: "they're perfect for each other." We know this from the first ten minutes. So, get together and skip over all the rumbling and fumbling, the missed chances, the misunderstandings and go directly to the altar where we already know that is what's going to happen. But no, they have to bumble their way through many a mistake before ending up before the minister/priest and say the "I dos." They hurry back up the aisle to uplifting organ/string quartet/brass quintet/harp music, laughing and smiling as they go. You just know they're going to live happily ever after. How could they not? They've already made all the mistakes two lifetimes can hold. It has to be perfect from honeymoon until death do us part. Right?

?

We never know, since the movie ends even before the beginning of the honeymoon. But what about the discovery that he hates lasagna while it's her favorite meal? Or, what about her excited chatter at the end of the day while he just wants to watch TV? Or, when the first bundle of joy comes along and she's been up all night with the bundle of fussy and he rises all chipper, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed? Especially when he asks her if she has made his lunch yet.

?

OK, OK, I'll get to my point.

?

So, in the Bible, the beginning scene is a new love. Adam meets Eve, falls in love at first sight. Then begins a comedy of errors. True to a romantic comedy script, Cain kills Able, Cain runs away from home. The world becomes an evil place. The flood washes it all away. Babylon, Abraham, Egypt, plagues, exodus, judges, priests, kings, prophets, Jesus, the ekklesia, the world in chaos. Then the revealing of the Son as Bridegroom, the church as body, temple, and…wait for it…Bride. Where does it end? With a wedding…and that's the end of the story. The wedding supper of the Lamb and His Bride is the last thing we hear of the Couple, the Lamb and His Bride. We know nothing of the honeymoon, the first days of married life, the long-term relationship. Well, we do know that it is a marriage forever. Fifty, sixty, even seventy years is nothing to this new joining. It is eternal, without end, an ever-growing, maturing, deepening love that cannot end. Will there be bumps or hiccups in this marriage? I think not. She is perfect, now, without spot or blemish, and, of course, He is perfection itself. Nothing can disrupt or sidetrack this eternal love affair, this romance of two who are always in synch, always thinking one of the other's needs, the one, the only, perfectly harmonious union.

?

What ends at the wedding is a mere foreshadowing of all that will eternally be. "Lohengrin's wedding march, meaningful and beautiful though it is, cannot compare to the "Halleluiah chorus" welcoming the Bride into the Family. She is home, she is safe, she is beloved and in love, forever and always; no "till death do us part," for there is no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears—the love story begun and which has no end.

?

Note: Comedy, in the context of stories, means a happy ending as opposed to tragedy which is an unhappy ending. "Romeo and Juliette" are examples of tragedies. "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens and "The Gift of the Magi" are examples of Comedy since these stories end happily. The visual image is that of the frowning and smiling masks which represent the two writing forms.

?

?

?