Wedding Homily for Mari Lou and Fran

The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage

Mari Lou Whalen and Francis Xavier Keough

May 23, 2026

The Lighthouse Inn, West Dennis, Massachusetts

The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling, Officiant

 

Song of Solomon 2:10-1; 8:6-7

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12

 

 

A fire fighter, a fisherman, a correction officer, and a baker walk into a bar, and the bartender asks them why they are there. And they replied, “Because we want to celebrate our love and our happiness with our family and friends at the Lighthouse Inn.” “Hey, Mari Lou, you wanna get married?” And she said, “yes.”

Over the last several months it has been my joy to meet with Mari Lou and Fran in preparing them for this day. I have witnessed them make important decisions about their lives together and they freely shared with me their personal histories. We laughed a lot. There were no “bridezilla moments.” No power moves or “man-splaining interruptions.” Just real conversations and honest dialogues.

Why would you want to get married at your age, I asked them, when you’ve enjoyed the last many years of companionship, and there is plenty of current culture that suggests there is no need to tie the knot. Well, Fran, like the unofficial mayor that he is, said that he wanted to make their relationship official. He also pointed to the wisdom of the Bible passage from Ecclesiastes.

Two are better than one, which is why it’s good to have a companion when someone trips and falls. It’s good to have someone share those difficult moments in our lives or offer us a different perspective to our challenging situation. It’s even nice to share moments of silence, enjoying the quiet contentment of sitting on a couch doing Wordle or watching the sun rise over the ocean on the Cape.Traveling to foreign countries is much more fun when it's shared with someone you love.

But here’s the secret behind the passage from Ecclesiastes, which some of you may already know: "A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” So three is better than two which is better than one, wrote this author, illustrating once again the importance of companionship. We believe that two Christians that are bound together in Christ are stronger than the individuals themselves. And when you add the presence of God or the Holy Spirit to your relationship, you have a blessed, holy trinity, a cord of three stands not easily broken.

The Cord of Three Strands is also called God’s Knot or the Marriage Braid and symbolizes the joining of two people and God into a covenant relationship, emphasizing that marriage is stronger when God is at the center. This marriage involves these three different spirits then: Mari Lou, Fran, and God tied together by love.

As Christians, we believe that God is not only a God that unites us and loves us unconditionally but that God is a God of second chances. Mari Lou and Fran know this to be true. And not just second chances, but multiple chances over our lifetimes. Like “the flowers that appear on the earth,” chances for new life pop up repeatedly. Yes, winter is finally over; and the snow is gone! And mercifully, there is no rain right now!

So what about those people who walked into that bar? Well, the fisherman knows that he has landed a catch.The fire fighter reminds us to trust God when fires are raging all around us. The correction officer will occasionally tell us to pull up our big boy/big girl pants and do the next right thing; and then the baker will offer us brownies for dessert and the love that is baked therein.

And so, today, we are gathered here at the Lighthouse Inn to celebrate the love of God, and the love that is shared between Mari Lou and Fran. God has blessed them richly with this second chance of married love, and today we are witnesses to their joy.