It is common to speak of Pentecost as the birthday of the church. I want to add to that the image of marriage. As most of you are aware, marriages do not just happen with the signing of a contract. There is the courting period and the public declaration of engagement before the formal ceremony takes place that lifts up the importance of the couple's commitment to each other. Even the formal ceremony does not make a marriage.
A marriage without a period of courting is based on blind chance. It may work, but the percentages of its success are greatly lessened. A marriage without the public declaration and ceremony may work as well, but it tends to have an ephemeral quality about it. It is as if somehow the couple is not sure enough to publicly and pridefully declare to the world that th…