Uniquely for these days
Commentary
The preacher should feel no obligation to find any common link among the readings for any given Sunday. Some days a link exists, some days it does not. I have heard too many sermons where the preacher feels obligated to make a connection, engages in some mental gymnastics, and ends up not with an exposition of the text, but a trio of moralistic applications.
Certainly today's Old Testament lesson would evade such treatment. We have here a song celebrating love between a man and a woman. Some scholars feel there are several examples of love poetry bound together. Those who oversaw the production of the King James version of the scriptures called the Song of Solomon a love song of Christ to his church. They were following the example of rabbis of another century who interpreted the poems as an allegory of God's relation to Israel. This took some extended flights of fancy.
The song is attributed to Solomon, probably for no other reason than that his name crops up at certain points. Most scholars doubt this connection. Personally, I cannot conceive of Solomon writing these songs. How could anyone who had 700 wives and 300 concubines really be in love with anyone but himself? He had a lot of political savvy and left behind the memory of a golden age that was still cherished in the days of Jesus. Jesus, however was not much impressed by Solomon (Matthew 6:29). It is worth helping worshipers rediscover this sensuous love song in a day when there are so many influences and actions abroad in our culture that vulgarize the man-woman relationship.
The words from the epistle of James are aimed right at a society where over 90 percent of the people say they are religious and the vocabulary of piety floats over things like big balloons but moral conviction and action are in short supply. The gospel lesson is aimed right at us in the church who can spend a lot of time majoring in minors. The immediate concern of Mark was to argue for the admission of Gentiles into the church without requiring adherence to Jewish dietary rules. (This debate also went on in the liberal circle of Hellenistic Judaism.)
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Tailhook, incidents of sexual harassment, the prevalence of domestic violence, date violence among teenagers, soft and hard core pornography, the juvenile playboy and playgirl images; these and other influences you could add both reveal and reenforce corrosive influences in our culture. The Song of Solomon, as does all the great love literature and music throughout history, gives us a much needed vision of the man-woman relationship.
Here is an interesting comment on the Song of Songs from a feminist perspective. "The woman is not here portrayed as subservient to man; in fact, she is portrayed neither as wife nor mother, and therefore outside the traditional hierarchial relationship presupposed by patriarchal marriage.... She is not viewed as a sexual object, however, but rather as an attractive sexual person. Her physical attributes are a source of his celebration, no more or no less than his physical attributes are a source of her delight. There are scholars who would interpret the Song as a deliberate reversal of the relationship established as a curse in Genesis 3:16." (Laffey, Alice L., An Introduction To The Old Testament, A Feminist Perspective, Fortress Press, 1988, p. 203.)
An interesting discussion of the Song of Songs as well as of the love stories of the Old Testament will be found in In The Beginning Love, a series of conversations between the poet, Mark Van Doren, and author, Maurice Samuel (John Day Company, New York, 1973). There are love stories in the Bible that are both tragic and noble. Might they not provide a stepping stone right into many of the issues that occupy our attention these days?
James 1:17-27
It was Mark Twain who said, "It is not because I do not understand the Bible that I do not read it. It is because I do understand it that I do not read it." What could be clearer than these words of James, "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves" (James 1:22). God gets a great deal of pious adulation and flummery. God talk by candidates for political office can be a good strategy in some parts of the country. This is what James is all about: adulation that parades as worship, profession without commitment, the form of religion without the power of religion, the church in the world and too much of the world in the church.
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15
Mark presents us a Jesus who breaks through every barrier to human community erected by patriotism, bias, and piety. Here he highlights the controversy of Jesus with the Pharisees over their dietary and table traditions. Jesus accuses the Pharisees of majoring in minors, substituting adherence to human traditions for the larger obedience to God. Mark's concern is with the controversy going on in the church over the reception of Gentiles into membership without requiring them to submit to traditions which many Jewish Christians still practiced.
Jesus made a sharp distinction between things negotiable and things not negotiable. Forms, structures, traditions are negotiable once they get in the way of essential obedience to God. We can certainly get hung up on traditions. Here is a true story. In a former parish it was a tradition for the members of the women's fellowship to gather at the church during Advent to make fruit cakes. The ladies found this an increasing inconvenience during a busy season of the year. Yet no one complained until one year as they were working away even as they inwardly grumbled, one of the members slapped her hands down on the counter and shouted, "Listen, in our church we are free to question the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, but we are not free to challenge these damn fruitcakes." The ladies stood silent for a moment and then one by one murmured ay assent, "You know, you are right!" That was the end of the fruitcakes.
A pastor new to New England who wants to introduce an innovation is apt to hear the comment, "Pastor, we've never done it that way before." We became structural fundamentalists. We can substitute church work for the work of the church or busyness for obedience. We who are pastors can immerse ourselves in parochial concerns and in the midst of buysness lose sight of the larger work of justice and reconciliation.
To be sure, there are nitty gritty housekeeping tasks that have to be done within the church. When we get to the point where cracked plaster can evoke a greater response from a church board than broken heads and hearts then we are indeed majoring in minors.
I cannot resist mentioning lectionaries. They can perform a useful service, but are after all human constructions. They need not be slavishly followed. There are times when crises will require a pastoral response found elsewhere than in the readings of the day. There are appropriate reasons for breaking a homiletical lockstep in the interests of creativity.
Certainly today's Old Testament lesson would evade such treatment. We have here a song celebrating love between a man and a woman. Some scholars feel there are several examples of love poetry bound together. Those who oversaw the production of the King James version of the scriptures called the Song of Solomon a love song of Christ to his church. They were following the example of rabbis of another century who interpreted the poems as an allegory of God's relation to Israel. This took some extended flights of fancy.
The song is attributed to Solomon, probably for no other reason than that his name crops up at certain points. Most scholars doubt this connection. Personally, I cannot conceive of Solomon writing these songs. How could anyone who had 700 wives and 300 concubines really be in love with anyone but himself? He had a lot of political savvy and left behind the memory of a golden age that was still cherished in the days of Jesus. Jesus, however was not much impressed by Solomon (Matthew 6:29). It is worth helping worshipers rediscover this sensuous love song in a day when there are so many influences and actions abroad in our culture that vulgarize the man-woman relationship.
The words from the epistle of James are aimed right at a society where over 90 percent of the people say they are religious and the vocabulary of piety floats over things like big balloons but moral conviction and action are in short supply. The gospel lesson is aimed right at us in the church who can spend a lot of time majoring in minors. The immediate concern of Mark was to argue for the admission of Gentiles into the church without requiring adherence to Jewish dietary rules. (This debate also went on in the liberal circle of Hellenistic Judaism.)
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Tailhook, incidents of sexual harassment, the prevalence of domestic violence, date violence among teenagers, soft and hard core pornography, the juvenile playboy and playgirl images; these and other influences you could add both reveal and reenforce corrosive influences in our culture. The Song of Solomon, as does all the great love literature and music throughout history, gives us a much needed vision of the man-woman relationship.
Here is an interesting comment on the Song of Songs from a feminist perspective. "The woman is not here portrayed as subservient to man; in fact, she is portrayed neither as wife nor mother, and therefore outside the traditional hierarchial relationship presupposed by patriarchal marriage.... She is not viewed as a sexual object, however, but rather as an attractive sexual person. Her physical attributes are a source of his celebration, no more or no less than his physical attributes are a source of her delight. There are scholars who would interpret the Song as a deliberate reversal of the relationship established as a curse in Genesis 3:16." (Laffey, Alice L., An Introduction To The Old Testament, A Feminist Perspective, Fortress Press, 1988, p. 203.)
An interesting discussion of the Song of Songs as well as of the love stories of the Old Testament will be found in In The Beginning Love, a series of conversations between the poet, Mark Van Doren, and author, Maurice Samuel (John Day Company, New York, 1973). There are love stories in the Bible that are both tragic and noble. Might they not provide a stepping stone right into many of the issues that occupy our attention these days?
James 1:17-27
It was Mark Twain who said, "It is not because I do not understand the Bible that I do not read it. It is because I do understand it that I do not read it." What could be clearer than these words of James, "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves" (James 1:22). God gets a great deal of pious adulation and flummery. God talk by candidates for political office can be a good strategy in some parts of the country. This is what James is all about: adulation that parades as worship, profession without commitment, the form of religion without the power of religion, the church in the world and too much of the world in the church.
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15
Mark presents us a Jesus who breaks through every barrier to human community erected by patriotism, bias, and piety. Here he highlights the controversy of Jesus with the Pharisees over their dietary and table traditions. Jesus accuses the Pharisees of majoring in minors, substituting adherence to human traditions for the larger obedience to God. Mark's concern is with the controversy going on in the church over the reception of Gentiles into membership without requiring them to submit to traditions which many Jewish Christians still practiced.
Jesus made a sharp distinction between things negotiable and things not negotiable. Forms, structures, traditions are negotiable once they get in the way of essential obedience to God. We can certainly get hung up on traditions. Here is a true story. In a former parish it was a tradition for the members of the women's fellowship to gather at the church during Advent to make fruit cakes. The ladies found this an increasing inconvenience during a busy season of the year. Yet no one complained until one year as they were working away even as they inwardly grumbled, one of the members slapped her hands down on the counter and shouted, "Listen, in our church we are free to question the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, but we are not free to challenge these damn fruitcakes." The ladies stood silent for a moment and then one by one murmured ay assent, "You know, you are right!" That was the end of the fruitcakes.
A pastor new to New England who wants to introduce an innovation is apt to hear the comment, "Pastor, we've never done it that way before." We became structural fundamentalists. We can substitute church work for the work of the church or busyness for obedience. We who are pastors can immerse ourselves in parochial concerns and in the midst of buysness lose sight of the larger work of justice and reconciliation.
To be sure, there are nitty gritty housekeeping tasks that have to be done within the church. When we get to the point where cracked plaster can evoke a greater response from a church board than broken heads and hearts then we are indeed majoring in minors.
I cannot resist mentioning lectionaries. They can perform a useful service, but are after all human constructions. They need not be slavishly followed. There are times when crises will require a pastoral response found elsewhere than in the readings of the day. There are appropriate reasons for breaking a homiletical lockstep in the interests of creativity.
