Sex, Sex, And More Sex
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle B
Object:
Depending on who happened to publish your edition of the Bible, the heading on the page that contains our text might say Song of Songs or Canticles or Song of Solomon. So saying, it is not generally thought that King Solomon was the author -- granted he was a lusty fellow with 700 wives and 300 concubines, but that in itself, in my view, would mitigate against his authorship (when would he have had time?). More likely, Solomon's name became attached to the book in some sort of dedication. The original-language title of this book (Song of Solomon) is a Hebrew way of talking about the finest song just as "king of kings" means the greatest king. Somebody, somewhere, way back, thought these love poems were the best of the bunch.
Not only the passage given above but the whole book is an ode to the joys of erotic love. It is so giddy with the intoxicating charms of sensual attraction that, like young lovers kissing in the mall, it seems not to care who else is around or what they might think of such carrying on.
The book is comprised of the love songs sung by a man and a woman who can see only each other. And see each other they do. They linger over every inch in voluptuous celebration, savoring all the physical characteristics of the beloved -- thighs and navels and breasts and lips. As one writer has noted, "It is almost enough to get the Bible banned from public libraries. If young adolescents ever happened upon this torrid little book, they might begin to read the Bible with flashlights under their covers at night."1
It is little wonder then that the Song of Solomon almost did not make it into the Bible. Some have wondered if it has any religious value at all. Read it through from beginning to end in a modern translation -- it will not take you long, only eight brief chapters -- there is not a single mention of God. Not once. A wonderful collection love poems, okay ... but holy scripture?
Some have rushed to its defense. One famous Jewish teacher, Rabbi Akiba, claimed that, "The whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Solomon was given to Israel; for all the scriptures are holy, but the Song of Solomon is the holy of holies."2 So some interpreters, stuck with this book that could melt a Puritan winter, have tried to make it an allegory -- nothing really meaning what it appears to mean, and all beneath the mantle of education -- just to bring it into line. Under the influence of Greek views, which denigrated the body, and with the loss of a biblical view of the created goodness of the body and human love, many interpreters felt compelled to find in the Song an allegory of the sacred love between God and Israel, Christ and the church, or Christ and the individual soul.3
In the Middle Ages, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux followed this line of interpretation and preached 86 sermons on the Song of Solomon, a series that covered only two chapters and three verses. Eighty-six sermons can take the joy out of any subject (and one cannot help wondering if the celibate saint protested too much). These days though, most of us believe that the author of the Song of Solomon actually was doing what he or she appeared to be doing (and what more straitlaced interpreters seem unable to admit) namely, celebrating human love with poetry reveling in romance and sexuality.
All right, if God's word in scripture is provided for our instruction and edification, how is this material helpful? One commentator has written,
Encountering these love songs in the pages of the Bible reminds me of the time when, as a teenager, I discovered ardent letters written by my grandparents when they were in the throes of young love. The discovery completed my picture of them. They were real people after all, animated by the kind of impulses and yearnings I knew quite well. These dignified and upright people -- who, before my discovery, I could only imagine going to bed fully clothed -- also had a love for one another that was as hungry and tumultuous as the sea. And as their lives demonstrated, passionate love for another person need not eclipse God but can enlarge a life in ways that make room for God to be manifest -- something I might have missed if those letters had remained undiscovered and my picture of my grandparents had remained incomplete.4
Good point. Were it not for the Song of Solomon, we, too, might miss the fact that healthy desire and healthy discipleship are not mutually exclusive. Sex is a wonderful gift. God's gift, even.
The creation stories that we read in Genesis affirm it. As biblical scholars recall, the creation story begins with a litany of "and God created this ... and it was good; and God created that ... and it was good; and God created the other ... and it was good." The first thing that scripture informs us was not good was aloneness: "It is not good for the man to be alone" (2:18). Women and men are, quite literally, made for each other. Sex is a part of being human. "Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh" (2:24). Romance is another of God's good gifts.
So saying, it can also be tough. A half-century ago, two University of Minnesota sociologists surveyed some 900 campus love affairs and discovered that about half of them resulted in serious emotional trauma. Much later, sociologists at the University of Wisconsin found that 97% of American men and women fell in love one or two times by their late teens -- and most of them fell out again within two years. Even more recently, psychologist, Dorothy Tennov, reported that over half the subjects of her wide surveys of romance suffered emotional depression, more than 25% admitting to thoughts of suicide ... hmm.5
But when it is right, it is right! To be in love with someone is to find your whole being tied up with the beloved, to want to be wherever he or she is, to want good things for him or her. You want to share yourself -- all of yourself -- and you want all of him or her in return. Separation is restless sorrow and in reunion the world is complete again. The Song of Solomon understands that and celebrates it in language that is gloriously open and unashamed.
A Christian understanding of sex begins where the Song of Solomon does -- a joyful acceptance of it as one of the most delightful forces in human experience. There are no snide innuendos, no crude jokes. Why? Listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple: "The reason for not joking about sex is exactly the same as for not joking about the holy communion. It is not that the subject is nasty, but that it is sacred, and to joke about it is profanity."6 Handle it with care.
____________
1. Martin Copenhaver, "Reveling in Romance," The Christian Century, August 10-17, 1994, p. 747.
2. Robert Davidson, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), p. 93.
3. Raymond C. Van Leeuwan, "Song of Solomon," Holman Bible Dictionary, Electronic Edition, Parsons Technologies, 1994.
4. Op cit, Copenhaver.
5. Bruce Bander, "Looking for Love," New Covenant, April 1993, p. 13.
6. Op cit, Davidson, p. 158.
Not only the passage given above but the whole book is an ode to the joys of erotic love. It is so giddy with the intoxicating charms of sensual attraction that, like young lovers kissing in the mall, it seems not to care who else is around or what they might think of such carrying on.
The book is comprised of the love songs sung by a man and a woman who can see only each other. And see each other they do. They linger over every inch in voluptuous celebration, savoring all the physical characteristics of the beloved -- thighs and navels and breasts and lips. As one writer has noted, "It is almost enough to get the Bible banned from public libraries. If young adolescents ever happened upon this torrid little book, they might begin to read the Bible with flashlights under their covers at night."1
It is little wonder then that the Song of Solomon almost did not make it into the Bible. Some have wondered if it has any religious value at all. Read it through from beginning to end in a modern translation -- it will not take you long, only eight brief chapters -- there is not a single mention of God. Not once. A wonderful collection love poems, okay ... but holy scripture?
Some have rushed to its defense. One famous Jewish teacher, Rabbi Akiba, claimed that, "The whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Solomon was given to Israel; for all the scriptures are holy, but the Song of Solomon is the holy of holies."2 So some interpreters, stuck with this book that could melt a Puritan winter, have tried to make it an allegory -- nothing really meaning what it appears to mean, and all beneath the mantle of education -- just to bring it into line. Under the influence of Greek views, which denigrated the body, and with the loss of a biblical view of the created goodness of the body and human love, many interpreters felt compelled to find in the Song an allegory of the sacred love between God and Israel, Christ and the church, or Christ and the individual soul.3
In the Middle Ages, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux followed this line of interpretation and preached 86 sermons on the Song of Solomon, a series that covered only two chapters and three verses. Eighty-six sermons can take the joy out of any subject (and one cannot help wondering if the celibate saint protested too much). These days though, most of us believe that the author of the Song of Solomon actually was doing what he or she appeared to be doing (and what more straitlaced interpreters seem unable to admit) namely, celebrating human love with poetry reveling in romance and sexuality.
All right, if God's word in scripture is provided for our instruction and edification, how is this material helpful? One commentator has written,
Encountering these love songs in the pages of the Bible reminds me of the time when, as a teenager, I discovered ardent letters written by my grandparents when they were in the throes of young love. The discovery completed my picture of them. They were real people after all, animated by the kind of impulses and yearnings I knew quite well. These dignified and upright people -- who, before my discovery, I could only imagine going to bed fully clothed -- also had a love for one another that was as hungry and tumultuous as the sea. And as their lives demonstrated, passionate love for another person need not eclipse God but can enlarge a life in ways that make room for God to be manifest -- something I might have missed if those letters had remained undiscovered and my picture of my grandparents had remained incomplete.4
Good point. Were it not for the Song of Solomon, we, too, might miss the fact that healthy desire and healthy discipleship are not mutually exclusive. Sex is a wonderful gift. God's gift, even.
The creation stories that we read in Genesis affirm it. As biblical scholars recall, the creation story begins with a litany of "and God created this ... and it was good; and God created that ... and it was good; and God created the other ... and it was good." The first thing that scripture informs us was not good was aloneness: "It is not good for the man to be alone" (2:18). Women and men are, quite literally, made for each other. Sex is a part of being human. "Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh" (2:24). Romance is another of God's good gifts.
So saying, it can also be tough. A half-century ago, two University of Minnesota sociologists surveyed some 900 campus love affairs and discovered that about half of them resulted in serious emotional trauma. Much later, sociologists at the University of Wisconsin found that 97% of American men and women fell in love one or two times by their late teens -- and most of them fell out again within two years. Even more recently, psychologist, Dorothy Tennov, reported that over half the subjects of her wide surveys of romance suffered emotional depression, more than 25% admitting to thoughts of suicide ... hmm.5
But when it is right, it is right! To be in love with someone is to find your whole being tied up with the beloved, to want to be wherever he or she is, to want good things for him or her. You want to share yourself -- all of yourself -- and you want all of him or her in return. Separation is restless sorrow and in reunion the world is complete again. The Song of Solomon understands that and celebrates it in language that is gloriously open and unashamed.
A Christian understanding of sex begins where the Song of Solomon does -- a joyful acceptance of it as one of the most delightful forces in human experience. There are no snide innuendos, no crude jokes. Why? Listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple: "The reason for not joking about sex is exactly the same as for not joking about the holy communion. It is not that the subject is nasty, but that it is sacred, and to joke about it is profanity."6 Handle it with care.
____________
1. Martin Copenhaver, "Reveling in Romance," The Christian Century, August 10-17, 1994, p. 747.
2. Robert Davidson, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), p. 93.
3. Raymond C. Van Leeuwan, "Song of Solomon," Holman Bible Dictionary, Electronic Edition, Parsons Technologies, 1994.
4. Op cit, Copenhaver.
5. Bruce Bander, "Looking for Love," New Covenant, April 1993, p. 13.
6. Op cit, Davidson, p. 158.
