Solomon's Song Of Love
Sermon
THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM
Sermons For Pentecost (Middle Third)
It was summer heaven on the mountain. We woke to the song of thrushes and rose to watch the fog moving and lifting through the valley. We lit a little summer fire, with doors and windows opened wide. The coffee began to perk, the children to stir. We plotted and planned summer adventures: a creek hike in search of salamanders, a picnic at the top of the mountain, carpeted with ferns, where the laurel was at its peak. And yes, I got a terrific case of poison ivy, picking black-eyed Susans for the grandmother's return. It was summer heaven on the mountain, a blessing of creation, abundant, full.
This is the song which Solomon sings, the goodness of creation, in the portion of the Song Of Solomon appointed for this morning. "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land, the fig tree puts forth its fruit and the vines are in blossom, they put forth fragrance."
This is a song of the goodness of nature. Someone has said, in fact, that it is the most beautiful song to nature in the Old Testament. And it is a song that each of us has sung at times in our lives, I hope, when we are filled with the beauty of the world and the wonder of the pattern of nature. The goodness of creation is reflected on an autumn afternoon, when the trees are dripping with color, like an artist's autumn palette all crimson and orange and gold, and the world itself seems an abundant place. The goodness of creation is reflected when you rise on a winter morning and the new moon is hanging in the winter sky, two planets shine brightly beside the crescent as the sun edges its way up toward the horizon. It is cold and clear and breathtakingly beautiful. It is cold, better get the newspaper and get back inside. The goodness of creation is reflected in the seasons, spring and summer, autumn and winter. There is a pattern to the created order and it is good. "For lo, the winter is past."
But the Song is not simply a song to the goodness and beauty of creation, a simple song to spring arriving. No, the creation song is only background music to the main tune of the Song Of Solomon, which is this song of love, the song of two lovers: "the voice of my beloved, look, he comes leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills," "my beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag," "my lover is mine and I am his, who browses among the lilies," "catch us the foxes, the little foxes that damage the vineyards when the vineyards are in bloom."
The Song Of Solomon is, in fact, a collection of 25 lyric poems, love poems, poems written to the glories of eros, human sexual love in all of its fullness. Take a moment this afternoon, if you have a moment after chapel, maybe after lunch, to read the entire Song, but be prepared, the room you are reading in may get a little steamy. For the Song Of Solomon is a clear melody to sexual love. The song says that such love should be sought after and treasured when found. These poems are an unapologetic depiction of two lovers and all that they share, their tenderness, intimacy, longing, illusion, mutual esteem of and desire for each other's bodies. The Song Of Solomon is a song sung to the mysterious and glorious dimensions of human sexual love.
Scholars have most often placed the Song in the body of biblical wisdom literature. I imagine it is placed there because Solomon's name is attached to it. Different from the texts of the Bible which deal with the past, the histories, and the texts which deal with the future, the prophets, different from the texts that describe the liturgies and worship of God, as most of the psalms do, wisdom literature deals with the present, the here and the now. Wisdom literature probes the present and asks questions of the meaning of life and of death, of suffering and of time. Wisdom asks us to be realistic for God's sake: to stand up to God in the midst of terrible suffering, as Job does; to be terribly honest about life's limitations and the fact of death, as Ecclesiastes the Teacher is. Wisdom keeps us on the straight and narrow path as the collection of Proverbs attempts to do. And integral to wisdom's search for understanding is wisdom's relation to the divine. Biblical wisdom literature presupposes the existence of God, understands God to be the Source of wisdom, wisdom's fount. God is even personified as wisdom. Wisdom's theology may be subtle, may be sophisticated, may be radical, but there is a theology, nonetheless, a study of God and God's intention for us in the wisdom corpus.
But in the Song of Solomon, God is not mentioned. In the Song, God is not mentioned, no, not once. And for this reason and because the Song Of Solomon does not ask questions or glean for wisdom, I line myself up with the scholars who place the Song of Solomon in another category altogether, a category of its own. The Song Of Solomon simply sings the song of love. It is a song sung to the goodness of all that is created, as something desirable, in and of itself, to the goodness of creation and human sexual love.
Listen to parts of the poems, to the wonderful exchange, the metaphors, illusions, the coyness in the lover's voices:
O that you might kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, for your love is better than wine.
Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold you are beautiful.
Your shoots are an orchard with all the choicest nard, and saffron, calamus and cinnamon.
How sweet is your love, my sister my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes.
I arose to open to my beloved and my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh.
My beloved has gone down to his garden to the bed of spices, to pasture his flock in the garden, to gather lilies ...
Eat O friends and drink, drink deeply of lovers.
God knows we know how complicated the good gift of human sexual love is. As a church, as communities of faith, we strive to live with the most difficult questions of human sexuality - what does it mean to be faithful? What does it mean to be responsible? How can we educate our children to be intelligent, thoughtful, careful, respectful? We strive to live with the difficult questions this century has introduced, the questions of choice and freedom, questions of protection and responsibility. God knows we know how quickly the power and attraction of human sexuality can be misused and abused, how quickly our longing for intimacy gets confused with our need for release or our own need for security. Our questions and concerns help us to articulate ethics and guidelines for safety in a world where sex is often a dangerous game. And all of our questions and struggles and concerns and guidelines and ethics and models for behavior as individuals and in community are an essential part of our lives as Christians, as faithful Christians and responsible Christians.
But on this Sunday, when the sweetness of summer is still in the air, and the second growth of raspberries ripen to their full flavor on the bushes, on this Sunday, when the summer roses cast an aroma that catches us up in the subtlety of their smell, on this Sunday we are called by this text to claim the goodness of all that is created and especially claim the goodness of our sexuality, the beauty of our bodies and the pleasure that the gift of love and loving gives to us: "My beloved is mine and I am his. He pastures his flock among the lilies. Turn, my beloved, like a gazelle, or a young stag upon the mountains." Amen.
This is the song which Solomon sings, the goodness of creation, in the portion of the Song Of Solomon appointed for this morning. "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land, the fig tree puts forth its fruit and the vines are in blossom, they put forth fragrance."
This is a song of the goodness of nature. Someone has said, in fact, that it is the most beautiful song to nature in the Old Testament. And it is a song that each of us has sung at times in our lives, I hope, when we are filled with the beauty of the world and the wonder of the pattern of nature. The goodness of creation is reflected on an autumn afternoon, when the trees are dripping with color, like an artist's autumn palette all crimson and orange and gold, and the world itself seems an abundant place. The goodness of creation is reflected when you rise on a winter morning and the new moon is hanging in the winter sky, two planets shine brightly beside the crescent as the sun edges its way up toward the horizon. It is cold and clear and breathtakingly beautiful. It is cold, better get the newspaper and get back inside. The goodness of creation is reflected in the seasons, spring and summer, autumn and winter. There is a pattern to the created order and it is good. "For lo, the winter is past."
But the Song is not simply a song to the goodness and beauty of creation, a simple song to spring arriving. No, the creation song is only background music to the main tune of the Song Of Solomon, which is this song of love, the song of two lovers: "the voice of my beloved, look, he comes leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills," "my beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag," "my lover is mine and I am his, who browses among the lilies," "catch us the foxes, the little foxes that damage the vineyards when the vineyards are in bloom."
The Song Of Solomon is, in fact, a collection of 25 lyric poems, love poems, poems written to the glories of eros, human sexual love in all of its fullness. Take a moment this afternoon, if you have a moment after chapel, maybe after lunch, to read the entire Song, but be prepared, the room you are reading in may get a little steamy. For the Song Of Solomon is a clear melody to sexual love. The song says that such love should be sought after and treasured when found. These poems are an unapologetic depiction of two lovers and all that they share, their tenderness, intimacy, longing, illusion, mutual esteem of and desire for each other's bodies. The Song Of Solomon is a song sung to the mysterious and glorious dimensions of human sexual love.
Scholars have most often placed the Song in the body of biblical wisdom literature. I imagine it is placed there because Solomon's name is attached to it. Different from the texts of the Bible which deal with the past, the histories, and the texts which deal with the future, the prophets, different from the texts that describe the liturgies and worship of God, as most of the psalms do, wisdom literature deals with the present, the here and the now. Wisdom literature probes the present and asks questions of the meaning of life and of death, of suffering and of time. Wisdom asks us to be realistic for God's sake: to stand up to God in the midst of terrible suffering, as Job does; to be terribly honest about life's limitations and the fact of death, as Ecclesiastes the Teacher is. Wisdom keeps us on the straight and narrow path as the collection of Proverbs attempts to do. And integral to wisdom's search for understanding is wisdom's relation to the divine. Biblical wisdom literature presupposes the existence of God, understands God to be the Source of wisdom, wisdom's fount. God is even personified as wisdom. Wisdom's theology may be subtle, may be sophisticated, may be radical, but there is a theology, nonetheless, a study of God and God's intention for us in the wisdom corpus.
But in the Song of Solomon, God is not mentioned. In the Song, God is not mentioned, no, not once. And for this reason and because the Song Of Solomon does not ask questions or glean for wisdom, I line myself up with the scholars who place the Song of Solomon in another category altogether, a category of its own. The Song Of Solomon simply sings the song of love. It is a song sung to the goodness of all that is created, as something desirable, in and of itself, to the goodness of creation and human sexual love.
Listen to parts of the poems, to the wonderful exchange, the metaphors, illusions, the coyness in the lover's voices:
O that you might kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, for your love is better than wine.
Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold you are beautiful.
Your shoots are an orchard with all the choicest nard, and saffron, calamus and cinnamon.
How sweet is your love, my sister my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes.
I arose to open to my beloved and my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh.
My beloved has gone down to his garden to the bed of spices, to pasture his flock in the garden, to gather lilies ...
Eat O friends and drink, drink deeply of lovers.
God knows we know how complicated the good gift of human sexual love is. As a church, as communities of faith, we strive to live with the most difficult questions of human sexuality - what does it mean to be faithful? What does it mean to be responsible? How can we educate our children to be intelligent, thoughtful, careful, respectful? We strive to live with the difficult questions this century has introduced, the questions of choice and freedom, questions of protection and responsibility. God knows we know how quickly the power and attraction of human sexuality can be misused and abused, how quickly our longing for intimacy gets confused with our need for release or our own need for security. Our questions and concerns help us to articulate ethics and guidelines for safety in a world where sex is often a dangerous game. And all of our questions and struggles and concerns and guidelines and ethics and models for behavior as individuals and in community are an essential part of our lives as Christians, as faithful Christians and responsible Christians.
But on this Sunday, when the sweetness of summer is still in the air, and the second growth of raspberries ripen to their full flavor on the bushes, on this Sunday, when the summer roses cast an aroma that catches us up in the subtlety of their smell, on this Sunday we are called by this text to claim the goodness of all that is created and especially claim the goodness of our sexuality, the beauty of our bodies and the pleasure that the gift of love and loving gives to us: "My beloved is mine and I am his. He pastures his flock among the lilies. Turn, my beloved, like a gazelle, or a young stag upon the mountains." Amen.
