Leaning On Our Beloved; Song of Solomon 8:5-7

 

Rev. George Miller

July 25, 2021

Song Of Solomon 8:5-7        

 

Today we come to the end of our time in the garden with these 2 lovers who have taken us away on a sensual journey.

 

It’s been a welcome reprieve, a sensual delight to engage our hearts, our eyes, our lips with a way to fully be.

 

To be present. 

To be in the here and now.

To be vulnerable.

To be surrounded by love.

 

Unapologetic love.

 

How fitting to conclude this sacred time with what is the most well-known portion of this song.

 

Within these 3 verses are a legacy of images, biblical illusions, and a testimony to the eternal power of love.

 

Wilderness and Tree.

Sleep and waking.

 

Lover and parent.

Birth and death.

 

Fire and flood.

Flame and water.

 

Wealth and home.

Death and love.

 

All of the cosmos are right here.

The most powerful forces.

 

Not kings or queens.

Not taxes or parliament.

 

Not Disney or Vin Diesel.

 

But the most powerful of all-

 

The beginning and the end.

 

That which burns and that which quenches.

 

And the uniting factor of this is dependence.

 

What this text expresses, what it celebrates is such an ancient, and yet revolutionary idea-

 

That we are dependent beings.

 

That we are not created to be alone,

to go it by ourselves,

to stand solo,

to face the flames and floods free of anyone else.

 

Instead, we are created to be a part of, to belong to, to be with.

 

Let us soak in the vista of today’s scripture-

 

We have a person, emerging from the wilderness, whatever you imagine that wilderness to be.

 

But they are not emerging alone; they are leaning upon the arms of their beloved, whoever that beloved is.

 

It is a picture of beauty.

A picture of togetherness.

A picture of 2 people being a part of.

 

Leaning. 

Being supported by.

Trusting they will not fall.

 

Skin touching skin.

 

This image brings so many things to mind.

 

For me, I think of the time I was five, stepped on a spike in the water, and my father rushed into the waves and carried me out.

 

Think of some of the images we have of the stages of life-

 

Of teens going to Prom; arm draped in arm; the photos taken, with arms wrapped around another.

 

Think of hands held by fiancés as they exchange wedding day vows.

 

Think of couples when one is pregnant and leans against the other as they go to the pediatrician.

 

Think of a parent carrying a child on their shoulders and how it requires the adult holding onto their legs as the child holds onto their head, or ears, or chin.

 

Think of couples who grow older, and now they lean on one another so that neither of them falls.

 

Dependence.

 

In America, many of us have been taught that independence is the best thing there can be. 

 

That we can do it all.

We can do it alone.

 

We can pull ourselves up by the bootstraps.

 

We can achieve all we can achieve with no one else but me, myself, and I.

 

But here…here we have this sacred, sensual scripture that reminds us, that we were not created to be alone.

 

We were created to be in relationship.

 

Relationship with the earth.

Relationship with God.

Relationship with one another.

 

Here, we have a sacred, sensual scripture that does not nullify the difficulties of life-

 

Yes, there is death.

Yes, there is fire.

Yes, there are floods.

 

But love.

 

Love for another.

Love with another.

 

Love in which we can give ourselves.  Love in which we can be identified with another.

 

Love is as powerful as any of those things.

 

And the poet sees love just as precious as any amount of wealth or home.

 

Love is that which we lean on when we are awake.

 

Love is what we lean on when we worry about tomorrow.

 

Love is what we lean on when we emerge from the wildernesses we encounter.

 

Because to be dependent is not demeaning.

 

To be part of does not mean you have lost yourself.

 

But to know that we were created to not only walk with the Good Shepherd, but that we are also meant to walk with one another.

 

Through the fire, through the flood.  We do not have to endure things alone. 

 

It is beautiful to know that we can face all things together, and together with God.

   For that, let us say “Amen.”

Revolution of Song of Solomon 4:1-4

 

Rev. George Miller

July 18, 2021

Solomon 4:1-4

 

There is a tradition that’s been part of my life for over 15 years.  Every week as the sermon is being co-created with the Holy Spirit, the same CD is played.

 

It’s a compilation of songs by Keith Sweat. 

 

After 15 years the sound of the same CD has created an ethereal space in which ego can disconnect and the sermon seems to write itself.

 

It wasn’t until the time of today’s composing that I realized something- every song on that CD is a love song.

 

Titles like “When I Give My Love,” “I’ll Give All My Love,” and “Can We Make Love.”

 

Love, love, love.

 

Is there a stronger power in the world?  Is there anything more longed for, desired, and treasured?

 

Love.

 

This morning we continue being in the garden with these two lovers as they profess their deep desire and appreciation for one another.

 

It’s a sensual, pleasurable experience, but one that also radiates a revolution.

 

Why?

 

Because this is the only book in the entire Bible in which we hear the narrative voice of a woman.

 

Both man and woman, woman and man share words of affection for one another, but guess what- the woman has way more lines than the man.

 

She is actually the star and he is the supporting player.

 

More than that- the woman is black.  She has been kissed by the sun. 

 

In Chapter 1, verse 5 she says “I am black and beautiful.”

 

The woman is black and lovely and her lover loves everything about her- her eyes - like doves, her hair -like goats, her teeth, her lips, her cheeks, her neck, her breasts.

 

The narrator mentions 7 specific parts of her body.  7, which in ancient days was used to symbolize perfection.

 

7, which just so happens to be the days of creation.

 

7 ways in which she is beautiful.  7 ways in which she is praised.

 

Friends, think of how powerful this book is. 

 

At a time in which there has been so much disrespect shared and so much hate stated, here we have a sacred text,

 

in which a woman, a black woman, is lifted up, is praised, is portrayed as perfect, complete, whole.

 

After all, isn’t that what we all want?

 

Don’t we all want to be seen?  Don’t we all want to be complimented?

 

Don’t we all want to be acknowledged as the beautiful, handsome, amazing people we are?

 

Don’t we all want to hear “You are perfect just the way you are?”

 

Here, in today’s scripture we experience that.

 

There’s no Left Shark.  There’s no tope.  There’s no tragic mistakes.

 

Today is all about your eyes, your hair, your cheeks, until time ends and the shadows flee.

 

How wonderful that we have such a scripture because it is a reminder that our bodies are valuable, and that our bodies matter.

 

Our bodies matter to ourselves, our bodies matter to those who love us, our bodies matter to God.

 

No wonder God came to us as Emmanuel.  To walk with us, to talk with us.  To attend weddings.  To sip wine.  To eat bread.  

 

To reach out and touch the ostracized.  To be reached out and touched by the ill. 

 

To meet as at wells during the hottest time of the day.  To be with us on the shore.  To feed us on the mountaintops.

 

To walk with us in the garden and when we are on the lonely Road to Emmaus.

 

Today we are reminded that the body is beautiful.  Our bodies are beautiful.

 

And we are loved, and in the eyes of our Creator, we are perfect.

 

For that, let us say, “Amen.”

LOVE- The Song of Solomon 2:2-7

 

Rev. George Miller

July 11, 2021

Song of Solomon 2:2-7

 

Last month we talked about love, Christian love.

 

This month we also talk about love, but another kind.

 

Romantic love.

 

Love that is embodied.  Love that is sensual.  Love that involves taste, touch, smell.

 

Love that yearns.  Love that lingers.  Love that is consensual; relational.

 

In July, as the temperatures rise, we enter into the world of the Song of Solomon where references to

 

flocks and flowers,

fig trees and fragrances

keep us shaded from whatever else

may be going on the world.

 

Today’s book does not care about justice, it does not focus on worrying about tomorrow.

 

Today’s book doesn’t even mention God one time.

 

Instead, it focuses on the here and now, the give and take, the growth and good news of love.

 

L-O-V-E.

 

Or in the song sung by Nat King Cole-

 

L is for the way you look at me.

O is for the only one I see.

V is very, very extraordinary.

E is for even more than you can adore.

 

LOVE.

 

Isn’t it wonderful that love matters so much to God, that there is an entire book in the Bible devoted to it, in which nothing but the words of 2 lovers spoken to one another are the focus?

 

Love.

 

It is especially interesting to note that today’s reading is full of garden imagery.  It’s as if we are back in the Garden of Eden.

 

Roses and lilies, apple trees and sweet juicy fruit.

 

You can picture this being the place where God would arrive to walk with Eve and Adam in the cool afternoon breeze.

 

It’s as if we are back in the book of Joshua, entering the Promised Land with its milk and honey, grapes and pomegranates.

 

It’s as if we are back on that first Easter morning when Mary Magdelene is in the garden and hears the voice of her resurrected teacher speak sweetly.

 

It is so telling that this book devoted to love is set amongst fruit and flowers.

 

It is so telling that this book about positive, empowering relationships is set in nature, because it so ties into our very Creation stories.

 

Do you recall that in Genesis 1, after God creates earth and animal, plants and birds, God creates woman and man?

 

God creates them so the man and woman can watch over creation, so they can take care of the plants that bear seed, and trees that give fruit.

 

God creates humanity to be in relationship with God, to be in relationship with the earth, and to be in relationship with the natural world.

 

For those not used to living in nature, you might think- nature does not need us, nature can care for itself.

 

Which can be true in some aspects.

 

But have you ever seen what happens when a flower is unkept and allowed to turn into a bush? 

 

Have you ever seen what happens when a shrub is unkept and allowed to turn into a tree?

 

Have you ever seen what happens to trees when they are uncared for?

 

There can be rot, wildfires, and sickness, affecting everything around.

 

But what happens when a sunflower or tomato plant is propped up by a pole?

 

What happens to a crepe myrtle when it is pruned back before the start of winter?

 

What happens to an oak tree when all the Spanish moss is culled away?

 

They grow, they blossom, they thrive.

 

It’s a relationship that empowers this to happen.  A relationship between humans and the land.

 

What happens when that relationship is disrespected?  When instead of care, we toss empty cans into the ocean and throw candy wrappers out of the car?

 

The relationship suffers.

 

Today’s reading is like that.  It is about 2 individuals, 2 people, who are madly, deeply in love with one another.

 

2 people who trust one another, 2 people who feel safe around one another.  2 people who thrive when they are in each other’s presence.

 

2 people in a relationship with one another in which how they act, how they respond, how they respect each other has a profound affect.

 

Love.

 

Where there is delight.

There is sweetness.

We are supported.

We are embraced.

 

We are sustained.

 

This month we leave behind the tasks, the chores, the uncertainty.

 

And we focus on the here and now.

 

The gift of being in relationship.

The gift of knowing we are beautiful.

The gift of loving.

 

And knowing that we are loved in return.

 

For that, we can say, Amen.