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.”
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