Monday, July 12, 2021

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.

 

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