All You Need Is Love: Reflections on Song of Songs 2.8-13

 

RCL Proper 22B

1 September 2024

 

Anglican Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

         In the Scriptures there is one book that makes no mention of God.  That book is the Song of Songs from which we heard a portion as the first reading this morning.  It is a collection of love poems between a woman and a man that contains some language that is what we might call ‘racy’.  Despite the absence of any reference to God and some of the racy language, the Song of Songs has been part of the Hebrew Scriptures since the second century of what we call ‘the Common Era’, the period of time since the beginning of the Christian movement.

 

         In Judaism the Song of Songs is usually interpreted as a description of the love that God has for the people of Israel.  Portions of the Song of Songs are read at Passover and, in some Jewish traditions, at the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday night.  Christians have followed the Jewish tradition by generally interpreting the Song of Songs as a description of the love that Christ has for the Church and of the love between God and the soul.

 

         These interpretations are all well and good.  They calm the nerves of those who are bothered by the language of the Song of Songs, and they avoid dealing with the fact that the woman is the main voice in the Song of Songs, a fact that some Jewish and Christian traditions find hard to swallow.

 

         But I think that these traditional interpretations obscure an essential dimension of being a human being:  the importance of mutual and faithful loving relationships.  Without mutual and faithful loving relationships, we cannot grow into greater likeness to God, the ultimate goal of genuine human maturity.  Whether these mutual and faithful relationships are life-long relationships that involve sexual intimacy or relationships between family members or relationships between friends does not matter.  What matters is that we understand that how we love one another matters to God.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships create loving communities that nurture and support our values and hopes.    Within loving communities we are empowered to grow and to mature.  Within loving communities we empowered to become who we truly are in an environment that respects and fosters our diverse gifts.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships enable us to acknowledge our faults and to seek reconciliation and renewal.  You may remember the 1970’s movie, Love Story, and its famous line, ‘Loves means never having to say you’re sorry.’  No falser statement has ever been made.  Mutual and faithful relationships understand the necessity of forgiveness so that old hurts and new wrongs can be laid aside in order to shape a new creation.  In a world beset by an absence of forgiveness, a dearth of reconciliation, our loving relationships can be part of the healing of creation.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships embody the good news of God in Christ.  We shape our lives in accordance with the vision of the kingdom of God we see in Jesus.  Our relationships, whether at home or at work or in our neighbourhoods, reveal how the love of God embodied in Jesus can transform lives “ . . . so that we and all (God’s) children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise (God’s) name” (The Book of Alternative Services1985, 215). 

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships strengthen us in loving our neighbours as ourselves.  Archbishop William Temple is supposed to have said that the Christian community is the one human society that exists primarily for its non-members.  To love another person means taking the risk to do what is needed so that the other person can become more truly who they are.  At the heart of service is listening and truly loving relationships teach us how to listen to one another – without judgement, without an agenda, without expectation of any reward other than the strengthening of love.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships empower us to work to overcome all the arbitrary restrictions and obstacles that prevent others from experiencing the fullness of life.  Healthy and life-giving relationships can only thrive where people are free from all that inhibits genuine human community.  When we enjoy such relationships, we can banish “ . . . all that kills abundant living . . . pride of status, race or schooling, dogmas that obscure (God’s) plan” (Fred Kaan, ‘For the Healing of the Nations’ in Songs for a Gospel People1987, #23).

 

         In today’s second reading from the Letter of James, we are encouraged to be “ . . . doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. “ (James 1.22 NRSVue).  In our proper praise and gratitude for the love of God, we may forget that our own relationships of mutual and faithful love with other human beings are how we do the Word not just hear it.

 

         It’s hard work to create and sustain relationships of mutual and faithful love.  Sometimes we have to acknowledge our failures and seek out new paths.  But we cannot give up on the life-long vocation to be people who know that without mutual and faithful human love we cannot abide in God.  Perhaps this is the knowledge that led the Jewish and Christian teachers to recognize that the Song of Songs is ‘Holy Word and Holy Wisdom’.  Thanks be to God.

 

            Note:  The core of this sermon is based on ‘Towards a Theology of Christians in Marriage’ written in 2005 as a theological commentary on the Marriage Canon of the Anglican Church of Canada.