Pastor's Corner: Blushing at my Bible

What’s one of your favorite Bible passages that almost never gets read at church?

For me, it’s Song of Songs, better known as Song of Solomon. I know why it’s rarely mentioned in church: on the surface, it is an erotic love poem. There’s a woman and a man in a garden — and things are going down in the garden! In this famous — and infamous — little book, we find lines like 1:2, where the woman says to the man, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine.” When the man describes the woman in chapter 7, we hear juicy similes: “You are stately as a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its branches. O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine’” (7:7-9). Can you imagine the reader on Sunday morning going up and reading Song of Songs’ description of what’s going on in that garden? It would shock us all!

But I wish we read Song of Songs publicly more often, and not just at weddings, for it has holy things to say to all of us. The book starts: “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.” Solomon was responsible for building the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber in the Temple where God’s presence was the most concentrated, a place of sacredness and awe and closeness to God. 2000 years ago, a rabbi compared this Song of Songs to the Holy of Holies. This book brings us to a place of sacredness and awe, and yes, even closeness to God. Stay with me!

The book celebrates our bodies as wonderful, as beautiful and beloved. Every chapter of Song of Songs makes it clear that human sexuality is part of God’s good creation. There are a lot of steamy garden scenes — it’s like the Garden of Eden, but without the sin. Man and woman in perfect harmony — with each other and the natural world. No scary snakes, no thorns or thistles here. This is creation and intimacy redeemed of our abuse of both.

The Song embraces physical love, but it doesn’t say that ‘anything goes!’ It’s not endorsing promiscuity or sleeping around. Fidelity and mutuality mark the passion in this gem of a book. The lovers are faithful to each other. We hear the woman proclaim several times, “My beloved is mine and I am his.”

Isn’t that how we could describe our relationship with Christ? “My beloved is mine and I am his.” You might have been wondering, where is God in this book of the Bible? On the surface, God isn’t in it at all. God is never mentioned. But for thousands of years faithful readers of this book have found God suffused within every word. Consider how, in chapter 2, the man has leapt over the mountains, bounded over the hills, to come to his lover’s home. He gazes through the window, looks through the lattice, and beckons to the woman, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Come away, my love, and let us spend time together, outside of the routine. Let us be intentional about our relationship. Every relationship can be weakened by losing touch or taking the other for granted. And every relationship can be strengthened through intentional connection.

The same holds true in our relationship to God. I sense God especially here in Song of Songs. God as the lover, climbing to our window, inviting us, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Come away with me, my love, and let us spend time together. It’s not just lovers or friends whose relationships need nurturing. In our relationship to God, closeness and intimacy must be nurtured.

Our God longs to be known — by you. For centuries, a certain strand of Judaism has sung and still sings Song of Songs as part of the ritual that welcomes the Sabbath. Imagine, if before you came to church on Sunday morning, you heard God singing to you, “Arise, my love, and come away.” And you come to worship not just because it’s routine, but because it’s one chance — though certainly not the only — one chance to spend intentional time with the one who loves you to the moon and back. To the grave and back.

“Arise, my love, and come away.” Come to the garden, for your lover is waiting!

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Pastor Megan Hoewisch

First Lutheran Church