Pitt Street
29 August 2021
Song of Songs 2: 8 – 13
Very occasionally the Lectionary surprises me. This has been the case this week, as the chosen reading from the Jewish Scriptures is taken from The Song of Songs. In my bible this book is called The Song of Solomon; and I don’t recall these words being the focus of a preacher’s comments before.
Two writers have captured my attention this week. The first is Rev Elaine James, writing as Assistant Professor of Theology at St Catherine University in St Paul, Minnesota, USA; and the second someone known to some of my hearer’s today, Rev Andrew Gammon, a retired Minister, who is pioneering a fresh expression of Church in the growing community at Waitoki north of Auckland.
Andrew notes that this week is the only time in the three-year lectionary cycle where a reading from the Song of Songs is included. He writes that the book’s title is notable. In some bibles the book has the superscription ‘Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. Perhaps it could be considered part of a collection of Wisdom Literature: material to be pondered over, inspiring fresh hope in a dark world – and welcoming signs of new life in nature surrounding us.
Our world facing the COVID-19 pandemic may be considered a ‘dark world’ looking for signs of hope.
Both Andrew and Elaine have a somewhat different response to today’s readings. Andrew remarks that this Book is unusual: unusual in that God is not mentioned anywhere; and further he writes that it is essentially a love story, one told in figures of speech that seem quite strange to Western minds.
Those words captured my attention.
Elaine reads more detail into her commentary. She writes that the Song of Songs has often been pitched in one of two ways: it could be viewed as an allegory about God’s love; or, it could be viewed as highly suggestive poetry about human love.
I remember the book being described as unsuitable for young minds, eyes, and ears when I was a teenager.
When I was told that I could only wonder how it was included in the bible. It never crossed my mind to investigate the matter further. I accepted what I had been told! When I did read the book some years later, I wondered what all this fuss was about. Not many of the images used made any sense to me.
I discovered a sense that I needed a guidebook to unravel the poetic forms used; and at that time, I did not feel that such an exploration would be time well spent.
Elaine writes that the Song of Songs is the only ‘sex-positive’ text in the whole bible and suggests that it’s a ‘brave preacher’ who addresses the text. That suggestion issued a challenge to me: the challenge to consider something very new and to address this text on a day when the other Lectionary readings are so rich in imagery and meaning.
In her writings Elaine goes on to say that the Song of Songs evokes thought about the many forms of love,
one of these being the love of the land – the whenua – important as this week we begin to travel through a liturgical period known as the Seasons of Creation. Next Sunday is Planet Earth Sunday so today this is a very appropriate introduction.
Elaine draws attention to two further aspects of the text. First, she writes that calling the text Song of Solomon perpetuates the rendering of a women in the biblical text invisible, something she believes the New Revised Standard Version and many other English translations do.
Today’s reading is a very women-centred text and women’s voices predominate. The entire text we’ve heard this morning is cast in the voice of a women. When the unnamed women’s male lover speaks, we hear a woman’s words: “My beloved speaks and says to me …” Elaine writes that the women’s voice is central to the poem’s action, and meaning, and she emphasises that readers should not underestimate this point. Elaine was writing in that moment where the MeToo movement was gaining traction,
reminding the world of the importance of hearing women’s voices, especially in a world where male domination and entitlement were experienced - dominating discourse.
The second focus Elaine refers to is that this is a ‘Green Text’. Elaine writes that perhaps more than any other biblical text, the Song of Songs is filled with images relating to the natural world. The Song of Songs abounds with images of plentiful vineyards, fields, and gardens. Some twenty-four plant varieties are named, from the native palm tree, to wildflowers, to exotic species like myrrh. In Elaine’s view, to read the Song of Songs is to be invited to experience a lush fertile landscape. It is also an invitation to look at the land around us, to see a larger world in springtime, and to understand its specificity and detail. How relevant at a time when we are forced to view our world through the lens of climate change activism
and to imagine a healthier earth.
For me there is a word in the text to note. That word is ‘listen’. This morning we are invited to listen for something different; and to be open to the possibility that in this unusual experience we will capture a new vision that summons us forth to participate in God’s new creation.
We are also invited to read some more and fathom for ourselves exactly what meaning there is to discover in the poetry of this mysterious book called The Song of Songs - The Song of Solomon. This morning,
if we accept this invitation, we will place God at the centre of the way we look at the world that is entering a time of renewal in front of our eyes.
We call this renewal Spring: a time of new growth, new life, signalling the hope for abundance. May it also be a time when we listen to what the changes to climate patterns in our world are announcing to us,
encouraging us to tread more lightly on our now fragile planet.
May we give thanks for this emerging season we call spring. Thanks be to God. Amen