Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, August 13, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
God created us to be in relationship. With God, and with one another. This can take on many forms—we can at the same time be parent, child, sibling, friend, colleague, community member, and lover. Song of Solomon is a breathtaking poem about this last kind of relationship, one characterized by sexual love and passion. Sadly, the church has a long history of sexual repression, and so many of us grew up with the message that sex was somehow wrong. There’s a joke I heard once, the source of which I can’t remember, but it basically went like this: “Sex is filthy and horrible. Save it for the one you love.” Yeah.
Maybe it is our culturally ingrained discomfort with sexuality that keeps us from centering Song of Solomon in our Bible studies, or preaching on it in worship, or celebrating it as the incredible piece of scripture that it is. It’s a proclamation that God created us to be in sexual relationships, that they are good and right and beautiful, and to be celebrated!
Love and passion are a raging flame that cannot be quenched by even the fiercest floods. May we celebrate this love in our lives however we can.
What are my feelings about Song of Solomon? How have messages about sexuality in my past contributed to this?
