Sept 2 Sermon Notes Song of song 2:8-13, James 1:17-27

September 2 Song of Songs 2, James 1:17-27 At the General Assembly we struggled with the definition of marriage and if Presbyterian pastors can perform same gender marriage ceremonies. We have struggled with this issue for around 40 years at the national level. So, I am delighted to go to Scripture to read from this uninhibited letter praising mutual romantic love. It really is like a song, as it has parts like the old songs where a duet would sing their parts and join together. We even get a chorus that responds. Songs like this are sung in rural desert areas of the Arabian peninsula still. If you prefer, it is a love poem, for romantic love strains against the limitations of mere prose. Whenever I’ve worked with this book, people will say something of the order of, is that in the Bible? I was delighted that our daughter and son in law picked a reading from this book for their wedding, especially as they had worked on it together in Hebrew class in school. I realize that sexuality is dynamite, and the church is correct in handling with care, but we have been far too chary about celebrating it within our social structures. Now James 1:17-27 comes blasting in and speaks of moral filth, and now we are in comfortable territory, at least about other people. We often associate romantic love as something dirty. His concerns go much further and deeper than ours do.His view of sin is wide:anything that alienates us from the golden rule of loving God and neighbor. God smiles at the bedroom of a loving couple, and God weeps at the wordless meals at dining room tables or the harsh words bandied about in the kitchen. One of the great losses in human relationships is how the words of the Song of Solomon sort start to recede and get replaced by criticism and even contempt. In terms of our letter, James wonders how can the same lips that pray and praise God , or the words of romantic attachment and devotion, also speak the filth of condemnation, sarcasm, and disrespect that flow so easily from us? How does delight curdle into taking someone for granted or even contempt over time? I like elements of Celtic spirituality because it fits our physical, incarnate faith. It glories in the tactile manifestations of the creation and our role in it. James advocates keeping a tight rein on the tongue. Romantic love inspires flights of poetry, of whispering sweet words ( I will not call them sweet nothings) to our beloved. It is a sign of sin when those sweet endearments get transformed into words of resentment and bitter carping. One of those areas would be his lead in to our passage. We call acts of God disasters in insurance policies. we blame God when terrible things happen. James will have none of it, for all good and perfect gifts come from above. One of those good and perfect gifts is romantic love. In few areas do we fall into the trap of seeing the spiritual as abstract, as some airy realm above and beyond the physical as we do with romantic love. We tend to put the two on opposite ends of a spectrum. Let me conclude with some words on love. On Facebook recently, Christian Boyd, who was in our presbytery, put up a post on an apostle of christian love, Bernard of Clairvaux. He wrote 86 sermons on the song of songs. Let’s close with some of his words. they are models on how we can use our words, our tongues, as vehicles of love and not always aspire to be so sharp with our words, but loving.