LAKEWOOD/TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
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Date: September 8, 2024
Scripture Lesson: Song of Solomon 2:8-14
Sermon: Migration
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells
“Flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the Turtle[dove] is heard in our land.” [Song of Solomon 2:12]
Isabella Tree begins her book about the re-wilding of her family’s estate in England with this verse from Song of Solomon. Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm, is a detailed account of restoring the land of the estate to a thriving state of nature filled with a profusion of life.
The book Song of Songs or Song of Solomon is a celebration of the profusion of life as well. It is love poetry, voiced by a woman and a man, and it is infused with imagery from nature that celebrates the passion of life and love. The images hearken back to the garden of Eden.
While Song of Solomon is just a few short pages, the imagery from nature includes references to: pomegranates, grapes, vines, orchards, honey, flowers, fruit, grape blossoms, saffron, cinnamon, myrrh, aloes, henna, nard, calamus, nectar of lilies, the gazelle, raisins, nuts, blossoms, grass, wine, spices, fields, vineyards, hills, mountains, mandrakes, apples, palm trees, birds, bees, milk, turtle doves, does, stags, rocks, water flowing like a fountain and the season of springtime. It reads like nature encyclopedia. These references pour forth the exuberant life celebrated in this unusual book. Unusual because it is included in the Bible even though there is no mention of God. It has this in common with the book of Esther. It is also a love poem, erotic and intimate, voiced by a man and a woman. Thirty-six of the verses are in the voice of the man and 56 verses are in the voice of the woman. Again, extremely unusual for an ancient writing. So we have this passionate poetry about dizzying love between a dark-skinned woman and a shepherd.
And lest we minimize or allegorize or ‘metaphoricalize’ the nature of the love extolled in Song of Solomon, it is hard to ignore that there is mention of many body parts in the poetry. This book is about embodied love. We are told of: lips a ribbon of scarlet, breath, arms, ear lobes, thighs, legs, belly, neck, head, feet, tongue, hair, eyes, navel, cheeks, breasts, left hand, right hand, face, voice, skin, teeth, and smell. This is passionate love between two human beings. Longingly in love.
The original writer or writers do not seem to be interested in addressing the nature of God or religious doctrine in this book.
We are presented with an outpouring of passion, a vision of a world bursting with life and love. We are shown the glories of nature erupting in beauty and abundance. We are told of the passion and confusion and intimacy of desire between people in love. We see a beautiful expression of the wonderful world of abundance and beauty and joy that has been provided for us. We have been given this amazing life and this garden as our home.
While there is no direct mention of God, there is likely the insinuation that this is the intention for Creation, for life, for human love, for nature. There is a giver. There is a passionate force of life and love behind it all.
To return for a moment to the turtledove. This is a bird that spends part of the year in the environs of Africa and then migrates to a more northern clime. In the book Wilding, Isabella Tree describes the migrations: “. . .their tiny flight muscles pumping 3,000 miles from deep in West Africa, from Mali, Niger and Senegal, across the epic landscapes of the Sahara Desert, the Atlas Mountains and the Gulf of Cadiz; over the Mediterranean, up the Iberian Peninsula, through France and across the English Channel. They mostly fly under the cover of darkness, covering between 300 and 450 miles every night at a maximum speed of 40 miles an hour, usually making landfall in England around May or early June. . . they have come to breed, to raise their young far from the predators and competitors of Africa and to take advantage of the long daylight feeding hours of the European summer.” [pp. 1-2]
This migration sounds astounding. The effort, the risk, the danger, the exertion. Amazing. All for the cause of life! To thrive and flourish and reproduce.
We see this passion for life, conveyed in the references to nature and to erotic love in the verses of Song of Solomon. This reveals to us the power and passion of the creator, of God, of Love, of the life force that is at the heart of reality. These images hearken to a force, the force of love, making whatever effort is needed, whatever it takes to see that life, that we, thrive and flourish.
From these references to nature, we can imagine Divine Love, a creative force, God, seeking to migrate to us to show us how loved we are. A love that will go to any length to provide us with abundance, joy, and happiness as well as everything that we need not just to survive but to flourish and thrive with passion.
And in our Christian tradition, in which we celebrate that the word became flesh [John 1:14] we can think of Divine Love migrating into our very form, in Jesus the Christ, to express passionate love for us. To convey the intimacy, the beauty, and the power, of the love that courses through us and claims us. We see a God, however we may envision God, sparing no effort to convey to us that we are beloved. And our life journey can be seen as a migration toward accepting that love.
When I think of yet another horrific shooting in Georgia this week, I feel devastation and heartbreak for the families and the school and the community and our. nation. But I find myself wondering about those who are responsible for these kinds of heinous acts. What happened to them? What circumstances led to their actions? How have they been damaged? I feel that they cannot know of this love that we see in the Bible, in Song of Solomon, in Jesus. Maybe they have not experienced the unconditional acceptance and love we are talking about. They must not know that they are loved beyond measure. That there is a force in the world seeking to make sure that they are cared for and that they thrive and embrace life with passion and joy. It seems they do not know that they are beautiful and beloved.
Song of Solomon, with its portrayal of intimate, ecstatic love between two people gives us a glimpse of so much more. The profligacy of nature. The passion and beauty that surrounds us and infuses us. The reality that is giving to us more than we could ever imagine or desire. And in our faith tradition, we celebrate this all made manifest in the life, teachings, and ministry of Jesus. For us, he is the embodiment of all of this love and he shows us how to live that love for ourselves, for others in our relationships, and for this precious world.
Our faith teaches that God, Divine Love, is always seeking us out, migrating to us, so that we may have all that we need to embrace life with joy and desire.
In Song of Solomon, one of the lovers declares: “Your beauty is perfect.” [4:7] With all the messages of hate and degrading, demeaning criticism that swirl around us. With the ugliness and violence that begets only more pain and suffering. With the racist and biased words and actions that desecrate our world, here, at church, we are reminded of true reality. Of the intentions of Divine Love. Thriving passionate life for not only humans but for all of Creation. “Your beauty is perfect.” This is God’s message to every single person, created in the Divine Image.
We end with a blessing from 12th century mystic, Hildegard of Bingen:
Good people,
Most royal greening verdancy,
rooted in the sun,
you shine with radiant light.
In this circle of earthly existence
you shine
so finely,
it surpasses understanding.
God hugs you.
You are encircled
by the arms
of the mystery of God.
Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
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