A love poem for today

Passage for reflection: Song of Solomon 2: 8 - 11

The voice of my beloved!

   Look, he comes,

leaping upon the mountains,

   bounding over the hills. 

My beloved is like a gazelle

   or a young stag.

Look, there he stands

   behind our wall,

gazing in at the windows,

   looking through the lattice. 

My beloved speaks and says to me:

‘Arise, my love, my fair one,

   and come away; 

for now the winter is past,

   the rain is over and gone. 

“What in the world is this doing in the Bible?” It’s a not an uncommon reaction to a first encounter with the Song of Solomon (or, as it’s known from the Hebrew title, the Song of Songs). A love song between a man and a woman full of lush and sometimes erotic imagery hardly seems appropriate for Holy Writ. But here it is, in our Bible and in our lectionary readings. “My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag….My beloved speaks and says to me, ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away'” (Song of Solomon 2:9, 10). 

Modern readers are not the only ones to be startled by the content of the Song. Its inclusion in the canon of Scripture was a matter of debate among rabbis in the first century CE. Some considered it little more than a drinking song. The matter was settled by the great teacher and mystic, Rabbi Akiba, who said, “The whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies” (Mishnah Yadayim3:5).

Early and medieval Christians shared this high opinion of the Song. Origen wrote homilies and a ten-volume commentary on it. In the Middle Ages, the Song was the subject of more commentaries than any other Old Testament book. Bernard of Clairvaux, in the twelfth century, wrote eighty six sermons on the Song (and did not even get past chapter 2)!

What is it about this book that has inspired such enthusiasm through the centuries? Modern scholars are almost unanimous in viewing the Song as a celebration of sexual love between a man and a woman. For Jewish and Christian interpreters of previous centuries, however, the Song described the mutual love of God and Israel or Christ and the Church.

Both interpretations can be supported by the text. At its most basic level, the Song of Solomon is indeed a celebration of human love. It consists primarily of dialogue between a pair of lovers, a man and a woman. There is no explicit narrative plot in the book. The scenes are connected instead by similar motifs and themes: passion, descriptions of physical beauty, memories of past encounters, and longing for the lover’s presence.

But we have a story… and it’s about two lovers, just that. At times the words are erotic, the Song presents an unabashed look at the joy of love (and sex) between two lovers.

We find a girl peeking out through the palace window for her lover, straining to hear his voice from a distance. She imagines him as wild and free, tempting her away into the joys of spring and the promise of togetherness. 

There’s though another story…

 If we read the text allegorically – as a metaphor for the relationship between God and God's people, or Christ and the Church – it speaks of a love so strong that God runs over mountains to seek us out and invite us into relationship.

In this song, it is clear that things have been difficult, but those days are no longer, “for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone” (verse 11). Such words imply that what has been spoken is not just sweet nothings or platitudes, but hope that springs even from dry places. It implies the reality of those things in life that keep us shut in and frozen, or looking out at dreary skies once again with lament. While it should be noted that any one relationship should not be the be-all-end-all of our happiness, it is certainly true that the love we share with others has the potential to turn even our worst days around. For the people of God hearing these words from Song of Solomon, there may have also been a deep longing for a restored relationship with the Divine. When all else seems to have failed, we too search the horizons for signs of hope and promise.

How would it be if we believed in a God who constantly beckons to us to come away?

How would it be if we got passionately excited about God’s love again and in a God who runs over mountains to find us?

Do we believe in him our winter is past?

The Christian desire is to be wrapped in the infinite love of God. When we can’t experience that, we yearn for it, we pray for it, earnestly. Remember St John of the Cross who experienced a dark night of the soul. He used some of the imagery of Song of Songs in his quest to find divine love again:

Where have you fled and vanished,  Beloved, since you left me here to moan?  Deer-like you leaped; then, banished  and wounded by my own,   I followed you with cries, but you had flown. 

Shepherds, if you discover,  

going about this knoll to tend your sheep,  

the dwelling of that lover 

whose memory I keep,  

tell him I sicken unto death and weep. 

Let me say again:

How would it be if we believed in a God who constantly beckons to us to come away?

How would it be if we got passionately excited about God’s love again and in a God who runs over mountains to find us?

I am because we are: a reflection on Afghanistan

Passage for reflection: Nahum 1: 2 - 8 

I wanted to say something about the events of this past week, especially the humanitarian crisis evolving in Afghanistan. It’s been one of those sermons I needed to write but the words would not come. 

I was driving the other day in Harrogate trying to get to the hospital. The traffic was heavy and I was in a hurry so every movement in the queue of traffic was welcomed. I moved forward when suddenly this man decided to push in without looking from a side road. I am sorry because I yelled at him “you ————*******” - which was not helpful considering what I was dressed like! 🙂

There’s a South African word  “Ubuntu” - which literally means  “I am what I am because of who we all are.” - let me repeat that - “I am what I am because of who we all are.” We are connected to each other, whether in our village, in our country, or in the world. What happens to another wherever they are should affect us. The man pulling out in front of me made me cross, an act of compassion and understanding lifts my spirits. When I see suffering in the eyes of another I should be moved to do something about it,  when someone is celebrating life I should celebrate with them. We are all made in the image of God, we are all part of one human diverse intricate tapestry - “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

The pictures I’ve seen of the escalating human catastrophe in Afghanistan these past few days have deeply moved me, especially that American plane taking off from the airport with people holding on to it, desperate to escape what is coming, a Taliban regime back after 20 years of relative stability. People especially women and anyone seen as different now live in fear because they know how they were treated before. So no wonder we are seeing chaos, people trying so hard to get away, others feeling death is a better choice than living under the Taliban. It would be easy to comment about American policy to withdraw military forces and a President who is suddenly looking very elderly and who admits they are not going to get everyone out, or that the last President did some sort of deal with the Taliban for a withdrawal, or to comment about whether our foreign Secretary did take a phone call while on his holiday or did he stay on his sun lounger. What we have, right in front of us, are people in a crisis,  a refugee crisis, necessary migration to try and preserve life and we cannot not be upset by it. “I am what I am because of who we all are.” 

I received an e mail from Ripon City of Sanctuary on Thursday with this helpful quote from the Bishop of Leeds, which got this difficult sermon going… 

“Christian faith has always been clear: we protect and defend the poorest and weakest people among us. Rather than demonise refugees and asylum seekers, we need to show the sort of costly love and mercy that we would wish for ourselves, were we to find ourselves similarly bereft.”

It’s hard to put ourselves in the place of an ordinary Afghan man, woman or child. Imagine your town or village  were run by a brutal, narrow minded regime. Imagine being liberated from that regime. Imagine suddenly having rights and education and democracy and freedom. Imagine due to the help of others being about feeling relatively safe. Now imagine that regime back, your rights, education, healthy democracy, and freedom threatened. You don’t feel safe anymore, so you want to get out  and run or fly for safety anywhere but stay where you are. Not knowing where you are going, and going with nothing is better than what might happen to you.

A person working on the ground, first-hand in Afghanistan whose organisation needs to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, wrote this:

“The fear for the Afghan people is not so much the unknown, but rather the known: a brutal regime where daily life is filled with unbearable tension: regular public executions, oppression for women, fear of a knock at the door from the Taliban. 

For too long people in Afghanistan have looked for salvation from Western powers. Well that hasn’t worked. It’s failed spectacularly. We need our brothers and sisters in the global church to take spiritual responsibility and stand with us in prayer. “

There’s also a lovely Afghan proverb: “A real friend takes the hand of his friend in overwhelming worry and fire.” “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

So where is God in all of this? Well, two thoughts which came to me…

First, that God is a refuge for those who seek refuge. People in the history of the world and in the story of God’s people have always been on the move, often with no choice. Remember the Israelites escaping the brutality of Egypt. God tells Moses he is to say to Pharoah “let my people go so they can worship me.” For generations, people wander in the wilderness with no home. 

Remember two periods of exile when the home of Gods people, Jerusalem, was destroyed first by the Assyrians then the Babylonians. Being a refugee isn’t easy. The people escaping Egypt want to go back there because they feel they are left to die in the middle of nowhere, and they turn on Moses and say “were there no graves in Egypt that you have brought us out here to die?” The exilic community cried in despair remembering what they’d lost: “By the rivers of Babylon there we wept when we remembered Zion.” Yet despite the displacement God does not abandon his people. 

I chose a passage from the prophet Nahum to think about. Nahum is one of those books you have to look in the index to find where it is in the Bible. Nahum preached during the reign of King Manesseh, one of the most evil kings in Judah’s long history. it was a time filled with idolatry of all kinds in a nation that had completely turned its back on God. The Lord’s willingness to send Nahum, whose name means “comfort,” into such a hopeless situation evidences His unrelenting and overwhelming grace and his intention for his people.  The Assyrian Empire, which had its capital at Nineveh, had a stranglehold on the people. Sound familiar? We know about Nineveh.

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• God sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach repentance and hope to the Assyrian people, a message they heard and adopted—at least for a time. One hundred years later, during the time of Nahum, the Assyrians had returned to their bullish ways, conquering the northern kingdom of Israel and lording their power over Judah in the south.  Jonah failed to realize what Nahum reminded the people of Judah: God’s justice is always right and always sure. 
  
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• Ordinary people suddenly displaced from their homes by the terror of the Taliban.  May they discover that in Nahum’s words  “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who take refuge in Him.” Refuge… safety… even with nothing. Imagine leaving your home because it isn’t safe and never seeing it again. The God who protects is a huge theological truth. I love the bit of Hebrews where we are told we have no abiding city and we work together to build the city which has no foundations whose builder and maker is God. Our spiritual home is in God and with God. “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

Then this: if we really believe we are connected to each other, if our existence is 

“I am what I am because of who we all are” then we have a call to work for a better world today. How do we make this situation better? Writing to our MP about immigration policy and welcoming the many refugees who will need sanctuary is a start, donating clothes where they are needed is a start, I know there are already mountains of bin bags of clothes building in the chapel at Snape and we are opening Allhallowgate this week, that’s a start, but really it is about how we live as God’s people. Everyone matters in this world. Jesus teaches us he is the Bread of Life. He offers  substance and to the people in need he meets - refuge. Peter says to him “where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Remember the words of Daniel T Niles: “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” We are to challenge injustice, we are to pray for deliverance from evil, we are to hope in the promises of God, we are to live out our faith as best we can. Afghanistan  is our problem. We cannot turn off the news and hope it all goes away. There’s a lovely little prayer in the new Methodist prayer book, written by Jessica, who goes to a primary school in St Helens: “Lord God, help us to learn to love the earth as you do and give us the courage to say “enough” to the things that hurt it.”

A broken and hurting people, a world that is fallen is met by a God who is a refuge and. Church which offers life for all. Whether a person in need is our neighbour, or in Kabul being crushed at an airport or hiding in fear, that person matters. “I am what I am because of who we all are.” And when I shout at selfish drivers or can’t bear watching the news, forgive me… 

Here’s another Afghan proverb: “There is a way from heart to heart.” Today we pray for all God’s children, we pray for justice, we remember those who look for hope, we speak out for those who have no voice. In a situation we don’t understand these things are all we can do, and we remember that God in Jesus suffers with his world where it hurts and in his time he will redeem it.

A prayer by Barbara Easton, Vice President of the Methodist Conference: 

The Prophet says, You know the plans I have for you, says the Lord; plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to offer you hope and a future.

Gracious and holy God,

We come to you with the situation in Afghanistan heavy on our hearts. It is a situation so complicated, and so fast moving, that it is difficult for us to know what to say or how to think.

We hold before you the people of the country, those who stay and those who flee; those living with terror and afraid for the future; those who, because of this latest turn of events, will never be able to live the fullness of life that is your purpose. We hold all this before you.

We hold open to you the future: the world leaders with a role in shaping what happens next; the many who are becoming refugees and the people who will be called upon to offer them safety and a future; the impact of these local events on our world story. We hold all this open to you.

We hold in your love all those known to us whose lives have been bound up in the recent story of Afghanistan. We think of all those who have served there in our Armed Forces, those who were injured and those who did not return. We hold in our hearts all those for whom this is a time of special grieving and confusion, and those who minister to them. We hold all these in your love.

Rock of ages, at this difficult time we lean into your timelessness.

Turn us, and all people, to your good purposes for your world. Grant courage and wisdom, hope and a future.

Amen

“Where are you?”

Passage for reflection: Genesis 3: 8 - 15 

Here’s a good quiz question. What’s the first question asked in the Bible?

The answer? 

“Where are you?”

It’s the very first question God asks Adam in the book of Genesis. Adam is hiding, He’s eaten forbidden fruit. His innocence is gone. His relationship with his creator and friend who he walked in the garden with has been destroyed by one bite and the lure of a satanic snake with a tempting offer of a different way. We know the story of the Fall. 

I wonder if we need to re-hear that question from God. I think we are so familiar with the Adam and Eve stories and so sure that they are about disobedience, original sin, failure, and being bad that we can’t hear anything new or different. But what if there is another way to hear God’s question.

How we understand the question has a lot to do with tone. If we hear a loud angry accusing voice yell, “Where the ___ are you?!” we know what’s coming next. If we hear the concerned and worried voice of a parent looking for his or her child call, “Where are you?” that question has a different meaning. 

Maybe God is simply looking for and desiring Adam’s presence. Maybe it’s not an angry accusing question. Maybe it’s not about disobedience, punishment, or being bad. Maybe it’s simply God wanting to be with Adam and Eve.

Adam once knew, in the innocence of paradise the command of God, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” Yet only a short time after being created in the image of God, he questioned the authority of God. He believed the lie of Satan,  “But, has God said”?

We do this too every time we go off the rails. We think our thoughts are better than God’s, and our ways more pleasing. “Adam where are you?” As if to say, “Adam, what more could I have given you to make you happy?” “Adam, is this the action of a kind and loyal friend?” The joy of the garden walking with God and creative innocence is over. So Adam hides. 

These four words are the first sermon ever preached I think, not just a question: “Adam, where are you?” Here we also see the language of lamentation.  Despite having the best God can give to us, we always have a better idea. The snake is about - the fruit that is forbidden is worth risking everything for. 

What if God is calling Adam and Eve back to themselves? What if the question is more for Adam and Eve’s benefit than God’s? And what if it’s the kind of question we are to ponder and follow rather than answer? “Where are you?” In their nakedness, they hid. For us, it’s more about having other priorities than just doing what God asks of us. For the church to be relevant or indeed survive, we need to be present to God, even when we’ve made a mess of things. We need to be where God wants us to be.

I spent a day this last week waiting for someone to turn up. Several phone calls were made to ask why there was no show from the person. “Where are you?” I wanted to shout down the phone. The not showing up left me cross and frustrated because I was needing them to be with me now - not when they wanted to get round to remembering I needed help. 

I wonder if God looks at us and feels the same as I did?

Do you think God is asking us this question today? “Where are you?” 

“In a world where climate change threatens to destroy the planet, where are you?”

“In a society where there is disgraceful injustice, prejudice and selfishness, where are you?”

“Seeing broken relationships and people imploding with fear, where are you?”

“In your church, where you worry about how to keep it going but forget to turn to me in prayer, where are you?”

“In your life as it is right now, even if you’ve made mistakes, and are hiding from me, where are you? I forgive you and we can start again.” 

That’s the good news. Remember in Genesis God has a rough time with the people he has made. He banishes Adam and Eve to the land of Nod; Cain kills his brother and takes no responsibility for his actions; God sends a flood it’s so bad, and then at the Tower of Babel the people so want to be like God it all ends in chaos and God confuses everyone by mixing them up with different languages. He starts again through the faith and obedience of an elderly man called Abram. And in Jesus he constantly starts again. He’s always looking for us. “For as in Adam we all die, in Christ we shall all be made alive!” 

The grace of God made available to us through the person of Jesus means we don’t have to hide, we don’t have to run away, we don’t have to wallow in regret when we think we’ve ruined everything. I believe the story of God’s love is all about new beginnings and is pastoral. There are consequences when we sin, but God never throws us out. 

“Where are you?”

Remember that old wayside pulpit poster outside a church? “If you’re feeling apart from God, guess who moved?” And let’s say this as well… the church that focusses on fripperies and trifles and is less than what she was raised up to be, will die. We need to remember that! 

Loving God, when we make mistakes, ask us where we are.

When we hide away in shame or regret, call us by our name, forgive us and renew us.

When we fall short of your call of us as your children by how we behave, restore us and teach us again what matters.

When we lose focus, let your Spirit inspire us again to be your Church.

In Jesus, we know your restorative and perfect love. Our mistakes matter to you so when we muck about, sort us. For we want to start again. 

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.