love language
Song of Solomon 2:8-13 (RSV)
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle,
or a young stag.
Behold, 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 lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.
+++ +++ +++
This is our First Reading for tomorrow, we’ve finished our summer’s stories of David, ending with Solomon, and now just a taste of this back and forth poem of two, a man and a woman, a boy and a girl who are head over heels in love, lyrical, flowing, the ode of each to the other. Seldom do the lectionary framers steal my heart, but they do this one Sunday in a thousand, as they give us, again, just a taste, stirring embers hidden deep. Anyone who has ever been in love, and I could wish that everyone has, might be moved to begin at the beginning, figuratively with memories and literally with the love poem, both of which come simultaneously in reading The Song from 1:1 through 8:14. I could hardly bear for it to end.
A particular line is 8:7, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” In the Bible reading above there are no closing quotation marks on the lover's call, because it isn't over. Imagine that. Coming up on eighty, I’m thinking of John Denver and Placido Domingo singing Denver’s song, “Perhaps Love,”
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you
… in +Time
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle,
or a young stag.
Behold, 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 lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.
+++ +++ +++
This is our First Reading for tomorrow, we’ve finished our summer’s stories of David, ending with Solomon, and now just a taste of this back and forth poem of two, a man and a woman, a boy and a girl who are head over heels in love, lyrical, flowing, the ode of each to the other. Seldom do the lectionary framers steal my heart, but they do this one Sunday in a thousand, as they give us, again, just a taste, stirring embers hidden deep. Anyone who has ever been in love, and I could wish that everyone has, might be moved to begin at the beginning, figuratively with memories and literally with the love poem, both of which come simultaneously in reading The Song from 1:1 through 8:14. I could hardly bear for it to end.
A particular line is 8:7, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” In the Bible reading above there are no closing quotation marks on the lover's call, because it isn't over. Imagine that. Coming up on eighty, I’m thinking of John Denver and Placido Domingo singing Denver’s song, “Perhaps Love,”
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you
… in +Time