Song of Songs 2:8-23
Proper 9 (14) - Year A
Proper 17 (22) - Year B
From The Spiritual Formation Bible come these words:
"Can you recall your delight at the first sign of spring, when the early crocuses first push their way through the last icy crust of snow? Similarly, God's love has a way of breaking through our times of trial and exile and waking us from lethargy and despair.
"Do you sense something within yourself that is dormant or frozen? Is there a broken relationship, a sin that you cannot seem to put behind you, or an indifference to God's love for you? Whatever it is, in prayer ask that you will be open to God breaking through with the sweet, fresh growth of [God's] presence in you."
And beyond all that spiritual stuff, may you know yourself to also be loved by another who hurries to your side to call you away from your particular weariness through the enlivening of your senses.
And beyond all this personal stuff, may our culture know itself as loved - that the "enterprise of G*D" is not bigger bottom lines but larger care of one another. It may be that by using only market forces as the measurement of life, we have gotten so far outside the boundaries of care that the only reality large enough to call us back is the environment we cannot avoid dealing with as it gets hotter and hotter. When was the last time you paid attention to a turtledove instead of your debt or your taxes or getting more?
From God, from another, from creation - comes the call - arise, come away.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/july2002.html
In Sacred Marriage: The Wisdom of the Song of Songs, words by Nicholas Ayo, paintings by Meinrad Craighead, there is this reference: "Marina Warner calls the Song 'That most languorous and amorous of poems,' which leaves the reader 'spellbound by its sensuality and drowsy voluptuousness.'"
What will it take to read not only this passage, but the whole of scripture and life, languorously, amorously, sensually, voluptuously?
Rabbi Aqiba may have had this in mind, seeing the Song as an entry point into the rest of the writings, when he wrote, "for the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy and the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies."
Can't you hear the scriptures, the witness of our elders, beckoning to us, "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." To read the scriptures as love poetry instead of a legal tome changes everything. It is not so much that we find the rules of life to follow and impel others to follow, but that we are found by the love of life to open and be opened to.
May the scriptures pasture among the lilies that are us, until we know in our bones that my beloved is mine and I am the beloved's. May we also know this to be the experience of others and what binds us together is our respective experience of being loved and loving.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/august2003.html
Song of Solomon 2:8-13 or Psalm 45:10-17 or Psalm 145:8-14
Wow! 3 choices. The only thing that could be better for a trinitarian is identifying their oneness as well as their differences.
Enjoy the comment from The New Interpreter's Bible on Ps 45:17 -- "Memory and praise promise permanence to the king (or perhaps the princess)." Ahh, yes.
One connection is the connection between memory and promise. These two polarities reinforce one another. As you read each of these passages -- find the memory, find the promise.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
Song of Solomon 2:8-13 or Psalm 45:10-17 or Psalm 145:8-14
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 or Zechariah 9:9-12
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
A first or most recent glance at a beloved calls forth action. A first or most recent whisper of a beloved calls forth action. Whether from or toward a beloved, we are called beyond sitting and theorizing/creedalizing/speculizing.
Even with the threat of messing up, of mistaking a dream of a beloved for a beloved, there is no real option (though lots of unreal ones) for following a heartbeat that resonates with one's own. There are no guarantees where such action will lead, simply a prayer that love will find its way.
Such love is our birthright. It is G*D's way that we re-image. It is a source of thanks that eases our journey through life.
- - -
stamp your foot
play your flute
throw your tantrum
there is no getting around
a wisdom of deeds
lived into and through
eventually we all
arise and come away
to a beloved space
in such wise
prisoners are freed
from dryness unto death
in such wise
prisoners are made
of restored hope
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
Song of Songs 2:8-13 or Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm 45: 1-2, 6-9 or Psalm 15
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
When we speak, ideas are to flower. Our tongue is the overflow of a goodly heart, spreading blessings wherever it is.
Our participation in a word of truth will reveal the image of all creation in our living as the first fruit of such a word that ends in the affirmation, "It is good!"
Meekness will be both the prepared soil and the resulting harvest of this creative word, implanted soul-word. So we are called to be not a hearer that forgets, but a speaker that acts their word. As such we move into an unbounded religion that takes seriously and joyously a word to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and keep steadfastly on with this task, no matter what.
- - -
so many fine words
have come my way
no changes of life
but plenty of compliments
to keep on with this pattern
is to keep change from happening
obviously I have gone awry
focused on words and not hearts
and so my hypocrisy shines
as I glory in fine words
while mourning a lack of effect
is but vanity vanity
let us hear again
insides are to be joined with outsides
until fine words diminish
and heart deeds flourish
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
Imagine "Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss." [The Message] or "The earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water." [JPS]
- - -
Do you hear a bird or the wind calling, "Arise, my fair and beautiful lover – come forth!"?
If this is your parental lover, how can you do less than return the call to them?
If this is a vocational lover, how can you not risk following?
If this is a personal lover, how can you stay put?
If this is your larger-self lover, how can you but grow again?
If this is the next eight generations, what could hold you back?
If this is simply a bird and a wind, will you not arise?
May the day be here when you hear your call.
May you be ready tomorrow to hear a new or re-newed call.
May return the favor and call creation forth.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
The voice of my be-lover comes leaping and bounding from tomorrow. Like Felix on catnip my beloved is here and there and everywhere, touching every past and present shibboleth with repurposed energy.
In word and grunt and grin tomorrow speaks,
Rise up, dearest,With or without clean hands, you are loved. Presume cleanness, hold hands, gaze ahead, and come. Together we step beyond regular rounds, persistent residence, into expanding joy. Leap, cavort, gambol — there is enough dying to go around without our cooperation. The next is yet to come.
fairest, and come.
Finally, winter is past;
rains have come and gone.
Blossoms have appeared in the land;
another season of singing has arrived,
a turtledove is again heard in our land.
A green fruit is on the fig tree,
and grapevines fragrantly bloom.
Rise up, beloved,
fairest, and come.
— — — — — — —
How do you deal with this translational variation in verse 12?
The time of pruning has comeAre you singing a yet unseen future into being by setting past and present to the side?
The time of singing has come
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/08/song-of-solomon-28-13.html