The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 17B

The Very Rev Melanie Dickson Lemburg 15th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 17B September 1, 2024 The other day I was cooking supper and listening to Pandora as I do. (For those of you who are younger than me: yes, I know Spotify is way cooler and so much better. My children have been trying to convert me for years, but I like what I like, and I’m stubborn. So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way. I was listening to Pandora and) They played a song that I hadn’t heard in years and I was captivated: I’ve Just Seen a Face by the Beatles. Y’all know this song? It’s such a happy little song about falling in love. It’s fizzy and optimistic with a little sprinkle of longing. And it made me start thinking about love songs. What makes a good love song? Why do they hold such an appeal for us? Take a minute and think about your favorite love song. I’m sure we could come up with quite a list: My Girl by the Temptations; I say a little prayer by Aretha Franklin or Elvis’ Can’t help falling in love; Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together; Whitney Houston’s I will always love you. Faithfully by Journey and Rick Astley’s Never gonna give you up. For our 90’s babies: My heart will go on by Celine Dion and Crazy in Love by Beyonce’. You get the picture. So what is it that makes a good love song? Love songs help transform the every day into something special, bathed in the glow of love. They are whole-hearted, tender and filled with sweet poignancy. There’s usually a healthy dose of earnest longing and sometimes a quality of playfulness linked with falling in love that is appealing. You might be surprised to realize that one of our scripture readings for today is actually a love song—Song of Solomon. We don’t often get to read from this book on Sunday mornings, so it’s an interesting choice for today’s readings. Song of Solomon (also known as Song of Songs) is a love poem that is written with two voices —a male and female voice-speaking to each other along with a chorus. It is sensual and written in the style of Mid-Eastern love poetry of the time, and it’s an interesting choice to be included in the Old Testament. It’s attributed to Solomon but scholars think it was written long after Solomon in the time after Israel’s exile in Babylon. Over time, scholars have also looked at this book through the lens of allegory, connecting it with the love between God and God’s people and also God and individuals. God loves us like the beloved. I love the lush, garden imagery in this passage and also the aspect of playfulness that is captured—of the beloved leaping like a gazelle, and peeping through the lattice to catch a look at his beloved. Part of this passage is often read at weddings, along with a part from the end of Song of Solomon (chapter 8 verses 6-7): Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned. So that’s a traditional love song. But what about untraditional loves songs? My husband David and I just celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary last week, and since we were apart on our actual anniversary, he sent me several reels that he’d been cultivating. (Y’all know what reels are, right? Short videos that people make of ordinary things often set to music.) 21 years ago, I would have never thought that short videos could be a love song, and yet they are. Which made me start wondering what are other ways that people show that they love us—these untraditional love songs? (It’s what the writer of James means when he talks about being doers of the word and not just hearers.) Our Wednesday congregation talked about ways they have showed or received love through untraditional ways or love songs like preparing a favorite meal for someone; small acts of kindness; hooking and unhooking a necklace; neighbors who show up and mow your lawn just to be nice; and even travel planning can be an untraditional love song. Can you think of untraditional ways that someone has shown you love or you have offered love recently? And what about God’s love songs for us? An Episcopal priest once wrote that the bible is the love song between God and humanity and I agree with that, and I also believe that God sings traditional and untraditional loves songs to us all the time- because we are God’s beloved who God longs to be in deeper relationship with. In fact, loving relationship is at the very heart of God. As our presiding bishop often says, “if it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” It’s part of the critique of Jesus for the Pharisees in today’s gospel reading for today that holds equally true for us as well—that the call of belovedness is for our hearts to be close to God and our actions reflect that; and when our hearts are far from God, then our actions reflect that too—in the evil intentions that he lists. And because it is always easier to act in love when we are secure in love, it’s important for us to pay attention to the ways that God loves us, the love songs that God sings to us in expected and unexpected ways. Expected love songs could come in the form of worship, singing, receiving (or giving) communion. Being in nature can also be how we receive an expected or traditional love song from God. And there are also times when God sneaks up on us or taps us on the shoulder in invitation to pay attention: times when God offers healing, or in other peoples’ kindness, in friendship or in unexpected warm welcome. When in doubt for what to look for, look for the places that playfulness peeps into your life. Your invitation this week is to look for love songs in your life. What is your favorite love song? What is it about it that makes it a good love song? What are some untraditional love songs (that don’t even have to be songs) that speak to you of love or ways you have received love from others in an unexpected way? What are some ways that you have received a love song from God lately? Pay attention to the ways that God sings to you in and through your life and the world around you.