This message is based on a reading from Song of Songs 2:8-13.  To read this passage now, click here.

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I have never preached from the Song of Songs before.  This is a short book, sometimes called the Songs of Solomon, that is filled with flowing poetry.  It’s really a letter to a loved one.  Some argue that this letter shouldn’t be part of Scripture, they argue that there is nothing here that helps us in theology or in living our lives of faith.

They argue that it’s just a love letter written by King Solomon to one of his many wives.  I disagree.  It is a love letter; there is no doubt about that.  But when the Church Fathers, the bishops of the early church met in Nicea to discuss which books should be included, they had a reason for including this one.

And while there is no concrete evidence as to why they felt this book, I think that it’s because this is a model for the relationship that God wants to have with His believers. It shows the level of love that He has for us, and that He wants us to have for Him.

Have you ever thought of that?  Have you ever thought that the relationship that God wants to have for us is like the relationship that we might have with a lover?  The image that’s used in several places, is the image of a marriage ceremony.  The church is the Bride of Christ.  The role of believers is to present ourselves as worthy of being with the Son of God, as a bride who is worthy of the groom.

But many of us have a very different image of God.  Many of us have an image that God is the ruler and judge, and that we must fear Him or be doomed to eternity without Him.  We have the image of a stark, angry and judgmental Father who is just waiting for us to screw up so He can bring His wrath upon us and bring us to the brink of destruction. 

If you’ve ever felt that way, if you’ve ever embraced that image, you might have trouble accepting this image that the Song of Songs is portraying.  I might add, that if you have that image of God, it’s probably pretty hard to share your faith with others.  Who wants to follow a God that’s just waiting to punish us?  We long to be loved, not punished.

Truth is our God is waiting to forgive, because He loves us.  Sure, we mess up and find ourselves in trouble.  But while we’re busy blaming Him for allowing us to be stupid, He’s reaching out His hand to help us up.  Showing us the way out of the trouble we’ve gotten ourselves into, or at least offering His presence and His peace while we struggle through it.

This image of God as a lover might not be a comfortable image for us to accept.  To love this freely and carefree is not something we’re accustomed to.  To open ourselves up like this makes us vulnerable.  But I think that’s the point.  To have the relationship with Jesus that He wants us to have with Him, we have to open ourselves up and be vulnerable to Him.  To trust that He won’t take advantage of that vulnerability.  Instead, knowing that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.  Don’t be afraid to show Jesus your weaknesses.  He will work through them.

I used the word relationship.  Our Christian faith is all about relationships.  Our relationship with Christ should be our primary relationship.  The Song of Songs talks about this as a love relationship, capturing all that we are.  In chapter 2:3, just before we started reading, it says, “I delight to sit in his shade.”  Do we delight just to sit with Jesus?  Just to be with Him?  Do we read Scripture, and then take some time to let it speak to us, to just sit with His Word?  Do we pray and then allow some time for Him to speak with us?  To just sit and listen for His voice?

I think that’s what the Song of Songs is telling us is important.  The longing for Christ, the longing for His presence with us.  The longing for His love actually felt in our hearts.  The relationship of God for His people, for you and me, is that of an all consuming love.  Jesus came to teach his disciples this.  For them, understanding the grace and mercy of God didn’t come from teaching religious doctrines, it came from Jesus loving them, and calling them to love.  It came through forgiveness, and through Jesus calling them to forgive. 

Strangely, the bride and the bridegroom are never united in this book.  The words go back and forth from each, but they are never brought together.  Perhaps, if this book is to be viewed as a metaphor for God’s unceasing love, then perhaps we are to understand that this love is not complete, and our longing continues as long as we are separated from Him. 

In one of the other readings from our lectionary today, we look at Mark Chapter 7.  In this reading, which takes place right after Jesus walks on the water, He joins the disciples in the boat, and then they arrive in Gennesaret.  In the reading, we see the disciples eating, but they hadn’t ceremonially cleaned their hands.  There was a ceremonial washing, they would hold their hands out in such a way, and someone would pour water from a ceremonial pitcher, it was little more than a quick rinse, but it was part of the law. 

Some Pharisees noticed that Jesus and His disciples didn’t wash in this way, so they questioned him about this.  Jesus talked with them at length about the things that make a man unclean, but basically it’s the things from an unclean heart that make a man unclean.  Nothing that we eat, nothing that goes in the mouth, can make us unclean.  Because what can make us unclean is already in there.  It’s the evil desires of our hearts that make us unclean.

If left to ourselves and to our sinful nature, we are unclean.  Jesus even tells them that “from within, out of a man’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.” 

What’s significant about this passage, is that we often think of our faith as something we do.  We do these good things in church, we do these good things for others, we even do these good things for God.  It’s easy to think that doing these good things is what God requires.  That’s what the Pharisees thought.  And while God wants us to do good things and to help others, he wants it to come out of a heart that is filled with love for Him.  We love others because we first loved Jesus.  It’s our love for Jesus that should motivate all that we do.  Nothing we do is going to save us.  It’s our love for Jesus, and His work, that saves us, not our work.  As believers, our hearts are filled with love for Jesus.

The Pharisees had the law.  And they followed the law.  But they didn’t follow God.  They even loved the law.  But they didn’t love God.  So nothing else they did really mattered to God.  You can love your church, but if you don’t really love Jesus, it doesn’t really matter.  You can provide for others, and be really busy trying to help ease the burdens of people struggling, but if you don’t love Jesus, if you don’t ease their burdens out of love for Jesus, it doesn’t really matter. 

Jesus loves you more than you can imagine.  Read the rest of the Song of Songs sometime this week, and really consider that this is how much Jesus really loves you.  And this is how much He wants you to love Him.  And when you’ve read that, and you’ve reflected on that a little, examine your live of faith, and your motivation.  Many of you are actively serving the church in a variety of ways, and believe me, I appreciate it.  We need every one of you.  But make sure that your service flows out of your love for Jesus. 

We all long for deep and passionate love.  It’s the nature of the human heart to long for this kind of love. And this kind of deep love that lasts for ever, the deep love you’re longing for, can only be found in Christ, the bridegroom.  If you’ve been looking for it anywhere else, I encourage you to look to Christ today.  Take time right now to come to Him, to get right with Him, because in the end, it’s the only thing that really matters.