Night after night on my bed
I looked for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
I will get up now and roam around the city,
in the streets, and in the squares.
I will look for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
The watchmen making their rounds in the city found me.
I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”
I had just left them when I found the one I love.
I held on to him and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
into the bedroom of the one who conceived me.

Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me
by the gazelles
or by the does in the field,
that you will not awaken love
or arouse love before its proper time.

Who is this young woman coming up from the wilderness
like clouds of smoke?
She is perfumed with myrrh and incense
made from the merchants’ scented powders.
Look! Solomon’s sedan chair!
Sixty soldiers from the army of Israel surround it.
All of them are skilled in using swords,
experienced in combat.
Each one has his sword at his side
and guards against the terrors of the night.
King Solomon had a carriage made for himself
from the wood of Lebanon.
He had its posts made out of silver,
its top out of gold,
its seat out of purple fabric.
Its inside—with inlaid scenes of love—
was made by the young women of Jerusalem.
Young women of Zion, come out and look at King Solomon!
Look at his crown,
the crown his mother placed on him on his wedding day,
his day of joyful delight. (God’s Word Translation)

Eastertide is a celebration of new life through exploring the implications of living a resurrected life. A significant dimension to that life is a new awakening and awareness of love. Being raised to a new life of love means that we can dispense with old ways of looking at love that were unhealthy for us.

King Solomon’s Song of Songs has been viewed throughout the history of biblical interpretation in various ways. It’s been seen as a celebration of sexual love between a man and a woman. Others view the Song as a description of the mutual love between God and Israel or Christ and the Church.

With whatever approach we examine this unique book of Holy Scripture, I believe it’s helpful for us to avoid looking at it too literally, as if it were a sex manual for spiritually minded newlyweds.

For most of church history, the book has been viewed allegorically and metaphorically, not literally. So, it seems to me, this warrants the interpreter to walk mindfully and wisely through its wonderful prose, and not like some arrogant and supposed Romeo who believes they are God’s gift to scripture interpretation.

The Song of Songs, at its heart, is really an ode to Love itself. Love is the force that binds us together as humans, and comes from the One who is pure Love. As such, Love is perhaps the most potent strength in the universe. Thus, Love needs to be respected. Love must be handled with care, because its power can harm us if we are careless with it.

Longing for love is a universally understood feeling. The need for love is so great that the woman in today’s Old Testament lesson will put herself at considerable risk in order to seek and find her beloved in the middle of the night on the city streets.

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”

Rumi, 13th century Persian poet

Love, however, is not to be awakened before its proper time. Certainly, to love is to risk, for we choose to put ourselves out there for the sake of giving and receiving love. Yet, there are to be limits on that pursuit. Seeking love can put one in a hazardous situation. It’s best, therefore, to allow some patience with love, to not rouse love with blind desire.

Love will have its way; we need not force it before its true readiness.

The woman longs for her beloved. The pain of separation is almost too much for her to bear. Love hurts. There is, however, good pain and bad pain. The pain of waiting and wondering has a purpose which we need to submit to, and follow. It is an opportunity for careful reflection, mindful contemplation, and healthy introspection.

Without these spiritual disciplines, the problem of fear arises – not love – and begins to gnaw at us, that perhaps we are unloved. Thoughts and feelings of insecurity can creep in and dog us with incessant and obnoxious barking.

But we must trust in Love. Love cannot be domesticated, nor fully defined, and that is a good thing – because Love is much bigger than any of us. And it’s also good that we cannot precisely interpret nor explain all of the contents within the Song of Songs. The book is a good reminder that Holy Scripture stands above us, and not the other way around.

God is Love. And Love is God. True human love serves as a symbol of divine love. We not so much come to understand the ways of God and Love, as we discover it, describe it, and then determine to live it.

People never fully connect to God, at least this side of heaven, in much the same way as the desired rendezvous of the lovers in the Song never explicitly occurs. The God we seek is the God who corresponds to our needs and desires, our loves and our fears.

And yet, God is also wholly other than us; God is revealed to humanity by means of Scripture. God issues decrees and commands that may not seem as if they sync with our perceived needs. From this perspective, people must obey, regardless of any feeling.

God is, therefore, both approachable to us and completely apart from us, at the same time, all the time. God engages with us in intimate personal spiritual experiences; and God also reaches out through Scripture in human/divine encounters. Both ways are approaches of love, initiated by the One who loves us.

No matter what the question is, Love is always the answer. This is the way.

Creator God, by the mercies of your son, our Lord, Jesus, compel us to turn our hearts to the way of Love, so that we may follow Christ as your faithful people. Guide us, we pray, to Love. Amen.