Start:Stop-The Song of Songs

Marc Chagall, Le cantique des cantiques (The Song of Songs), 1975

Start:Stop offers ten minute reflections, starting each quarter of an hour, between 7.45am and 9.15am. This is my reflection from 12th February 2019. Thank you for joining us for Start:Stop. This reflection will last around ten minutes and you are welcome to come and go as your schedule dictates. We begin with a bible reading which can be found on page 652 of the Old Testament. 

Bible Reading – The Song of Solomon 2.8-17

The voice of my beloved!

   Look, he comes,

leaping upon the mountains,

   bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle

   or a young stag.

Look, 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 now 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 turtle-dove

   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.

O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,

   in the covert of the cliff,

let me see your face,

   let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet,

   and your face is lovely.

Catch us the foxes,

   the little foxes,

that ruin the vineyards—

   for our vineyards are in blossom.’

My beloved is mine and I am his;

   he pastures his flock among the lilies.

Until the day breathes

   and the shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle

   or a young stag on the cleft mountains.

Reflection 

The original melody to which these love poems would have been sung has, sadly, been lost – but if you were with us yesterday lunchtime for Choral Classics, you will have heard just some of the many other pieces of music the text has inspired; the Song of Solomon has certainly lived up to its self-professed sub-title “The Song of Songs.”

It hasn’t just inspired music - the book is said to have generated more biblical commentaries than any other, as scholars have sought to understand and explain the overtly erotic text, which seems to celebrate love between unmarried (and apparently young) men and women. Interpretations of the song’s structure – or lack of one – vary as much as the voices of the singers, sometimes male but predominantly female, which is in itself unusual in the context of the rest of the canon.

The text we have just read comes from Chapter Two and is one of the least obviously erotic sections (well it is only 0800 hours!) However, some interpretations identify in the passage references to human sexuality in the imagery of nature reawakening in the spring, of orchards and gardens which, as we learn later in the song, appear to symbolise female erogenous zones. This is sensual stuff, with sight, sound, touch, taste and smell all overcome by desire.

Not one of the eight chapters of the book has any direct reference to God, to prayer or in fact any religious practice. Whilst on the surface this seems to be the most God-less book of the bible, the Song of Songs has long been considered quite the reverse, with early Christian theologians reading the text allegorically; for them the poem describes the relationship between God and his church (an interpretation which many believe explains why the Song was accepted as part of the Hebrew scriptures in the first place). On being asked in which order we ought to read the bible, St Jerome reputedly said that we should start with the Book of Psalms and end with the Song of Songs, because only after we have trained ourselves in the language of love will we be in a position to have a glimpse of the great love of God expressed in the Song of Songs.

Writing in the late fourth century, Gregory of Nyssa also found meaning through an allegorical reading of the Song; which he saw as expressing the relationship between Christ and the human soul at a personal level. In his Commentary on the verses we have just read, he interprets the imagery of nature reawakening in the springtime as a “spiritual spring” between the “gloom of winter and the joyful fruits of summer” before the harvest time at the end of the age. Perhaps, for some (chicken farmers excepted), he stretches the allusion too far - he describes the little foxes that ruin the vineyard as “..the great and mighty commander of the demonic legions.”

It seems curious - perhaps even prudish - to us that Gregory of Nyssa’s commentary does not appear to address head-on the erotic nature of the Song of Songs. But according to the theologian Sarah Coakley, Gregory was not seeking to ignore or suppress this aspect of the poem at all. Unlike contemporary society, where desire is seen as so heavily sexualised as to render other desires (including the desire for God) obscure and puzzling, Gregory, believed that desire is the glue that holds society together. He considered that, when rightly ordered, sexual desire flows into spiritual desire (in stark contrast to his near contemporary, St Augustine who equated sex with sin). 

Sarah Coakley uses Gregory’s writings to argue for the liberation of our own understanding of desire, away from that based solely on sexual attraction and towards a desire for God – the ultimate source of all love. She considers that the reflections of early Christian theologians like Gregory, show that Freud was wrong: “talk about God” she says “is not repressed talk about sexuality; talk about sex is, in fact, repressed talk about God.”

Gregory’s liberating approach does not set one form of desire against another; all have a purpose, if rightly ordered towards God. In his treatise ‘On Virginity’ the married Gregory extolls the virtues of the celibate life as lived by his brother, St Basil - but he doesn’t relegate marriage into second place. When spiritually ordered, he sees both marriage and virginity enabling us to become other-centred; to transcend selfish desires.  

He suggests that, through the grace of God, the erotic desire that draws people together helps to form such a strong and lasting bond that couples are able to render back to society the love that gave them their mutual joy. This means more than child-rearing but service to the poor and outcast, the frail and sick. 

Professor Coakley suggests that the fluidity inherent in Gregory’s writings, in which streams of desire of all kinds - are focussed towards God, may provide a useful framework for contemporary discussions about marriage, gender and sexuality that transcends biblical proof texting about which forms of desire are more appropriate. 

Divine desire, and human desire for the divine, is more fundamental than that.

In a few moments of silence before we pray, perhaps we might consider the streams of our own desires and see how we can focus these on God, the source of all love. 

Meditation

 

Prayers

The words of our prayer response are taken from Psalm 90. The response to “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love” is “That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Almighty God, and most merciful Father, who has given us a new commandment that we should love one another, give us also grace that we may fulfil it. By your spirit, direct the streams of our desires so that the world may overflow with love for you. Help us to see your face and to hear your voice. Hallow all our relationships by the blessing of your Spirit, for his sake who loved us and gave himself for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Adapted from a prayer by Bishop Westcott)

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Grant to us, O Lord, to know what we ought to know, to love what we ought to love, to praise what delights you most, to value what is precious in your sight. Strengthen us, with the power of your love, to bring relief to the poor and the oppressed, peace and justice to the world. (Adapted from a prayer by Thomas à Kempis)

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Almighty God, we pray for all those known to us in need of your love. Bring friendship to the lonely, harmony to the divided and comfort to the bereaved. In our homes and families, our churches and our places of work, our country and our world, may your love be shared among us, so that the vines may blossom and the sound of song may be heard in our land. (Adapted from a prayer by Nick Fawcett).

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Blessing

May the love of the Lord Jesus
    draw us to himself;
May the power of the Lord Jesus
    strengthen us in his service;
May the joy of the Lord Jesus
    fill our souls.
May the blessing of God almighty,
    the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,
    be amongst you
    and remain with you

        always.

Thank you for joining us for Start Stop today. Please join us for Choral Evensong tomorrow at 6pm when the Choral Scholars will continue their exploration of love through a sequence of beautiful music. The next reflection will begin in a few minutes.