"Holy"

Song of Songs 2:8-17

Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC, Manhattan, KS

July 4, 2021

How is the Bible like a Justin Bieber song? No, really. My pop fans: can you think of a current Bieber song that connects to any of our scripture readings today? 

Yup. If you said Holy, you are the winner. 

We don’t often expect to find a song so explicitly about God all wrapped up with pop romance on the radio, but that’s just what the song Holy is. In case you’ve escaped the ubiquity of this ear worm, it’s a love song and Justin says, “The way you hold me….makes me feel holy.”

Chance the Rapper is also featured in the song and takes the theological connections further, explaining that he trusts in this human love because he’s also experienced God’s love AND he and his partner trust in the fullness of God’s love because they’ve experienced that love in tangible ways in each other. 

As unexpected as all this God-talk on the radio might be, I think we probably are similarly surprised by all this romantic love and sex talk in the Bible, right? The Church has historically been so antsy about discussing bodies, romantic love, and sex….and this has caused great harm to so many people. 

And how strange that the Church has often shied away from talking about these important matters because, look! Here it is right here in our Bible! We have an entire book of beautiful poetry devoted to the joys and delights of two people who are not shy about explicitly detailing their love for each other. They are not afraid to talk about their bodies or the joys that can be found in honoring and inhabiting our bodies fully. 

The whole book is a dialogue between two young lovers. God is not mentioned, which has sometimes puzzled theologians. There’s been a long history in the Church of allegorizing the Song - saying it’s about God’s love for us, rather than about two young people’s intense romantic love for one another. While I don’t think it’s appropriate to pretend-away the human sexuality  this book, I do think we can use that face-value-romantic love as a jumping off point for exploring all kinds of love that humans share...romantic love, love between friends and families, our love for our pets, nature, art, place.  Our love -  in all its varied forms - often grows out of a connection to God….just as our connection to God grows when we experience love - all kinds of love, not just romantic - here on earth. 

The invitation in this passage that’s shimmering for me today is this: “Arise, my love and come away.” 

The young lovers urge one another to pause, make space for joy, beauty, pleasure, love in their daily lives. They invite their beloved to come away to a place where they can enjoy each other and rest fully in the wondrous gift of love. 

Now this - this! - is something so many of us need to hear. This invitation to come away to a holy place to make space for giving and receiving love. Not just romantic love, but love of all kinds. 

It reminds me a bit of my dog, actually. Bear with me. Sometimes when I’m busy or distracted or in a rush or stressed out, she comes to me and bonks me or paws at me. She wants to play. Or she wants to go on a walk. Or she just wants a few scratches and a cuddle. “Arise, and come away!” her eyes say to me.  I can try to put her off for a while, but she usually wins. And when I do finally “arise and come away,” I receive the good gifts of love. I feel tension seep away when I put my hand on her belly and feel her breathing. I laugh like a kid while we play tug-the-rope. And I breathe deeply and see holiness all around me when we go for walks in our neighborhood. 

“Arise, and come away,” she says. Take a moment to just be. Take a moment to love. Take a moment to remember you are loved. And the invitation is good. Because when we accept the invitation to bask in love - in all its many forms - we remember that holiness is all around us. 

So often we fool ourselves into thinking holiness is reserved for “sacred spaces” like church sanctuaries or deathbeds or the Grand Canyon. Those places can be holy, certainly. But holiness can be found in many other places, too...an everyday moment, a little ritual. Can you think of a time this past week that felt holy to you? We’ll pause for just a moment to give you space to ponder that silently. 

(pause)

“Arise, and come away,” Love beckons. “Come and see the beauty, the joy, the holiness in digging in the dirt, Facetime with a grandchild, chopping vegetables for dinner, turning towards someone you love and connecting through touch.” 

The word holy seems to have its origins in wholeness and health. When we accept Christ’s invitation to seek holiness each day, we are really accepting an invitation to move towards wholeness and health. And not just for ourselves as individuals! Just think about what our community would be like if every single day we listened to that invitation to “Arise, and come away.” If we each allowed ourselves to seek even 3 or 4 moments of connection with Love, beauty, joy, vulnerability the way these young lovers do in the Song of Songs. Imagine how our hearts would grow. Imagine how the gift of God’s love would overflow out of each of us to the world around us, creating more wholeness and health for all creation. 

The invitation is there, my friends. “Arise, and come away.” Walk into the open arms of Love and be willing to receive the good gifts of the Spirit. There’s no expectation that we do it perfectly. Even if we just open ourselves to receiving God’s love in a holy moment ONCE each day - just one time! - we will discover that we yearn for more and more of it. 

You’ve heard it said that “practice makes perfect” and this is rarely true. But “practice makes progress,” and the more we open ourselves to holy love, wholeness, and health - the more naturally it will overflow into the world around us, creating a chain-reaction of healing in a world that desperately needs it. 

It doesn’t have to be anything big. It can be something small, like this:

A spiritual teacher of mine told me that when she was a little girl, her mom ironed shirts for 8 kids every day. “Arise, my love, and come away,” those shirts said to her each day...and while I doubt that she experienced that chore as a time of delight and joy, nevertheless, she found a way to seek holiness in that mundane task. Each day as she ironed, she prayed for each of her 8 children by name. She pressed God’s love into each shirt as she prepared it for each one of her beloveds. 

And she was often frustrated that she was rushing, running behind, hurrying to complete the task. And so her children would breeze through, waiting for each shirt to come off the board before school. And when they put them on, they were still warm. Still warm with love. Still warm with care. And I can see those kids putting those shirts on, day after day, wrapping their mother’s prayers around them like a fierce cloak of love. Their mother’s love that flowed from God’s love - a gift given freely for the taking. 

“Arise, my love, and come away.” And off they went into the world, wrapped up in love, sent out from holiness to holiness to do love and be love as beloved children of God. 

“Arise, my love, and come away.” 

The invitation still calls.