How beautiful you are, my love,
how very beautiful!
Your eyes are doves
behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
moving down the slopes of Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
that have come up from the washing,
all of which bear twins,
and not one among them is bereaved.
Your lips are like a crimson thread,
and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.
Your neck is like the tower of David,
built in courses;
on it hang a thousand bucklers,
all of them shields of warriors.
Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle,
that feed among the lilies.
Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
I will hasten to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.
You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no flaw in you.
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;
come with me from Lebanon.
Depart from the peak of Amana,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the dens of lions,
from the mountains of leopards. ~ Song of Solomon 4:1-8
Who know scripture could be so - um - sexy?
There has been a tendency among some Christians to speak of the Song of Solomon as an allegory of Christ and the Church.
I'm not alone in thinking that's probably not the case.
Instead, it is a celebration of love. Romantic, erotic love.
Sexual desire and sexual love are gifts. And as with any gift, they can be abused. Just as we abuse money, power, alcohol, and other things we humans crave, we can also abuse sex - and mistake lust for love, or use other human beings to fulfil our sexual desires rather than see them as partners in love.
But we shouldn't mistake gift itself as the problem. Seemingly since the beginning of time, human beings have had a complicated relationship with sex. The human body has often been seen as dirty or shameful.
But the human body was created by God. It was declared good. And scripture itself is testament to the beauty of the love shared between two human beings.
Holy One, the love between two human beings is sacred. May I rejoice in that love always! Amen
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