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The Angels’ Song

January 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Christmas2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The First Carols of Christmas – The Angels’ Song*
Sycamore Creek Church
Christmas Eve, 2014
Tom Arthur

Angel’s Song: Luke 2:8-14 NRSV

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

Merry Christmas Friends! 

What do you expect at Christmas?  Often we don’t get whatever it is that we expect.  I came across this prank that Jimmy Kimmel got his viewers to play on their kids.  He asked them to give their kids the worst Christmas present.  This is what happened:

 

 

I kind of cringe watching that video.  It feels a bit cruel at times.  But it makes a good point, whatever we get at Christmas is often not quite what we were expecting.  It even feels cruel at times.  Sometimes this is because our expectations are so high that they can’t realistically be met.  Or sometimes it’s because we just have the wrong expectations. Did you catch that the angels came to the shepherds “by night”?  Here’s a problem I want to deal with tonight:

Christmas can be a very dark time.

I think Christmas acts like a magnifier.  It magnifies the good, but it also magnifies the bad.  So if things are generally going well in your life, then Christmas makes the good even better.  But if things are generally going bad in your life, then Christmas makes the bad even worse!

Christmas can be a very dark time.  This is the case literally.  December 21st is the winter solstice and that’s the shortest day of the year.  In the darkness of this time of the year, many suffer from S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder).  For others Christmas is an emotionally dark time.  Maybe you’re still grieving from a death in the family.  Maybe this is the first Christmas you’ve had without a loved one.  Or maybe an addiction is wreaking emotional havoc in your life.  Or perhaps you’re struggling with something like depression.  Christmas can also be dark relationally.  Maybe your family is broken or maybe you don’t have any family and you’re just plain lonely.  For others of us Christmas is a dark time financially.  We have no money to celebrate Christmas or we have spent too much money celebrating Christmas and have taken on way too much debt to make Christmas fit our expectations.  For many of us, Christmas is a dark time.

Christmas isn’t a celebration because everything is right with the world.  We need Christmas for the very fact that we’re in the dark.  The circumstances of Jesus’ birth are certainly in the dark.  Jesus is born in poverty, placed in a barn feeding trough.  He is born to an unwed teenage girl who lived in the affordable housing section of her day.  The first people invited to Christmas were the night-shift shepherds.  Shepherds were kind of like the garbage collection job of their day.  And it wasn’t just any shepherds invited to Christmas.  It was the night-shift grave-yard shift shepherds.

Maybe this Christmas is the worst Christmas or this year has been the worst year you’ve ever had.  When you’re walking through your worst Christmas ever, where do you turn?  If you don’t naturally turn to the story of the birth of the savior, then I’m even more glad you’ve come here tonight, to hear this story of Christmas.  It’s my hope that in the midst of the darkness you might find some peace in the birth of Jesus.  This leads to a basic question I want to deal with tonight:

Do you have more peace than you did last year?

Do you know anyone named Irene?  Irene is Greek for “peace.”  “Irene” was popular at the turn of the 20th century but then fell out of favor.  It’s making a comeback though at the turn of the 21st century.  Irene is the word that Luke uses in the angels song:

Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

Peace means something that was once broken or fractured has been brought back together.  In the New Testament portion of the Bible (that’s the part of the Bible that comes after Jesus’ birth), there are ninety-two different instances when the word “Irene” is used.  About half of those references to peace refer to peace with God and the other half refer to peace between humans.  I want to explore both tonight.

Peace with God
What does it mean to have peace with God?  I’ll never forget Barb Smith.  Barb came to our church in my first year of being pastor here.  SCC welcomes everyone, but we tend to attract a younger crowd.  Barb’s silver hair stuck out a bit.  We send $5 gift cards to first time guests so I sent her a card.  She sent it back and told me to give it someone else.  Barb came back several weeks in a row and then I didn’t see her much.  So a couple of weeks later I called her.  When she picked up her phone she was in Missouri visiting family.  She told me that she had just been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and was given three to four months to live.  She was doing some last visiting with her family.  The peace in her voice over the phone was palpable.  I asked her if I could pray with her on the phone, and she really appreciated that, but what I really wanted to do was to ask this woman who seemed to have so much peace in the face of her imminent death to pray for me.  A couple of weeks later she was back to her home in Lansing and asked me to meet with her to plan her funeral.  They train you to plan funerals at seminary, but the training always assumes that the person has already died.  While I sat in Barb’s living room planning her funeral with her, I saw again the peace that she had.  There was some fear of the dying process and the pain involved, but Barb was not afraid of death.  Her trust and hope was in Jesus, who also died but was raised from the dead by the power of God.

Friends, to be at peace with God means entrusting our life and even our death into the hands of God.  Being at peace with God means trusting that we have been forgiven through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Being at peace with God means receiving the peace that passes understanding, a peace so deep that even when we look death in the face, we know that Jesus has already walked through the valley of the shadow of death and will walk alongside us too.

The angels said that “A Savior” would be born, but what will the savior save us from?  During Jesus’ time, Israelites probably hoped to be saved from the Roman Empire.  If you were around during the American Revolution, you might want to be saved from the British Empire.  Today, if you are black you might want to be saved from the police.  But Jesus doesn’t really promise to save us from any of these things.  He promises to save us from us, from ourselves.  Through Jesus we are saved from our narcissism that makes everything about ourselves.  We are saved from our unforgiveness, which is like drinking rat poison and hoping the rat dies.  We are saved from our bitterness that turns any joy into rottenness.  We are saved from our prejudice and racism that steals the gifts of a rich diversity in our relationships.  Ultimately we are saved from our rebellion from God, a rebellion that cuts us off from our creator, the very source of our being.  At Christmas we cannot forget that Jesus is born to ultimately die, a death that rescues us from ourselves.

So here’s a big question for you this Christmas:

Are you more at peace with God than you were last year?

Peace with others
I mentioned that there are ninety-two references to peace in the New Testament.  About half speak of peace with God, and half speak about peace between humans.  So how are things going living at peace with those around you?  What are you doing to push back the darkness? To bring peace to this world?

Sometimes we get really tripped up on the whole “world peace” thing.  Right?  I mean, who can really bring about world peace?  We pray for it.  We hope for it.  But that prayer and hope is so big that we kind of give up on even trying.  I like what Mother Teresa had to say about it.  She encouraged us to do small things with great love.  Small things don’t often seem like they’re fighting back the darkness but they may do more than you can imagine.

One of my favorite movie series is wrapping up this month: The Hobbit.  Hobbits are small creatures about half the size of a normal human being.  They’re called “Halflings” because of their size.  They don’t seem like creatures who would save the world.  They’re too small.  But Gandalf the wizard sees something powerful in their smallness:

 

 

Gandalf says that Saruman, another wizard, “believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I have found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay.”

Jesus lived and taught about peace in these small kinds of ways.  He taught us to love our enemies.  This isn’t about warm feelings, but about doing loving things toward them (even when they don’t deserve it).  Jesus taught us to forgive our enemies.  He taught us to turn the other cheek and to give someone our shoes when they steal our coat.  He tells us to forgive over and over again, and the prayer he taught us tells us that we’ll be forgiven in the way that we forgive others.  He told us to do acts of mercy to those who are in need.  He told the story of a man who is robbed and beaten and thrown on the side of the road.  Two church leaders walk by and leave him in the ditch.  Then a Samaritan walks by and helps him out.  Samaritans were hated by Jews.  Jesus is breaking down racial lines and prejudices in this simple story about helping someone who is different than you, even someone who might not do the same thing for you.

Christmas isn’t just about being at peace with God.  It’s about being at peace with those around us.  So here’s a question for you:

Are you more at peace with others than you were last year?

I find that a benefit of being part of a faith community like SCC, a community that seeks to be curious, creative, and compassionate is that we’re always doing our best to provide opportunities to do small things with great love.  This past year small groups socialized and sang carols at local nursing homes.  Another small group offered coffee to the homeless or near homeless downtown.  Individuals gave food, care, and rides to those stuck at home by health.  Together we collected over 5000 items for Compassion Closet, a personal needs bank in Lansing.  We served meals and built friendships at Maplewood Women and Children’s Center.  We helped organize two different garden work days at North Elementary.  Last year at Christmas Eve we received and gave away over $11,000.  Over all our years giving away Christmas Eve offerings we’ve received and given away over $46,000.  If you add in all the other offerings for missions that take place other than Christmas Eve, the total is more like $176,000 or about $12,000/year!  This year our four Christmas Eve offerings will be entirely given away to three things:

1.     Our Nicaragua Medical Missions

2.     Local Emergency Needs

3.     The Imagine No Malaria Campaign

We are seeking to be a compassionate community that is creating more peace in our world through small acts of kindness done with great love.  So here’s another question for you this Christmas:

Are you creating more peace in the world than you were last year?

If you don’t know where to begin, then begin with prayer.  Begin by asking God to help you have peace.  Here’s a prayer that you might find helpful:

God, I want peace.  I want peace with you and peace with those around me.  Forgive me for the ways I’ve ignored you and not sought to live at peace with others.  Give me the peace that passes understanding and help me walk in the way of Jesus so that I might have more peace in my life this year than last.  Amen.

Friends, if you’re ready to live at peace with God and peace with others, would you let me know? Drop me an email (tomarthur@sycamorecreekchurch.org) or check out my blog post: So You Want To Follow Jesus.

 

 

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Adam Hamilton

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Planes: Fire and Rescue – Resisting the Fires of Temptation

July 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

 

 

 

God on Film – Planes: Fire and Rescue
Resisting the Fires of Temptation
Sycamore Creek Church
July 20/21, 2014
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today I want to talk about the fires of temptation and what you have to do to resist.  Temptation is well known by many of us.  Mae West, the 20th century actress, is reported to have said, “I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.” Oscar Wilde writes in Lady Windermere’s Fan, “I can resist anything except temptation.”  The Barna Group, a research firm that studies contemporary cultural and religious trends compiled a list of today’s top ten temptations.  They are:

  1. Eating too much (55%)
  2. Spending too much time on media (44%)
  3. Spending too much money (44%)

Speak of spending too much money.  A poor country pastor who was struggling to make ends meet got really upset at his wife one day for buying a new very expensive designer dress in the mall.  He confronted her asking, “How could you spend that much money on a dress?”  His wife responded, “Satan tempted me to buy it.  He said, ‘Buy this dress.  It looks great on you.’”  The pastor said, “When I’m tempted by Satan I resist by saying, ‘Get behind me, Satan.”  His wife said, “I told him that and he said, ‘It looks fabulous back here too.’”

Ok, back to the list.  Number four:

4. Gossiping (26%)

Ok, one more pastor joke.  Really.  Just one more.  Four pastors got together one weekend for some R&R in a cabin.  The first night they were there they decided to be open with each other about their biggest sins.  One pastor went first and he said, “I’ve got a really bad sin. I look at inappropriate pictures of women all the time.  I don’t even like sports but I have a subscription so that I get the swimsuit edition.”  The second pastor said, “Mine’s worse.  I’ve got a drinking problem.  I drink way too much.”  The third pastor said, “I’ve got a pretty bad sin too.  I gamble.  I play lots of poker and slots and blackjack, and I’m losing all my paycheck on a regular basis.”  The fourth pastor responded, “Men, I’m afraid my sin is the worst of all.  I struggle with gossip.  And if you’ll excuse me, I have to go make some calls.”

Ok, enough of that.  Back to the top ten list of temptations:

5. Feeling jealous (24%)
6. Viewing pornography (18%)
7. Lying or cheating (12%)
8. “Going off” on someone via text or email (11%)
9.  Abusing alcohol or drugs (11%)
10. Doing something sexually inappropriate with someone (9%)

I asked my friends on Facebook what their favorite temptation song was.  Tempted by the Fruit of Another by Squeeze just kept coming up over and over again.  You know the chorus:

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

What’s your temptation?  What are you most tempted by?  One of my worst temptations lately is to argue with people in my head.  I craft wonderful arguments with people in my mind and that puts me in a great position ready to pounce whenever the opportunity arises.  The other day I got Sarah really good.  I was arguing with her in my head, and I knew she’d walk right into my trap, and she did.  I pounced.  I got her so good that she even apologized to me!  But then I felt guilty and apologized for being ready to pounce and not dealing with my frustration in a constructive manner.  I was tempted by the argument in my mind, and I gave into it.

The Bible talks a lot about temptation. Paul, the first Christian missionary, wrote several letters to churches around the Mediterranean and those letters have become books in the Bible.  He wrote one letter to the church at Ephesus and he said:

Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground,…
Ephesians 6:13 NLT

Today I want to explore what else Paul says about temptation and resisting it so that you are able to resist the enemy, and so that you are left standing when you find yourself caught in the fires of temptation.

C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia said:

“Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is…A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.”
~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

When I lived in Durham, NC I had a friend named Grace.  Grace lived with us for a while to get on her feet and overcome an addiction, and then she moved out into her own apartment about a quarter mile down the road.  A quarter mile may not seem like a very long way away, but Grace was a very large woman.  I’m not sure she had ever walked a quarter mile in her life.  Whenever she wanted to come over to our house we picked her up in a car.  One day Grace showed up on our porch after walking that quarter mile to get to our house.  Along the way she fell on the railroad tracks but got back up and kept walking.  When she arrived she was huffing and puffing. She took twenty minutes to rest and let her breathing go back to normal before she could tell us what this was all about.  She said, “I got the taste in my mouth for the drugs that were being sold by some kids in my back yard, and I knew I had to get away.”  She just about killed herself running away from temptation. When was the last time I ran from temptation so strenuously?

Today I want to look at a parallel that exists between those who fight fires and those who resist temptation.  When it comes to fighting fires, what you “wear” helps you resist the heat of a fire.  Firemen wear what is called a turnout suit.  It is specially crafted in all kinds of ways to help a fireman resist the heat of a fire.  It has several layers of insulation.  There is an internal harness that will allow another fireman to pull you out should you collapse.  It is fully waterproof as well as fireproof.  The helmet is made out of hardened leathered and has special ridges to deflect falling debris and water.  There is a plastic helmet within the leather helmet to absorb the shock of falling debris.  The outer coat has large pockets for keeping spare rope and carabineers should a fireman need to exit quickly out of a second story window.  Every detail is given special attention to help the fireman fight the fire.

In the same way that what you wear helps you fight fires, what you wear helps you fight and resist the fires of temptation.  Paul describes what he calls “God’s armor” that will help you resist temptation.

Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.  In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.  Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:13-17 NLT

I’d like to look at two wardrobe essentials to resisting the fires of temptation.

1.     Put on Faith
Paul tells us:

In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.
Ephesians 6:16 NLT

What is faith?  I think it’s worth pointing out that there are degrees of faith.  Some have faith that a God exists.  It is the faith of the theist or deist.  Then there are some who have faith in a religious way of some sort like a Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim.  Then there are those who have the faith of a servant of God.  Perhaps they fear God but do not love God.  Then there are those who have the faith of being a child of God.  This person knows that she is adopted into the family of God.

We find a pretty good definition of faith in the Bible itself.  We read:

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
~Hebrews 11:1 NLT

Martin Luther says that “faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.”  John Calvin another Protestant reformer from Luther’s day says, “A perfect faith is nowhere to be found, so it follows that all of us are partly unbelievers.”  Eugene Peterson, a contemporary pastor says, “Faith is not a feeling. It is simply an act of assent, of openness, and often doesn’t feel like much at all. Faith has to do with what God is doing, not with what we are feeling.”  Flannery O’Conner, the southern writer describes faith saying, “Don’t expect faith to clear things up for you.  It’s not about certainty, but about trust.”  I like to sum up all these definitions of faith by saying that faith is the decision to believe and trust, in spite of uncertainty.

So how do you put on faith?  Perhaps it is important to know that faith is a gift of God’s Spirit.  So if you need faith or if you don’t feel like you have much faith, then pray for faith and ask God to give it to you.  But there are also some active ways that you can seek to put on faith.

Paul describes faith as a shield in the armor of God.  A shield that keeps you safe from the fiery darts of the enemy.  A shield is a defensive weapon primarily.  And a shield is most effective next to other shields.  The Romans had a formation they called the testudo (http://www.destructoid.com/ul/260995-review-total-war-rome-ii/testudo-620x.jpg).  It was when a group of infantrymen all held their shields up in front and above each other so as to create what was known as “the turtle.”  They would move together able to protect one another from incoming arrows or spears.  The Vikings called it a shield wall.  In the History Channel’s series, Vikings, there’s a great scene of the English encountering a Viking shield wall for the first time:

Just as a shield is best used alongside other shields for the defense against fiery darts and arrows, so is faith put on best by standing alongside others of faith within a community of faith.  The faith of others strengthens your own faith and helps you to withstand the fires of temptation.

2.     Put on Peace
The second wardrobe essential I want to look at today are the shoes of peace.  Paul says:

For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.
~Ephesians 6:15 NLT

What is peace?  Peace is closely related to salvation which is what Paul tells us to put on our heads.  So from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet we find peace and salvation as essential for resisting temptation.  In another letter to the church of Rome Paul says:

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.
~Romans 5:1 NLT

Peace is being made right in God’s sight.  It is the result of faith, faith in what Jesus has done for us in his own faithful life, death, and resurrection.

So how do you put on peace?  There are all kinds of ways we try to put on peace.  We try to put in with thick skin (If only I never let anyone hurt me again).  We try to find peace in someone’s arms (If only I find the right person).  We try to put on peace through our kids (If only I make sure my kids don’t make the same mistakes I made).  Or perhaps in our education (If only I know the right stuff).  Or maybe in our 401K (If only I have enough money).  We try to find peace in volunteering (If only I’m good enough).  Or maybe in therapy (If only I dig deep enough into my past).  Some of us seek peace in the gym (If only I am healthy enough).  Others seek peace in our plans (If only I am prepared for every possibility).  And yet with all these efforts peace eludes us.  There is only one way to put on ultimate peace: to have faith in Jesus Christ.

Blaise Pascal, a 17th century French philosopher who was also a Christian said:

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in us a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This we try in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.

Many have paraphrased Pascal as saying that each of us has a God-shaped vacuum or God-shaped hole in our hearts.  We try to fill that hole with all kinds of things, but the only thing that can fill it is God.  We will always be tempted to seek peace by filling that hole and that longing with all kinds of things until we fill it completely and totally with God.  You resist temptation when the eternal and divine longing of your heart is perfectly filled by Jesus.

Pascal has also become known for his wager, “Pascal’s Wager.”  Here’s how it goes:

  1. If you trust God and God does not exist, you have lost little.
  2. If you do not trust God and God does exist, you have lost much.
  3. If you trust God and God does exist, you have gained everything.

So what is keeping you from putting on faith and peace today through God’s son, Jesus Christ?  If the hole in your heart is longing for God today, then I invite you to pray along with me:

God my heart longs for you.  I am tempted to fill it with so many other things.  Let me find peace in you alone.  Give me your salvation, your righteousness, your truth, your faith, and your Word so that I might resist the temptation to put anything before you.  In the name of Jesus, the one who brings Good News.  Amen.

Want to know more about following Jesus?  Visit my blog here.

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What should I feel?

November 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Off the TracksAfter this past Sunday’s message, Off the Tracks – Personal Sin, I received the following question:

How do I know when I’m back on the tracks? Does it feel different? Should I feel different after asking God into my life?

It’s a great question.  Let me back up and review just for a moment before answering the question. I suggested that sin is anything whether intentional or unintentional that causes our lives to jump off the tracks of God’s will.  There are two basic steps for getting your life back on the tracks.  First, tell the truth about yourself.  Admit to yourself and God that your life is off the tracks.  Second, receive God’s lift of forgiveness back on the tracks.

So how do you know when you’re back on the tracks?  Does it feel different?  Well, yes and no.  Paul talks about the “Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17a).  I think that the general experience of Christians has been that when they experience God’s forgiveness, there is a kind of peace in their spirit and soul.  It is God’s Spirit dwelling in friendship with your spirit.

And yet, not every Christian experiences this quite the same way.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, desired to experience this “witness of the Spirit” all his life and wrote a couple of sermons about it, but while he sought it himself and preached that we should expect it and look for it, his diary shows that he often did not feel it himself.  Some of us will simply experience a new confidence or commitment in seeking and following God’s way for our life, but nothing that seems “supernatural.”

But on another level we may actually feel worse.  If we continue reading Paul’s thoughts we hear him say, “If, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17b).  We should expect there to be suffering involved in following Christ.  This suffering may come from persecution or it may come from denying our bodies all their passions and lusts.  It also may come from the paradoxical experience that the more spiritually mature you are the more you realize how far you have to go.  The more that sin loses its grip on your life, the more you realize just how deep sin runs. Should you feel different?  Yes.  You should feel peace.  And no.  You may feel worse.

Maybe the best image to help one understand this situation is that of a storm over deep water.  The top of the water may rage at the tempest of the storm with rolling breakers, but below the surface the water is as calm as it ever has been.  The outside of your life may be filled with suffering, but on the inside there is a deep reservoir of peace that was not there before.

Then again, I wonder if God isn’t wonderful enough to work in as many ways as there are individuals, and that means every person’s experience will be a little different.  I will never forget what Rick Ray said when I baptized him last summer: “For forty years I have wondered how God could forgive me for things I couldn’t even forgive myself.  Then I realized that it didn’t matter what I thought.  It only mattered what God thought.”  Amen.

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Exposure in Creation

February 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Exposure in Creation
Sycamore Creek Church
Song of Songs 4:1-7
Tom Arthur
February 20, 2011

Peace, Friends!

Exposure.  That simple word has several different meanings.  Exposure can be a disclosure of something secret.  It can also mean vulnerability to the elements or being in a general state of vulnerability.  Today we continue our series on the Song of Songs called Exposure, and we’ll be exposing the Song of Songs through the lens of its second meaning: vulnerability to the elements.

Over the centuries Christians have tended to debate about the Song of Songs.  Early in history, before the sexual revolution of the 60s, Christians tended to be very uncomfortable with the eroticism of the Song of Songs.  Why is that in the Bible?  So they allegorized everything and made the book all about God’s love for God’s people.  They exposed Song of Songs through a spiritual lens.  So then came the 60s, and today commentators want to say that the Song of Songs is all about sex.  They expose the Song of Songs through a literal lens.  Which one is right?  I’m not sure this is a helpful question.

I love photography.  I studied it extensively while in college, and one of the things I came to realize is that you can take a picture and expose it three or more different ways and get multiple different images.  Which one is right?  That’s probably not the right question to be asking.  Rather, what do we see more clearly in one that we don’t see in another?  What comes to the foreground and what recedes to the background?

In the same way, Song of Songs can be exposed at least three different ways: literally, morally, and spiritually.  Through the literal lens, we learn something about sex.  That’s what we did last week.  We learned that sex is faithful, equal, emotional, physical, and spiritual.  Through the spiritual lens, which we’ll be looking through next week, we learn something about God’s love.  Today we’re going to be exposing the Song of Songs through a moral lens, and we’ll learn something about creation.  Song of Songs is definitely about sex, but it’s also about a whole lot more.

Peace with Creation

Let’s go back to the beginning of the Bible for a moment.  In Genesis we run into what is usually called The Fall.  Adam and Eve disobey God and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  There are three consequences of The Fall.  The first is that there is a brokenness between Adam and Eve and all lovers and spouses who follow them.  Then there is a brokenness in creation.  Lastly, there is a distance that forms between humanity and God.

Through each of these exposures of the Song of Songs, we find a correction and healing to the brokenness and sin of The Fall.  Through the literal exposure of Song of Songs, we see a healing in the exposure between husband and wife.  In the spiritual reading we see an intimacy and vulnerability between God and humanity.  And in the moral reading we see a delight and peace with creation.

We can see the effects of The Fall all around us in creation.  I asked Lori Miller, a member of our church who works for the City of Lansing’s Capital Area Recycling and Trash what were some of the ways that we are vulnerable to the elements of pollution in creation right here in Lansing?  She pointed out several to me.  For those who live along heavy traveled corridors like Pennsylvania and Cedar, there’s exposure to exhaust and the pollutants that get into the soil along those streets.  There’s the greenhouse gas emissions that BWL’s coal power plants create.  If you live in an older home there’s the potential for exposure to asbestos, lead paint, and radon.  Then there’s the landfills.  She told me that while landfills have improved significantly over the years, there is no 100% safe  landfill.  When we throw especially tech trash into the landfill the contaminants in our electronics and computers will eventually make their way into the environment.  Getting more specific, she pointed me to the Motor Wheel Landfill on the north side of Lansing on High Street.  This was a pre-regulated landfill that has contaminated the ground water.  She also pointed me to the Adams Plating sight on the west side on Rosemary Street which has contaminated the soil with chromium.  Chromium causes all kinds of problems with health including skin, lung, immune system, kidney, and liver problems.  It also causes cancer.  She did say that this site has been stabilized and that there are no immediate risks because the soil has been cleaned up.  But still, you walk outside your house (or stay in it), and you’re exposed to the broken and polluted elements of creation.

In contrast to this experience of creation, Song of Songs presents an image of delight and peace with creation:

Song of Songs 4:1-7 (NLT)

Young Man: “How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats frisking down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are as white as sheep, newly shorn and washed. They are perfectly matched; not one is missing. Your lips are like a ribbon of scarlet. Oh, how beautiful your mouth! Your cheeks behind your veil are like pomegranate halves — lovely and delicious. Your neck is as stately as the tower of David, jeweled with the shields of a thousand heroes. Your breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle, feeding among the lilies. Before the dawn comes and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. You are so beautiful, my beloved, so perfect in every part.

This is God’s story for us today.  Thank you, God!

Peace with the Land

So what is this?  Isn’t it just an erotic poem?  Yes it is that.  It’s actually a very specific kind of poem.  It’s called a “wasf” and was used by many different kinds of poets in the culture of its day.  The poet attempts to connect the emotional experience of different body parts with the emotional experience of different moments in creation.  Does it sound a little strange?  It shouldn’t.  Our modern day poets do the same thing.  Consider John Denver’s song, Annie’s Song.  He sings:

You fill up my senses
like a night in the forest
like the mountains in springtime,
like a walk in the rain
like a storm in the desert,
like a sleepy blue ocean
you fill up my senses,
come fill me again.

This isn’t intended to be a literal description.  You can’t go in a room and pick out the woman that this describes.  Um…Yeah…go find the woman whose hair is like a frisky flock of goats, who fills up your senses like a night in the forest.  Doesn’t work.  Because that’s not what it was intended to do.  This kind of poem is intended to connect emotional experiences.

When we look closely at those emotional experiences in the Song of Songs we see that there is a deep delight in creation rather than creation being something that we are exposed to in a vulnerable fashion where there is no peace with the land.

Back to Genesis for a moment.  In The Fall we see no peace with the land.  God says to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit I told you not to eat, I have placed a curse on the ground…” (Genesis 3:17, NLT).  I said this last week, but it is worth repeating again.  I don’t think this “curse” is that God is saying this is how it should be.  I think it is God saying this is how it is now that sin has entered into the story.  If we thought that this is how it should now be, then we wouldn’t allow men to use tractors.  That would be cheating them of the “benefits of the curse” on the ground.

Continuing on, we see that Adam and Eve are separated from this idyllic garden of paradise.  We read, “So the LORD God banished Adam and his wife from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made” (Genesis 3:23, NLT).  Here there is no peace with creation.

The Song of Songs exposes a different image than that of The Fall.  We read:

Song 2:10-13 (NRSV)
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 turtledove 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.

The winter is past.  It reminds me of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe where because of the White Witch, Narnia is stuck always in winter and never Christmas.  There is no spring.  But then one day the snow starts to melt and spring starts to come.  The Narnias know that something has happened.  Aslan, the Lion King, has come back to remake Narnia.  So too in the Song of Songs.  Winter is past.  The Fall is coming to an end and creation is remade.  We partake in this remaking through the care and service of the land.

This image of peace with the land goes quite far in the Song of Songs.  At the end of chapter one, we read about a bedroom where the ceiling is made of timbers.  It is as though the couple is so at peace with creation that they are like God’s making love on the tops of mountains.  What a beautiful image of being at peace with creation.

Peace with People

Of course creation isn’t just made up of animals and trees and flowers and mountains.  Part of creation is you and me and all the people that are creatures too.  Going back again to Genesis and The Fall we see right off the bat after being banished from the garden that peace between people disappears.  Adam and Eve’s sons have a run in with one another.  We read, “Later Cain suggested to his brother, Abel, ‘Let’s go out into the fields.’ And while they were there, Cain attacked and killed his brother” (Genesis 4:8, NLT).  Yikes!  The first murder.  It didn’t take long for humanity to lose the peace of the Garden of Eden.

Song of Songs exposes us to a different image of being at peace with people.  The groom says to his bride, “O my beloved, you are as beautiful as the lovely town of Tirzah. Yes, as beautiful as Jerusalem! You are as majestic as an army with banners!” (Song 6:4, NLT).  Unless you’re up on ancient geography, what just happened here probably passed you by.  The groom compares his bride to two cities: Tirzah and Jerusalem.  So what?  Well, he’s comparing his bride to two capitals that have been in civil war with one another.  Tirzah is the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Washington D.C., if you will, of Israel.  Jerusalem is the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Israel, the Richmond, if you will, of Israel.

Let’s make this whole thing a little more understandable.  We’re talking about the Sue Sylvesters and Will Shusters getting together (the geeks, or gleeks, and the jocks/cheerleaders).  Batman and Joker.  The USSR and the US.  North Korea and South Korea.  East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem.  The Israelis and the Palestinians.

What a comparison!  Who compares their beautiful bride to two warring cities and people groups?  Only one who thinks that peace between them is more beautiful than the current hostilities.  We keep reading and the groom takes this a step further comparing the bride to a dance between two armies: “Return, return, O Shulammite! Return, return, that we may look upon you. Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?” (Song 6:13, NRSV).  Whew!  How do two armies dance together?  They do so by bringing both peace and justice.

Did you notice that the bride is given another name here?  She’s called the “Shulammite.”  Umm…What’s that mean?  Well, “Shulammite” comes from the same root as the word “shalom” which means peace.  Shalom means peace, but it also means a whole lot more.

We read in Psalm 34:14, “Turn away from evil and do good. Work hard at living in peace [shalom] with others.”  Friendship.  Contentment.  Tranquility.  And of course, no war!  Shalom is all these things, and more.  We read in Psalm 72:3, “May the mountains yield prosperity [shalom] for all, and may the hills be fruitful, because the king does what is right.”  Justice.  Wellbeing.  Welfare.  Ethical living.  The word “shalom” has a kind of grand vision for the whole person—mind, body, spirit.  Care for the whole person and you’re participating in shalom.

Yes, the Song of Songs is about sex, but when you expose it a little more, you realize that it’s not just about sex.  It’s also about creation. Song of Songs exposes us to the best of the best: an image, vision, imagination of peace or shalom with all of creation—both the land and other people.  So…

Shalom, friends!

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