What does love have to do with it?

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17, September 1, 2024: Song of Solomon 2:8-13; Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Our readings from Hebrew scriptures today focus on love. This is love deeply rooted in bodies and the senses. We begin with the love poetry of the Song of Solomon, or the Song of Songs. The young woman describes her lover as like a gazelle, gazing in the window, calling her to join him. The winter is over, he says, “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come,/ and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”

It’s gorgeous poetry-as is the whole book-but it’s a beautiful bit of erotic love poetry, suffused with the desire of the two young lovers for each other. The Song of Solomon is unique in the Hebrew scriptures to have no reference to God, or to the relationship between God and God’s people. It is often read allegorically. But as it is, it serves as a reminder that love and desire are part of God’s plan.

The psalm also has a sensual charge, focused on the King who has been annointed by the Lord. “My heart is stirring with a noble song”, the psalmist begins. “You are the fairest of men”, he adds. The whole feeling of the court as described is sensuous: the “oil of gladness”, the fragrant garments, the “music of strings from ivory palaces”, and the Queen “adorned with the gold of Ophir”. All of this is a result of the King being blessed by God. The psalmist is living in their body, and responding with all his senses to the world around him.

At first, the movement from the sensual and erotic to the Epistle of James is a shock. James is instructing his readers, “Beloved”, on how they should live. “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger”. And, “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves”. True religion, he tells them, is “to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” James points to a world not of judgment but of kindness and generosity. Though he doesn’t use the word, it is a world governed by love.

Mark’s gospel points us in the same direction. The pharisees are upset by disciples who do not follow all the ritual practices of the tradition. These practices-much like those we learned during Covid-involved thorough washing of hands before eating, as well as washing food from the market before eating it. Failure to follow these meant you were unclean. Jesus’ response reframes what makes you unclean: it is what comes from within, your emotions, intentions and words, that is the problem, not what comes from outside. The list of evil intentions is comprehensive: “fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.”

Our readings from the Hebrew scriptures are written with the fullness of human love, sensual and erotic. Both Jesus and James are focused on the importance of living with love, on the work of the heart. Together these readings highlight a range of ways love plays a role in our lives. The psalmist’s appreciation of the beauty of the court is focused on how it reflects God’s blessing. Our responses to the world around us is a response to human engagement in God’s creation: we can admire beauty and grandeur, or be dismayed by destruction. We can experience God’s creation through nature, but also through art and music. Like the psalmist, we need to acknowledge this as God’s work. But it is not just that we experience these things: it is what we do with that experience. And here, both James and Jesus suggest that the response is active. Love is not a feeling, it’s what we do to and for others.

Bishop Curry has talked about the Jesus movement as the way of love. Love is not just a Hallmark card, though certainly phrases from the Song of Solomon have made their way onto some of them. Love, in all its forms, is sacred. It is something we experience from others, and towards others. It is a response to the beauty of the world, or special experiences. And it guides our response to all those we encounter.

Love is the center, and it is holy. It is our response and our action. We receive love from God, and respond with love, to God and to each other. Love is everything.