Hidden Brides and Little Foxes

Thursday, April 16, 2020

The Young Woman

My lover said to me, “Rise up, my darling!  Come away with me, my fair one!  Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone.  The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.  The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming.  

The Young Man

Rise up, my darling!  Come away with me, my fair one!”  My dove is hiding behind the rocks, behind an outcrop on the cliff.  Let me see your face; let me hear your voice.  For your voice is pleasant, and your face is lovely. 

Young Women of Jerusalem

Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!  Song of Solomon 2:10-15

There are a lot of interpretations for The Song.  There is relatively modern thought that it is just straightforward poetry about love.  Solomon was not only wise he was a brilliant composer of artistic bent.  Some see the Shulamite version where Solomon is so captured by the princess of Ethiopia, he attempts to win her heart by whisking her away to Jerusalem, and dazzling her with his accomplishments, but she is in love with another.  And there is also the metaphor for God as the Bridegroom, with Israel as His bride.  Of course many New Testament era scholars also accept this for the church as the Bride of Christ.  I’m not taking issue with any of this thinking. 

This morning I’m seeing in Solomon’s verse the hidden bride, the church behind the rocks, with her lovelier side of beauty nearly altogether unseen by the rest of the world.  In recent years the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach is growing because the bride, Christ’s church, looks bedraggled and haggard with all her knock-down, drag-out brawling over doctrines, and who is fit to do whatever.  The little foxes of selfishness and hedonism are taking bites out of the bride and knocking a good bit of luster off the wedding pictures.

I’ve never been a wedding planner, or coordinator, but I’ve been close enough to weddings for a long time to know there’s a lot of holding-it-together that happens on the big day.  There are wardrobe failures, missing people and forgotten essentials to be found.  And if you throw-in melt downs from flower girls, or a ring-bearing 4-year-old boy who would rather be doing anything than wearing shiny shoes that hurt and a tuxedo (whatever that might be)…it’s a wonder you ever get to the I do’s.

Drama is a very real part of life; I think we all know that.  But the church is not a place for the kind of drama with which we’ve all become familiar – that kind of drama, caused by selfish control issues, rigid religiosity, and tradition-bound gate-keepers who couldn’t recognize a new wineskin if it jumped out from their musty closet and screamed, use me before it’s too late, or that new wine will spill all over your carpeted faith.

The Bride has been fighting again is how Chuck Swindoll so picturesquely characterized the lack of love we see in a bride, the church, which fails in her lover’s request to Rise up, my darling, come away with me….  Instead, the bride now hears (and fears) the same voice heard so long ago in that beautiful garden, when forbidden fruit was sweeter than obedience:  Where are you, my darling?  What have you done? 

For You Today

The response of one who is loved is, rightly, to love.  And so, it is not up for debate what the church needs to do as the object of God’s love.  What the church needs to do is rise up like the “darling” she was created to be and bring that beautiful face of loving service out from behind the rocks.

We know what she must do; the real question is, will she do it?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on The Song of Solomon 2 see Arise and Foxes and Grapes

Together

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.  With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.   Acts 4:32-33 (NRSV)

In the early stages of the birth and growth of Jesus’ church there was struggle, trials and figuring-out what the mission would be.  But there was also a communal sense of “bonded-ness” where the group instinctively knew they had to stick together and work together.  And that brought great power to the message of Christ as it was proclaimed in the first century.

It’s hard to miss that so much more can be accomplished with teamwork and cooperation than when people act independently.  However, it is even harder to understand, in light of the proven power of unity, that people more often choose individualism over working together.

Now, it isn’t always that way.  In extreme situations we’ve all seen great community response and corporate effort.  A neighbor’s house burns, the community rushes to help.  A woman is trapped under a car and complete strangers will join the lift.  Cancer stalks a child and you’ll see signs in every store window about a fundraiser to meet the needs.  Cooperation happens!

But the Church does have some Laundry

One of the persistent and pervasive problems churches have is “individualism” – a conscious (or sub-conscious) choosing of personal preferences over mission. 

Plainly-said: we want what we want; selfishness!  Whether it’s worship style, music or color of the carpet, disagreement and disunity is ever close!

This is so opposite of how Jesus established the church.  With cooperation and prayerful dependence on God’s strength, the church was growing and there wasn’t a need the church didn’t meet.  But, it wasn’t long before selfishness crept-in.  In the very next chapter ^{(Acts 5)} Ananias and Sapphira lied to church leaders, boasting about their supposed generosity.

You expect that sort of thing in politics and big business - scandals, lawsuits, stealing and backstabbing.  Sadly though, it also happens in the church.  And it cripples the mission of the church to make known the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

With as many factions as there are in church organizations throughout the world today, denominations divided, para-church groups, lobbying splinter groups within mainline machinery and schism after schism, it’s hard to read about believers who …were of one heart and soul.  It’s hard to read it and still keep a straight face while we call ourselves the church.

There is Hope for the Church’s Future

Nonetheless, I still have great confidence in the church.  If in times of tragedy and crisis, we still see a large percentage of people coming to the aid of others, I believe the church can still, and will “be the church” in this 21^st century crisis of faith.

In church Sunday we sang “The Church’s One Foundation”:

Though with a scornful wonder we see her sore oppressed,

   by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,

   yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?” 

And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

The old ship of Zion, the church, has always had to deal with the fact that we are humans – frail, sinful and selfish.  But in the final analysis, it is not our humanity which rules the church.  The church is Christ’s, and the prayers of the night, weeping and mourning, are always that which lead to the bright morning sun of song and laughter. 

For You, Today…

Pray for the church!  The Father is listening.