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

When GOOD Becomes Enemy of BEST

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Monday, June 17, 2019

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  Always be humble and gentle.  Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  Ephesians 4:1-4

Every time I convince myself I’m done with it, that I’m not going to think about it, write about it, or care about it ever-again, the Apostle Paul gets in my way.  He’s like that, constantly reminding us about love.  And to use the word “love” there’s no sense of smarmy, warm and fuzzy emotionalism in the mix.  The Apostle’s “love” (of which Paul is not the originator, but merely the messenger) is that singularly God-like selfless love, agape’.[2]  In this is no room for emotion-driven, touchy-feely I’m OK-You’re OK drivel.  This kind of love is much more difficult, requires using your brain, and is eminently greater at fixing human relationships.  This love is what Paul was driving at when he challenges believers to live a life worthy of that to which God calls us.  Note the explanation:

Christians who wish to lead a life worthy of the calling to which they have been called, are obliged, in imitation of their Lord, to forbear one another in love, with all lowliness, meekness, and patience (Eph 4:2). That is, they are to exercise calm patience under provocation, avoid resentment and retaliation, be slow to judge and punish, and be ever ready to forgive (Phil 4:5; Col 3:13; 2 Tim 2:24).[3]

Paul got in my way with this, because he calls us to use every power, resource, and possible effort to stay united.  For someone who belongs to the tribe called United Methodist, them’s fightin’ words!  Well, at least it would seem so. 

I hate fighting, or conflict of any kind.  Perhaps I owe it to my hardwired nature to be shy, and introverted.  Perhaps it was my intoverted Mother’s training, or just the prevailing era’s mantra of not saying anything if you had nothing nice to say.  But, whether your profile is that of wall-flowering recluse, or highly-active drama queen, mixing it up in the latest bruhaha, you’re not even near baby understanding of God’s agape’ if you are just willing to sit and fume, or, worse, strike-back like a counter-punching president.  That is not anywhere in the same universe with forbearing or making every effort to keep united in the Spirit.

I fear for my tribe that we are descending into the hell of plotting, intrigue, and manipulation of institutional-infighting which is anything but forbearing one another, remaining humble and gentle; this has no chance at all at ending what has been a dividing war for decades.  And it’s the exclusive fault of neither one side nor the other…rather it is pure evil that drives separation of people who are called to the worthy (albeit quite difficult) task of being bound-together in selfless living, so the world may truly see God.

Admittedly there is “good” on both “sides” of the (not-nearly united) Methodist holy war.  Both want to be connected to God and serve Him.  Both want to be a blessing, not a curse.  Both sides want to grow in love and usefulness in the Kingdom.  But when that good intention becomes tainted with human need to control, own and manipulate in order to accomplish keeping their side of the elephant as holy, while disposing of the rest of the beast…well, let’s just say we have allowed the good to become enemy of the best!

For You Today

If you’re stuck in some holy war, and sides are taken, and you’re being pulled in either or both directions….STOP, think, be annoyed by the Apostle Paul’s call to get your stuff together under the tent of God’s kind of love, and choose to forbear, forgive, and bring together; that is the best that will cooperate with the Spirit to drive the combatants to examine their so-called good.

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

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

[2] In Greek, ἐν ἀγάπῃ

[3] Encyclopedia of the Bible

Compassionate Riots

Rescuers pulled a teenager out of the rubble in Nepal's capital today, five days after an earthquake struck. CreditNavesh Chitrakar/Reuters[1]   

Friday, May 1, 2015

One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city.  Proverbs 16:32 (NLT)

Workers are fighting around the clock in Nepal to extract trapped people from collapsed buildings.  A teenage boy was pulled from the rubble Wednesday and the watching crowd broke out in cheers and applause.  It was a compassionate riot!

The Nepalese people are thankful amidst tragedy.

Meanwhile different riots breaking-out in Baltimore, marches and demonstrations in Washington and New York are a spectacle of quite another tone….there is anger.

In the middle of an American tragedy – the death of persons in the custody of police – American forbearance is all but forgotten.

What is the difference between what is happening in Nepal, and what is going on in America from Ferguson to Washington?  It is the distance between anger and compassion. 

Both anger and compassion are strong emotions, and they are separated by light years in cause and effect. Anger tends to destroy when unchecked (as in the street rioting and looting we saw on Baltimore streets this week.)

But sometimes they are connected.  Sometimes anger is driven by compassion, as in the national response in America after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Compassion for lost souls always evokes anger, and rightfully, when it is caused by power grabs and oppression.

But there is almost nothing more obscene than rioting and looting when the (supposed) provocation is righteous anger over oppression.  This goes far beyond two wrongs not making a right; there’s nothing noble or epically-righteous about breaking into a mall to steal toilet paper or a TV. 

It’s simply the release of emotion over pent-up frustration.  It’s making somebody…anybody pay for the hurt we feel over injustice.

In our culture American anger comes too quickly these days.  We are becoming the new caricature of people who claim to be peace-loving, and can’t wait to provoke a good riot.

Whatever happened to the virtues of patience and due process?  A mob can be mighty, but uncontrolled temper can destroy quicker than most anything.

Here’s a bit of advice for all of us from the old Preacher, Solomon (a pretty smart guy) who said:

Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.  Ecclesiastes 7:9 (NLT)

For You Today

If you’re itching to join in the fight against something, let me suggest fighting the terrible losses in Nepal.  They could use a hand.

You might want to check out resources before you send a check to help in Nepal.  Here is the United Methodist website with information on what we’re doing, and what we’ve already sent to help.

If you already know that and are ready to donate, go here; join a compassionate riot!

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[1] Title image:  Reuters