Look! My Beloved! (Song of Solomon 2: 8-13 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

I want to share with you the alternative lectionary reading for today. I’m never quite certain why we have alternative readings that we never seem to use. But no matter, one of the alternative readings comes from a book that we never seem to read. Go figure.

It is from the Song of Songs, or also known as Song of Solomon. Chapter2, verses 8-13
Listen! My beloved!
    Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
    bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
    Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattice.
10 My beloved spoke and said to me,
    “Arise, my darling,
    my beautiful one, come with me.
11 See! The winter is past;
    the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
    the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
    is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
    the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
    my beautiful one, come with me.”

The Song of Songs is a lengthy love poem included in scripture not because of its sensuality, or at least that is my guess, but because it is a wonderful way of understanding the passionate love of God for each of us. I would say for his creation.

God chases after us, woos us, and passionately offers to us everything we need to find our way to his embrace. This is the God I have come to know.

So why do I want to offer this alternative reading today? Because I see in it a way of thinking about our gospel that maybe we haven’t considered. Or if we have, then a way that bears remembrance.

In our poem we read that the Beloved has come to his loved one. He has come a distance to call her to him. And we also read:
There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattice.
I have to wonder why he is left behind the wall, gazing through windows and lattice. Why is he not received or why does she not go to him? 

If this is indeed a poem of God chasing after us, then Jesus is the Beloved that has come a great distance to woo his people  into his embrace. What is the wall that keeps the Pharisees from receiving this love? Or as Isaiah prophesied “'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;”  What distances their hearts from the Beloved of God? 

The Pharisees, by the way, were the church people of Jesus’ day. 

In the case of our gospel it seems to be the doctrines and traditions that keep them from embracing the one who has come to embrace them. It is the carrying on with the way things have always been. It is the heart that has been hardened by need for control, consistency, and certainty.

Isn’t that what the human precepts bring? Control over others and disorder, consistency in how things will be done, and certainty in what is expected? And do we not also have these things, these precepts, these traditions firmly in place?

We have our liturgy, our rules, our buildings, our pews all firmly in place. So much so that when the Beloved calls:
Arise, come, my darling;
    my beautiful one, come with me.”
we watch him from our side of the wall.

We can see the Beloved through the window. We can see him through the lattice. Why do we not run to him? Why do we stand firmly where we have always been?

All of the rules and doctrines and teachings play an important part in who we are. They have helped to know what the Beloved will look like when he comes. They have given us the strength to look and wait.  They have built a foundation for what is right and wrong.

But there comes a time when we must look within and learn who it is we worship? Do we merely worship the Beloved, Jesus, God with our lips but give our hearts to rules, traditions, expectations? What do we rely on for our daily bread?

Friends, God has sent his very own Spirit to us. Jesus tells us that Spirit is alive and well and moves and breathes and is as free as the wind. How do we prepare ourselves to go when we are called?

I believe there is a time to wait and persist and there is a time to move forward. But how can we know if we are waiting or moving because of God’s call or because of our own stubborn hearts? 

First of all I believe while another may help us listen, we are the only ones that can truly know. And it is in knowing ourselves that we find the truth. What is in our hearts? Do we act in love? Do we cling in fear? Are we willing to listen? Or do we shut our ears?

There was a moment during my ordination that I will never forget. It had absolutely nothing to do with me. 
We had processed and sung and declared and confessed. All was going as planned. A dear friend stood to read scripture and speak. As he began a man from the streets walked in the door (not in proper attire), down the aisle, and knelt at the altar. After a moment of prayer he rose, sat in a pew for a few minutes and then walked back out the door. I was in awe.

No one demanded he play by the rules. No one stopped the service, the message, and tried to remove him. I will never know what happened to him or who he was. But his entrance left a deep impression.
Not only did I see a man who was willing to go beyond the walls of proper etiquette to chase after the Beloved, I saw a speaker, a bishop, a congregation that was willing to let the Spirit blow in, even without proper attire. The Spirit blows where it may.

We went on with the formalities but each person that was there was in some way changed. I continue to watch for the moment the Spirit blows in to interrupt my life in some new, unexpected form. And I pray I continue to leave the door unlocked so she or he may.

Open your hearts my friends and be ready, be willing to let your way, your tradition be disturbed. May we not merely worship with our lips but rather when the Beloved comes and calls may we have the courage to arise and follow the one who loves us more. Watch for him in the flowers, the change of seasons, the fruits, and the poorly attired that blow through your day like the wind.

EAT ME! John 6:56-69

It’s funny because when I retired I thought I would be able to avoid some of these rather uncomfortable readings. Including the weeks of all the bread gospels. But God in his sense of humor has placed in my lap this passage of Jesus eloquently saying to the people “eat me” for I am the bread of life.

Of course the thought that comes to mind, I am sure you have heard this said before, maybe too many times, is the old cliche “you are what you eat.”

 Since this is not a conversation on cannibalism, how do we eat Jesus and become like him? And what was he thinking making such an obscene declaration?

I actually grew to love this passage as I considered what Jesus was asking of us.  I am rereading a book by one of my favorite authors, Brian McLaren, “Finding our way again.”  It’s about ancient spiritual practices. He begins the book with a story that I have often retold.

At a conference of pastors, McLaren is tasked with the opportunity of interviewing Dr. Peter Senge, well known for his work in systems thinking. McLaren begins by asking what Senge would like to say to that group of five hundred Christian Ministers.

Senge begins with telling how he had asked a bookstore manager what the most popular books were. First was how to get rich in the new information economy. (BTW McLaren’s book was written in 2008).  And second were books on spirituality, particularly Buddhism. He then asks the pastors why this might be. Senge’s reasoning has never left me.

Senge said “I think it’s because Buddhism presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief.”

We are good at studying the words that have been attributed to Jesus via the gospels. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. We build creeds around the gospel stories. We create liturgies. It is all good stuff for the head to ponder. But Jesus doesn’t say think about me, Jesus says consume me…everything that I am.
Take all of me! All that I am.  Not just the words. Why? Because words change meanings throughout centuries and cultures. Their connotations evolve with societies. Words are often misunderstood or repeated and remembered incorrectly. Words can only be the beginning of our journey with Jesus.

Jesus tells us he is “the way, the truth, the life.” Consume, make who he is, his life, his way of being a part of your life, your heartbeat, your digestive system. 

McLaren writes, :Jesus didn’t merely describe this way or path, nor did he merely point to it, nor did he reduce it to a list of rules; he actually embodied it: I am the path, he said.” Don’t just talk about the path, embody it!

Consume everything about Jesus and become the way/the path for another. Yes, you become the way to another. Does that sound sacrilegious? Think about this: you have the very same Spirit Jesus had. The very same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is within you. Jesus is telling us, no, showing us how to bring that spirit alive. How to feed that spirit. How to exercise that spirit. How to manifest that Spirit for another to see.

How do we eat Jesus? How do we consume all that he is? One way is here at the communion table. We take, in that little piece of bread or wafer, all that Jesus embodied and we consume it. His love, his grace, his peace. It becomes part of us. If our spirits are open to receiving it as such.

We do this as a continuous reminder that we not only want to know about Jesus but we want Jesus to become part of who we are. We want to become what it is we eat. We want our spirit to be nourished by His Spirit.

Another way of consuming or receiving Jesus (I'm not talking about coming to the altar and praying the salvation prayer). Is to open your spirit to be united with his in an intentional manner. 
There are several spiritual practices that help us do this on a daily basis, in our own living room, at our own kitchen table etc. 

Centering Prayer is my favorite. It is the practice of going into your private room, prayer closet, inner space to be open to God. In that time you put away all words and just be present with the one who created you and woos you. 

Jesus often went away for one on one time with God. It is a beautiful way of what some refer to as “oneing” with God, with Jesus, with the Spirit. Jesus prayed we too would become one with God just as he is one with God.

Centering Prayer feeds and forms my spirit. 

Christianity is too often just learning about Jesus and memorizing his words. (Again, a necessary first step for sure.) But that can be like buying a brand new car, leaving it at the dealership and taking home the manual to read and perhaps memorize. Then once a week going back to the dealership to be reminded what the car is like, touch it,get in it and breathe that new car smell, rev up the engine a bit.  But never taking it home and making it a part of everyday life. Never driving it around the neighborhood, to work, or on vacation.

Jesus declares: consumer me. Take all of who I am. Unite with the Spirit within me. It is only from that place that the words, the miracles, the death on the cross makes sense. It is from that place that Paul tells the Corinthians: “you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” 
It is from that place that Christianity becomes the Way of Following Jesus, the Way of being Jesus to others, the way of a life that is eternal.

Join me in a moment of silence as we let the Spirit of God become one with ours.