“When we go crazy with affection and offer wild kindness to our neighbor

across the street or across the globe, we make a new kind of space between us.

We make space for discovery and curiosity, for learning and growing.

We make space for sharing stories and being changed by what we share.”

From the book Fierce Love by Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis

So, our scripture passage today comes from a completely different part of the Bible than the past few weeks. This week the text I chose for you is not a letter from an apostle, but instead an ancient love poem. It’s called Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, son of David and king of Israel. It comes to us from the Hebrew scriptures, and it is a song about two young lovers falling absolutely head over heels for each other. They are crushing so hard on each other, you guys. They are both so caught up in each other’s beauty, that describing each other is like 80% of what they do throughout the poem. It’s a little over the top how obsessed they are with each other!

They use all this natural imagery in their compliments. Some of them would make sense to us, like “my beloved is as majestic as the stars.” Others might not, like “my beloved is like a gazelle.” Most of the time it’s my beloved smells like flowers and incense, and my beloved tastes like honeycomb and sweet fruit. Fair warning if you go to read this later: some of it will make you blush. I love that they are so mutually attracted to each other, there’s no unrequited love here. They’re just flirting with each other and longing for each other. They say stuff like “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” (6.3) They got it real bad.

Now, if you’re wondering what a romantic song like this is doing in the middle of your Bible, you wouldn’t be the first. We know that it has been studied and argued about by Rabbis since before the first century, and also by lots of Christian thinkers. The question on all of their minds was: is this song really about a human couple or is this about God? I mean, it’s holy scripture. It wouldn’t be the only book in the Hebrew Bible that uses a human relationship to describe our relationship with God. The book of Hosea talks about Israel’s relationship with God by comparing it to a marriage with a lot of problems, kind of like Israel was having a lot of problems.In the Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus compares himself to a groom when some Pharisees ask him why his disciples aren’t fasting. So, he says, well no one fasts at a wedding party, they can do that after the groom is taken away, but right now my friends are celebrating with me. Plus, the epistles of the New Testament sometimes call the church Jesus’s bride. So, Christians are led to wonder if Jesus and the church are in this ancient poetry too.

The only problem is that God doesn’t show up in this poem at all! God’s name can only be found in chapter 8 verse 6, which literally says that love’s fire is like the flame of Jehovah, though translations vary. Most of them choose to say it is a vehement, almighty, divine, bright, mighty, blazing, or fierce flame instead of translating it as God’s flame. And that’s the closest Song of Songs gets to even mentioning God. So, if we look at it for what it is, we also have the option of acknowledging that this poem is a celebration of human love. Not only that, but it’s a story about how human love can overcome divisions.

You see, the lovers are not both Israelites in this song. The man is an Israelite, but the woman is a Shulamite who describes herself as black and beautiful. (Song of Songs 1:5) Throughout the lover’s poetry, the people of their town are trying to keep them apart. They toss their judgmental opinions towards the couple. “Why would he love her,” and “why would she love him?” they say. But the naysayers can’t stop them from falling for each other or finding each other.

This song proclaims that love is death defying. It is unyielding like the grave which does not let you go once it has you. Love is a fierce fire that rivers of water can’t put out, and you can’t buy love, because it’s worth more than any amount of wealth. In the passage we read, she wants to set him as a seal upon her heart and her arm. A seal is a necklace or a ring that would identify who someone was, or what house they belonged to. She’s saying she is his, and he is hers, inside and out, and she wants everyone to know it.

I think all the possible interpretations of this love poem can lead us to some powerful insights, and I don’t think we have to choose between them. I think our love reflects divine love, and that God sends us to love each other. Like, God’s love is our love, but for everyone in the whole world, and our love is God’s love, but specifically for us. Maybe it’s all the same love, powerful, transformational, and fierce. Love is what makes life good, and I don’t mean just romantically. I also mean the love of family and friends. I mean the love between parents and children. It is love that makes us see the beauty in others, just like these lovers see in each other all the beauty of the Earth.

Our fourth step on our journey towards fierce love is to show kindness and affection wildly. To make fierce love real. Every time we show our love, we make it real, by bringing it into being. We can embody love, by loving each other and making it real for the people who touch our lives. In this chapter, Rev. Lewis talks about a car accident she was in, and a total stranger who helped her. She was far from home, banged up, and stranded, but a kind woman who had no reason at all to stop and offer to help her, did exactly that.

Very much like the good Samaritan, this woman paid for her hotel room, and got her some food and some aspirin. Until this stranger asked if she was okay, Rev. Lewis had been sitting there trying to hold it all together. But this stranger’s love allowed her to take off her superhero mask and cape and feel some love. She thought she had to be responsible, independent, and able to take care of herself, but in this moment, she needed some love. She talks about how her parents didn’t show up for her in that moment, over a grudge, and how awful and hurtful that was. But this woman made sure she wasn’t alone. She crossed a boundary in approaching a stranger and getting involved in their life. She made space to find out what Rev. Lewis had been through, and to ask how she could help. Through her actions, she made the fierce love of God real.

It was vulnerable for both of them. Rev. Lewis could still have chosen to insist that she was fine and didn’t need any help, but both chose to cross into each other’s lives and found human kinship in each other instead. They made fierce love real together. Rev. Lewis writes, “Love crosses borders and boundaries; it makes new cultural rules; it cares for the stranger. Love turns strangers into friends. Fierce love is rule-breaking, border crossing, ferocious, and extravagant kindness that increases our tribe.”

We humans are very good at hating each other, I probably don’t have to tell you that. We can be quick to judge and assume that we already know what we’ll find if we take the time to get to know someone. Every day is full of chances to make fierce love real, for us and for the people we have an opportunity to love. We may not agree with everyone, but we can extend grace to everyone, and love their humanity. We can love total strangers across borders, even people who don’t look like us, pray like us, or think like us.

Fierce love is as real as we make it. From the cashier at the grocery store to our families at home. Whether we will withhold our love, or reach out and try to offer extravagant, reckless love is our choice to make over and over again. Through our love for each other, the love of God is embodied in us. So, whoever you love, love them kindly and deeply. Don’t be afraid of affection and vulnerability. They are indeed risky, but they are how we love each other to healing.

Be curious, make space for sharing stories, and being changed, and crossing divides. When it feels like there isn’t enough love in the world, make fierce love real for everyone who you have the opportunity to love.  When you need it, let other people give you that love, whether they sit next to you every Sunday, or just met you on the side of the road. We make fierce love real when we live it. Offer wild kindness to your neighbors, both known and unknown. When you do, Rev. Lewis says you make “space for discovery and curiosity, for learning and growing… This is the kind of space that changes us, that grows empathy.”

Growing your own capacity for kindness and affection, will help your spirit to grow. It will open you up in new ways. It may heal some wounds you didn’t realize you had. It may give you a new perspective on how God loves you and what that love can do. Only love can drive out hate, beloveds. So, grow your love for others and make love real. For it is strong as death, fierce as fire, worth more than anything, and capable of healing and transforming the world. Grow in love and keep loving your neighbor friends. Amen.