Sermon: “When Words Aren’t Enough: A Biblical Song of Love”, Selections from Song of Solomon (December 11, 2022)

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We couldn’t have a sermon series about biblical songs without an excerpt from the Song of Solomon, and what better week to explore it than the week of Advent that we focus on love? This book (also known as “Song of Songs”) describes a love so powerful that prose can’t adequately express its sentiments – music is required. It’s best known for its detailed, borderline scandalous, depictions of physical love between humans. It doesn’t shy away from specifics (which is part of the reason we’re reading “selections” in worship today). But that’s kind of the point: polite, chivalrous love isn’t an especially accurate representation of love’s true potential and power, is it? You couldn’t convincingly make the assertion that “love is as strong as death” at the conclusion of a poem written in the style of an Arthurian legend or a Jane Austin novel. So, instead of trying to censor or avoid this book (as many have done throughout its history), it’s better for us to accept it for what it is and try to discover what we can learn from it.

Sermon: “When Words Aren’t Enough: A Biblical Song of Peace”, Luke 2:25-32 (December 4, 2022)

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As Idahoans, we all appreciate the beauty and grandeur of nature. Even someone like me, who doesn’t generally leave the house except under extreme duress, can’t help but being moved by a drive through the mountains or a beautiful sunset or the first snow in the foothills. But have you ever tried to take a picture of it? No matter what angle you take it from, no matter what the lighting is like, no matter how you compose the image, the photo never winds up doing justice to your experience of the view. There’s somehow something fundamentally different about KNOWING what something looks like and EXPERIENCING it for yourself. Otherwise, people would have stopped traveling to see the Grand Canyon or the Great Pyramids after the invention of photography. Even when we try to supplement a photo by describing the view’s personal effect on us, we usually wind up resignedly admitting, “I guess you just had to be there.” No matter how detailed a picture your words paint, it can never match the lived experience.