Wednesday • 11/6/2024 •

Proper 26

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 72; Song of Songs 8:1-5; Revelation 16:1-11; Luke 13:10-17

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1-3,11a,14c,18-19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68-79, BCP, p. 92)

For our Old Testament reading the past two weeks and this week, I am treating the Song of Songs instead of the lectionary’s Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Ben Sirach). Together, I hope we are discovering or rediscovering some of the beauty of this enchanting “Best of Songs.” Today’s portion is Song of Songs 8:1–5.

Song of Songs: up from the wilderness. It is difficult to detect a single line of thought running through today’s verses in Song of Songs—but I think it’s there. The first three verses read to me as though our bride is so delighted in the company of her bridegroom that her only regret is that she could not have known him from birth, sharing, as though she were his sister, all of life’s journey. But then, in verse four, she acknowledges that love comes in its own time. 

The first part of verse five is quite striking. It has to remind us of the analogy of the love between this bride and her groom, on the one hand, and between Israel and her Lord, on the other. The opening words are identical to the earlier question: “Who is she coming from the wilderness, like a column of smoke?” (Song of Songs 3:6). Back in chapter three, the bride, advancing to her wedding, was being likened to Israel being accompanied by the Shekinah presence. Here in chapter eight, the question concludes differently: “Who is she coming from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (8:5, emphasis mine). There (chapter 3) the wedding was being anticipated. Here (chapter 8) the wedding has taken place, and we are witnessing the couple’s procession arm in arm. 

It is perhaps for this reason (contemplating the post-wedding procession) that the Song’s bride’s thoughts turn to her “awakening” her groom “under the apple tree”—a euphemism for the same sort of love-making that had brought them into existence in the first place (thus, the seemingly curious description of the apple tree as the groom’s mother’s place of labor or conception, depending on the commentator).  

While the details of the story may be challenging to tease out, the significance for our relationship with the Lord is not. The Jewish apostle Paul is keenly aware of the Old Testament’s image of the Lord marrying his people to himself. Because he sees Christ as doing just that, Paul explains that our being free from the law means we are free to “marry another”: “…you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:3-4). 

We are the “she” who is coming from the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved. We know him intimately and love him dearly, and he knows us intimately and loves us dearly. As we yield to communion with him—in prayer, in study, in worship, in partaking of the Sacraments, in seeking and serving Christ in all persons—we find that we “bear fruit for God.” Amen. Let it be so!

Revelation: the seven bowls. The Book of Revelation moves toward a final consummation in which there is confirmation and perfection of all that is beautiful and good, and in which there is condemnation and the undoing of all that is ugly and evil. Today’s verses open the chapter of “the seven bowls of the wrath of God” (Revelation 16:1). Throughout the course of his book, John is given visions outlining a remarkable progress toward final judgment. There had been: 

seven seals preparing for judgment (Revelation 6), 
followed by seven trumpets warning of judgment (Revelation 8–9), and now 
seven bowls of judgment itself being poured out (Revelation 16).

As the visions transition from seals of preparation to trumpets of warning to bowls of the outpouring of judgment itself, there has been a progression. Two examples: the second seal had said civil strife was coming (6:3-4), the second trumpet had warned that a third of the sea would turn to blood (8:8-9), and at the second bowl of judgment all the sea becomes blood and “every living thing in the sea died” (16:3). In addition, the third seal had prophesied famine (6:5-6), the third trumpet had warned that a third of the waters would become poisonous and many would die (8:10-11), and now the judgment itself is sweeping: “The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood” (16:4). 

When reading the Book of Revelation, it’s always important to keep the end of the story in view. We need not be surprised and discouraged if evil increases, going from bad to worse. The intensification of the diabolical is only the death throes of one who received a mortal blow on the cross—and who will, in God’s own time—be dispatched with one final, definitive stroke at Christ’s return. We know the story ends well, because each cycle concerning judgment—the seals and the trumpets and the bowls—concludes with a note of victory: 

the seven seals close with a period of silence in heaven while the prayers of the saints below and the saints above combine to intercede for final justice on the earth (8:1-5); 
the seven trumpets introduce a song in celebration of the reign of God (11:15-19); and 
the seven bowls of judgment will yield (as we will see tomorrow) the judgment of Babylon (16:17-21).

No matter how bad it looks, the people of the Lamb will overcome. No matter how great the temptation to despair, the Bride will be brought through in radiant glory. Amen. Let it be so!

Luke: a daughter of Abraham. Luke provides a mini-portrait of all of us who belong to the Lamb and are part of his Bride. This “woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years … [who] was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight” (Luke 13:11) is a picture of all of us who find ourselves crushed and deformed in soul (if not in body) by a power beyond our control. At the word of Jesus, this woman is suddenly able to stand erect—one of the most distinguishing marks of human dignity. And with no prompting at all, “she began praising God”—one of the most distinguishing marks of life unmarred by Eden’s fall. Here, truly, is a “daughter of Abraham.” Here, indeed, is a precursor of the Bride of Christ. Amen. Let it be so!

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+