This reflection comes more from Song of Solomon reading.

What is it about human love that we push it aside in our services? There is obvious passion in this non liturgical reading. As much as any theologian proclaims that the Song of Solomon is the love song of the people to Jesus or any other higher interpretation, it remains most pointedly a heated piece of scripture of human love.

I wonder if this does not make it into our services because of how quickly passion for the other can have us raising up human love above the love of God? I wonder if there is fear that in praising human love we will forget that it is gift and turn it into the goal of existence. Maybe in excluding it from the liturgy they thought they could control the impulses of the younger generation who might quickly justify the centrality of human love through its passionate verses? We might be wise to return to it and discuss it as our muteness of human love often leads persons to abandon the church in pursuit of passion. We would do better (as church) to frame the discussion rather to loose any voice in it by avoiding it. Regardless SofS is potent.
 

The reading from 2 John seems so contrary to my understanding of Christian hospitality...what does it mean to NOT welcome such a one into our home? Do we turn him/her away? I find this very troubling.
 

By excluding the Song of Solomon we exclude such sumptuous poetry. (There is one reading from the Song of Solomon included in the lectionary; it's from two different sections, pasted together.) This morning I'm struck by "your name is perfume poured out." Really expressive hyperbole! There's been debate about whether this is strictly a secular love poem (or drinking song) or if it's a metaphor between the love between God and God's people, or both...it's hard for me to hear this as a bawdy drinking song, because it's so beautiful. "Your name is perfume poured out." I want to be that enthusiastic about God, that I hear God's name as perfume poured out.
 

It is easier to get caught up in the Song of Songs selection rather than 2 John. 2 John seems so obscure. How can one go beyond Christ's teaching? And if people did how would we know? If nothing else this 2 John reading would definitely fly in the face of the theology of welcome and open table that seeks to proclaim that Christ was soley about grace. This suggests some judgement and discernment...I don't know?

Regardless, what captured me this morning was the metaphoric aspect of the Song of Song selection. "Draw me after you, let us make haste." I think of the word cleave and how we are formed. I imagined this line as plea to God, "Draw me after you..." Like a stone submitting to carver...I submit.
 

The 2 John reading bothers me a lot, since it seems to exclude not only non-Christians, which is problematic enough as far as a welcome-into-our-homes hospitality perspective, but further excludes Christians who not agree with a particular teaching. As a budding ecumenist, I find this extremely distressing.

As for the Song, reading it really gives me a lift early in the morning. We discussed a different pericope yesterday in OT section; we need much more of this book in the lectionary (at prestent it only appears once).
 

I wonder if 2 John is not a response to a culture that does not recognize the power of the gospel. I'm not exactly sure what going beyond the teaching of Christ but I can imagine persons wanting to believe what they have and also believing that it must be true because they have it. The message I get today is to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. For example I may welcome Hari Krisna's into my house. If hungry I would feed them. I would not them raid my "faith cabinet". There message would not be one of Christ's teaching. So I would not be welcoming them into my house or the house that I built (however tenous)upon the rock.

It's easy to metaphorize this passage. It could be quite literal. If they don't share your faith don't let them in. I don't know. The gospel story that comes bubbling up is the good samaritan. What is interesting here is that the parable of the good samaritan seems to be saying the opposite of 2 John. In that parable the "other" is received, helped, and even comforted. Yet never in the parable does the samaritan bring the injured into their home. He cares for. He does not become. Maybe that is what 2 John is speaking about.
 

To welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person...ouch. It has been a real contrast this week to read the exuberance and delight of Song of Songs immediately followed by the warning in 2 John. Jesus spent time with the "unrighteous"; how does that reconcile with this verse? Yesterday in chapel we heard an outstanding sermon which mentioned the lectionary. A selection such as this one would be much easier to ignore than sturggle with. I am grateful for the chance to ponder and converse about this, even though it makes me uncomfortable, and challenges core values. Even though this is one I'd like to edit out, it's sacred Scripture.
 

"For your love is better than wine" is one of those phrases so familiar that I no longer really hear it. I have been waking up with these readings all week, and didn't see it there until today.

Hebrew poetry is so stunningly beautiful, and somehow, at least to me, it doesn't come out when we chant the psalms or say them together, whether it's antiphonally or responsively or in unison...the bst, I think, is in our small group worship, when everyone reads one line.

How can we let the exuberance of the psalms shine forth in regular Sunday worship in a way that glorifies God? Maybe it would help if we preach on them more often. I think we need more poetry in church. (And everywhere else!!)
 

rightly do they love you.

There it is. It is the connection with 2 John. One is positive and the other is negative. Today it is calling us to go out and find those who have passion in God, passion in Christ. Find those who "rightly do they love you."

As for those who don't I hear Jesus telling the disciples to shake the dust from their feet. Their dust the judgement of the one who sent them. I hear 2 John instead of shaking the dust, is closing the door. I hear modern spiritual warnings, "do not let them freely rent space in your head"

I hear exorcism. I hear tough love.
 

"your name is perfume poured out" In the congregation I grew up in, there was a woman who had a strong allergic reaction to most artifical scents. She had difficulty in church, because usually there were one or two people around her who were in the habit of wearing perfume, without knowing how it affected their neighbors. I remember my mother making comments about one woman who wore a particularly strong scent. Sometimes I wonder if anyone had ever actually brought the allergy issue to the attention of the supposed transgressor; I refuse to believe that she was insensitive enough to douse herself with full knowledge that it was provoking tears and such with her co-parishioners.
Perfume has a tendency to spread itself out; one person can spray just a few drops on themselves, and it will dissipate throughout a room. You can catch a whiff here and there, and without really knowing where it's coming from, identify it's sweetness and power.
Perfume poured out is so much stronger than perfume applied; yet it has the same consequences on a grander scale. We've all been in situations where a bottle has broken or been spilled, and the scent has been so overpowering that you can practically feel it in the air. You're surrounded by almost unbearable sweetness that invades your pores.
And so it is be with the name of God; a true experience of God's unimaginable love is so strong and sweet that is like perfume poured out; it becomes the dominant, unavoidable, everpresent influence; so sweet that you almost cannot take it, and yet irresistible.