A Love Affair (Advent 3C)

‘tis the season… when not making preparations for Christmas, or attending the wealth of concerts, events, or festive get-togethers… ‘tis the season, to snuggle down with a book or movie. Now, not just any book, rather, a Christmas novel, the sort where no matter what crisis has befallen the characters, or how much they might hate this time of year, in the end relationships are on their way to healing, but more often than not people are coupled up, there is love and there are new beginnings.  It is the same with the Christmas movies, there is some crisis or problem, more often than not there is a love story, and in the end, problems have solutions, relationships are renewed, people find each other, love is in the air, and the story finishes in peace and good cheer.  It is happy and is all right with the world.

There is an expectation when one watches the Christmas movie or reads the Christmas novel that all will work out for the best.  The stories build to the climax when all is made right, people are optimistic and uplifted, a place where love abounds, and one is left feeling content, pleased, hopeful.

‘tis the season, for Advent scripture readings, meaning texts that start in a conundrum, in darkness and sin, in a world at war, confused and afraid.  There is an expectation that the text will take us to the hope of fulfilled promises; promise that come in the form of a baby, and in the second coming of Christ, the brilliance and wholeness of the last day. There is an expectation that there will be light and love.  Advent readings are to leave one uplifted, optimistic, and hopeful – unafraid. They are like reading a Christmas novel or watching a Christmas movie.

The Zephaniah text is the epitome of Advent scripture and a Christmas novel. Zephaniah is a collection of oracles from 630 BCE.  They are gloomy speaking of a global catastrophe to be brought on by the worship of other gods – this is the crisis, the problem.  There was a host of deities to worship, from Baal god of the Canaanites, to Milcom chief deity of Ammon, to hosts in the heavens…astral deities; and there was Yahweh. Choose one today, a different one tomorrow; suit yourself, suit your needs, copy your neighbours, whatever worked for you. Zephaniah warned that this was trouble.

He reminded the people of the past. People remember, the stories of your ancestors who witnessed and perished in water – the great flood. They choose to worship other gods.  Zephaniah reminds them of the great flood and stresses that next time it will be great fire, and it will be on their heads. The oracles speak of universal destruction; no one is off the hook, as Zephaniah indicts rival nations and Jerusalem itself.

But then, … ‘tis the season… the gloom is followed by Oracles of salvation -joy, gladness, rejoicing, exultation. Disaster will be removed, fear will dissipate, exiles will be gathered, fortunes will be restored, God will be in their midst.  The oracles end: at that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord.

‘tis the season for love. The oracle from Zephaniah is a love song, comparable to the erotic poetry of the Song of Solomon.  The oracle has put in God’s mouth affectionate and endearing names for the people.  With tenderness the Word is spoken: O daughter of Zion! O daughter of Jerusalem! Sing joyfully O Israel.

This is familial language. It reflects relational living. The addition of identifying the people with Israel, is used to encompass all God’s people.  As always, God’s relationship with the people is centred on the covenant made with their forebears, that God would be their God.

Prophets through the ages spoke of this relationship as a bridegroom and bride. Here we have images of a King and his city (Jerusalem), a warrior and his prize; a lover and his beloved.

Verse 17 says: the Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.

I read in a commentary that the Talmud contains a reflection by Rabbi Arika – reflecting on God who rejoices and exults with loud singing; the question arises “what is God praying?”  The Talmudic answer: May my compassion overcome my wrath! -meaning God prays that the desire for divine mercy and compassion be greater than the divine demand for justice.  With the salvific promises that follow in the text, compassion--- love ---- explodes.

The joy of God, God’s ecstasy- if you will, is that the beloved, the people have returned to the covenant.  There is renewed love from the estranged spouse. The passage is one of deep intimacy, and if read in the original language would likely make us blush. The phrase, rejoice over you, exult over you, can be understood as sexual intimacy.   The point being that relationship with God is one that is deep within the practices and faithfulness of a people; relationship with God requires living intercourse; where intimacy with God – experiencing God’s love and compassion, works in the course of one’s interaction with others.

The day of the Lord is the fruition of living intercourse; where all matter is unified, at one, and made whole.  This is a day of complete renewal that brings God great joy.

Lest you think I have wandered far from the meaning of the text or consider the thought of such blatant sexual intimacy with God as going too far, let us take a moment and consider the Spanish mystic and Carmelite, St. John of the Cross.  Many will have heard of his poem, The Dark Night of the Soul. However, it is his poem, The Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ, that is the epitome of his theology. The Spiritual Canticle is a love song between God and the soul.  John was a mystic and believed that the wisdom and encounter with Christ that he experienced was next to impossible to share with others. Words were a pale expression of God’s love, and compassion.  John decided that the only tool that could possibly articulate the interplay of love and tenderness in the soul at being overwhelmed by the extraordinary mercy of God and divine love, was poetry. His poem has 40 verses, which he never tried to explain line by line.  Spiritual marriage, relationship with God, living intercourse, as written in words, in a poem was about the feeling, gathering a sense of what this covenant gift was all about.

I have chosen not to read any of the poem, you can google, Spiritual Canticle and John of the Cross, later. The erotic love poetry and images in the Song of Solomon are almost mild in comparison to those found in the work of St. John of the Cross, perhaps simply because the images of attraction are closer to those used in our time.  Enough to make one blush.

I invite you to think of a person whom you love or have loved very much – perhaps a spouse, a partner, a best friend, a sister/brother, favourite aunt/uncle, a parent, a grandparent – picture the person you love or loved the most.  Bring to mind a couple of tender moments; ponder shared experiences; grasp how you feel when you are with this person. Think of words you would use to describe this person, your relationship, your love. What would you do for this person?  What emotions do you feel when you think about your beloved?

Now, if you were to write a love poem to them what would you say, what would you include?

Would it sound like these snippets from history?

My Beloved speaks to me and says: Arise my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past and the rain is over and gone.  Arise my love, my fair one, and come away. –-Song of Solomon 2: 10

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.   ---Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How does Love speak?
In the faint flush upon the telltale cheek,
And in the pallor that succeeds it; by
The quivering lid of an averted eye--
The smile that proves the parent to a sigh
Thus doth Love speak.   ---Ella Wheeler Wilcox

All of this said, ‘tis the season … for Christmas novels, Christmas movies; for Advent scriptures; for love --- and for love poetry.

Zephaniah, St John of the Cross, come to us in the middle of Advent, with overtly passionate love poetry – suggestive and intimate, -- urging communion with the Divine, an appetite for intense devotion and desire, demanding passion, a lust for joyous rapture, fervour for intimacy and love.

Living intercourse between our souls and God, being able to share the intimacy of compassion and love, requires communication.  In Zephaniah God speaks through the prophet, it is said that God sings loudly- God puts love into words to woe our hearts.  It is said that this happens as on a day of festival.  I think of weddings, with vows, and speeches, scripted cards, and toasts. Love articulated into words.

‘tis the season… to consider yourself beloved and in an intimate relationship, a spiritual marriage, with God. 

This being so, I invite you to do some pre-Christmas homework, an Advent exercise: write a love poem from your soul to God. Just as you would for the person you most love in this world, capture the essence of your relationship with God; your hopes, your dreams, your failings, your needs, your desires, your thanksgiving – and offer it back in a love poem, a love prayer.

‘tis the season… to ecstatically rejoice in the Lord always! And again I say, rejoice.

And may the peace – intimate love- of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.