September 6

OT -- Song of Songs 1:1-4:16
The Song of Songs or the The Song of Solomon depending on what version of the Bible you are reading is erotic love poetry. It was almost certainly meant to be performed, as there are headings and clear indications of who says what, unlike many of the psalms we have read where you aren't sure if it is David speaking or God. Reading this work, like reading Elizabeth Barrett Browning's stuff, makes me very uncomfortable, as if I was peeking into someone's bedroom and I guess in a sense, I am.
Long has the debate raged over this work. The debate covers the authorship, the time written, whether it is about 2 people or about God and his relationship to the Children of Israel, even to how frequently it should be read (Sephardic or Spanish descent Jews read it every Shabbos eve while all other Jews read it only on Passover Shabbos eve. And of course, NO Protestant church EVER reads S of S. Too risque for the frozen chosen.) Talk about your lightning rod.

Last year, I had S of S to teach in Sunday School. My parents are members of my Sunday School class. I tried to pass those weeks off on Milt or Gil, my fellow teachers. Nothing doing. So, I really studied and worked on what I thought was a good approach.
If the book is about sex, I wondered why we think about it so much. This is a blog post by a post-graduate study into how often men and women think about sex, sleep, and food and while it is no where near the every 8 seconds we hear spewed about in the media, men and women spend A LOT of time every day thinking about sex. Why?

My research led me to the Limbic System, parts of the brain and neuro-system that we share with all multi-organed creatures. It is frequently referred to as the 'reptile brain' although that is not an accurate description. Certainly, reptiles have a limbic system but then again, so do fish and yes, my chickens.

There is a part of the limbic system, "the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), also known as the accumbens nucleus or as the nucleus accumbens septi (Latin for nucleus leaning against the septum or as The pleasure center)), is a collection of neurons and forms the main part of the ventral striatum. It is thought to play an important role in reward, pleasure, laughter, addiction, aggression, fear, and the placebo effect."
Wikipedia

Those are funny, funny items to all be linked together in one area. Also closely associated with this area is olfactory cues. Maybe there is something to incense after all...

Almost as long as we have paintings and sculptures, we have erotic art. There are early Sumerian figurines with enormous penises, women with ponderous breasts, paintings and hyroglyphics on the Egyptian tombs for sexual instructions, and cures for common sexual complaints that we now 'fix' with Viagra. I am not sure why so many have gone to such lengths to describe S of S as anything other than erotic art but even here, my best commentator Rashi leaves me as he thinks this is God's love song to the Children of Israel. Well, if it is, God wants to do some things with The Children that I am not sure I want to talk about here, squeamish Protestant that I am.
That is my take on Song of Songs, what about you? And if it makes you as uncomfortable as it makes me, take heart. We are only here 2 days.

2 Corinthians 8:16-24
"We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift."
Even then, O Lord, even then. Church budget fighting.