This is the third of four sermons offered to you from my last sermon series: Divine Romance: Lessons from the Song of Songs. If you try to look up sermons on the Song of Songs, you'll find that most of them are really old...and allegorical. It seems to me that as scholarship improved and pastors had to acknowledge the graphic reality of erotic literature in the Old Testament, the sermons slowed to a trickle. Way too bad. These passages are proof that Hugh Hefner had nothing on God. And true sexual pleasure is found only in the most radical of souls (that is "radical" in the sense of "going back to the root.") Here is the teaser for sermon #3...
My favorite old movie is Casablanca. A classic film with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, where Bogie owns Rick’s Café American bar in Casablanca, Morroco. It takes place during World War 2 in Casablanca, which was then a French territory that was under German occupation. One of my favorite scenes when a group of Nazi soldiers gathered at Rick’s start singing German songs loudly and without consideration.
It is a rude gesture. Here they are in occupied territory, a conquering army and they are spitting in the face of the French citizens. The down cast French people sit glumly. Then Victor Lazlo, a brave resistance fighter, stands, walks over to the band and says, “Play La Marseilles” the French National anthem. The band members are tentative, they fear the German officers.
But Bogie nods his approval and Lazlo begins to sing at the top of his lungs. The band comes to their feet, playing their instruments with gusto. The music soars, and the crowd comes to life. They do not protest the Nazis. They do not shout them down in anger. They just simply so loudly this song of their hearts, that they drown out the German soldiers who then close the bar in disgust. With that one strong positive voice, they drowned out the destructive voices for that brief moment.
In many ways, what Victor Lazlo did in the midst of the destructive voice in that nightclub in Casablanca is what I believe we are doing through this series in the midst of a culture where so many voices are proclaiming a view of sexuality and passion that is also so powerfully destructive.
We are raising our voices in a positive proclamation of love, sexuality, and passion that gives life and pleasure the way God intended it. We are trying to restore the idea and practice of romance and commitment that lasts a lifetime and offers us fulfillment and pleasure. Love and pleasure the way God intended it.
By learning the Song of Songs, we are seeking to affirm those who have the character to commit their lives to the teachings of the Scriptures when so many around them compromise so quickly. To appreciate and hold up married people who are attempting each day to keep their vows, to encourage single people who are living with integrity and so often feel so alone, and to cheer on those who are attempting to recover, or rediscover the way of God after wayward steps.
We are not trying to protest or picket or condemn, but instead trying to hold up another way.
To read the rest of the sermon click here...
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