{"id":766922,"date":"2018-09-07T00:02:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T04:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/episcopalchurch:8888\/bible_study\/bible-study-proper-17-b-2018\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T19:13:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:13:00","slug":"bible-study-proper-17-b-2018","status":"publish","type":"bible_study","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/bible_study\/bible-study-proper-17-b-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible Study: Proper 17 (B) \u2013 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Song of Solomon 2:8-13<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

What an invitation! There are few more evocative, alluring images of joyful satiation than this excerpt from the Song of Solomon. In fact, this brief book is filled with such sweet, colorful and tantalizing images, it\u2019s worth a fifteen-minute read. Interestingly, you\u2019ll find that there is nothing sentimental or superficially romantic about this poem. Alongside does prancing in gardens and moonlit rendezvous, you\u2019ll find scenes of confusion, loss and violence: these lovers encounter each other in a city prowling with armed guards and cultural, if not racial, prejudice. Enjoy this song of songs for its unbridled joy, and grant also that it speaks to a vision of the fulfillment of time wherein love enters into its most profound consummation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Does kingly language work for you? Why or why not? If you do happen to find the monarchical overtones grating, try this: imagine this psalm was written by a poet in the king\u2019s court. Let\u2019s also assume the psalmist was male. What was his purpose in writing this verse? Was it praise to God, the king, or both? While we may never know exactly who wrote the psalms, it can be helpful to imagine different authorial perspectives. It can also be spiritually fruitful to imagine Jesus reciting the psalms in Hebrew in his first-century Palestine synagogue. What did this psalm mean for him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James 1:17-27<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s quite a powerful concluding statement on the nature of \u201cpure\u201d religion! Intriguingly, the author\u2019s two exhortations appear to stand together tensely, almost in contrast. Caring for orphans and widows, at least today, can be a very messy activity \u2013 certainly not one I\u2019d take on if I intended to remain unstained by the world. Did the author mean for this tension to exist, or is this something read into the text by its contemporary audience? For the two projects to complement each other, perhaps the author is imagining an \u201cunstained\u201d church in which orphans and widows behave in orderly fashion (!). Or perhaps he refers to vague aspects of \u201cthe world\u201d not necessarily involved in the complicated care of the disenfranchised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n