This is an excerpt from Robb’s second sermon in the Turned On series. If you would like the text of the entire sermon, email vintagefellowship@gmail.com to request it.

God designed me as a human being. Say that with me – God designed me as a human being. Whenever we dehumanize ourselves or someone else by trying to be angel or an animal, we step outside of God’s design. Think of ways we dehumanize ourselves:

- Like when we give too much credibility to our first impression of someone – needy, fat, boring, or plain – as if, if those things are true about someone, they are somehow less human.

- Like when we tell cruel and thoughtless PMS jokes that reduce women to ball of hormones.

- Like when we refer to someone who is supposed to be special as a “ball and chain” or “my old man.”

- Like when we rank people based solely on their looks without any regard for what kind of person they are.

- Like in Junior High, when we put up pictures of hot or cute famous people because we were too insecure to relate to another regular person that way. But maybe you are still “putting people up on your wall” in some way or another, still objectifying someone to cover your own junior high insecurities.

- Like when we make The List, you know the five celebrities your significant other would let you sleep with if you had the chance, as if celebrities are commodities to be consumed not people.

Whenever we dehumanize one another, we dehumanize ourselves. And we step outside of the parameters of God’s design for us.

Song of Songs

There are few places in the Bible where God’s design for human sexuality is written about with more beauty and insight than the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon. Turn there with me in your Bibles, if you have one today.

The Song is a part of the wisdom literature of the Bible, joining books like Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes in giving us great insight into the human psyche and experience. It was either written by Solomon – who with his 300 wives and 700 mistresses knew something about sex – or, more likely, it was written by a poet with Solomon’s sponsorship. This book is a love poem, biblical erotica, written in celebration of the sexual relationship between a husband and wife.

That has kind-of scared people throughout church history – we’ve got to be angels, you know – leading some to read this book of the Bible as a metaphor or as a spiritual picture of some other reality. But in reality, it is what it is – a love poem that makes us blush when we read it and yet at the same time makes us more fully connected with our humanity.

The poem is full of sexual imagery. Some of it sounds downright unsexy to our modern ears. Listen to 4.1-7. But I’ve come to read it as the ancient equivalent of John Mayer’s song Your Body is Wonderland.

The poem itself is like a chic flick, telling the story of a man and woman falling in love, leaving their separate lives, and intertwining their lives together. It is a dialog, a conversation, between the Lover – the man – and his Beloved – the woman. Occasionally, their friends chime in too. We don’t have time to read it all, or even a lot of snippets, so here is the big picture:

The Meeting and Proposal – 1.1 – 3.5
They see each other, and he’s captivated by her beauty, even though the odds are against them since she has dark skin and he does not. Eventually, he invites her to leave her family home and to join him in a new life together, saying, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.” And she agrees. But then, as was Jewish custom, he leaves to prepare a house for them. She is left to wait and look for him with agony and impatience of young love. When the house is finally prepared, he returns for …

The Wedding – 3.6 – 5.1
He arrives with his entourage, and she joins him in their wedding ceremony, covered by a veil. They commit their lives and love to one another, and he refers to her several times as “my bride.” Their commitment to one anther is consummated through blissful, honeymoon sex, 4.16-5.1. One of the things I love about the Song is how honest it is. It doesn’t just talk about wedding night sex, it tells what can happen …

After the Honeymoon – 5.3 – 6.3
Now we fast forward to real life. They have been married. The honeymoon is over. He is back to work, out late, and away. He arrives home and wants to be with his wife, but notice what she says in 5.2-3. Does that sound familiar? He leaves, disappointed, but she rethinks it, shaves her legs, and searches him out, 5.4-6. Eventually, they find one another, 6.2-3. But for the Lover and the Beloved, sexuality has become their marital lifestyle, the way they connect with one another and convey what they share …

The Lifelong Commitment – 6-4 – 8.14
Listen to how she expresses their commitment, 8.5-7.

With beauty and honesty and humor, the Song tells us what the sexual relationship between a husband and wife has been designed by God to be – captivating, enchanting, mysterious, frustrating, refreshing, complicated, faithful, and wonderful.

Throughout the Song, a phrase is repeated that we ought to take notice of because of the way it expresses in poetry the theological truth of how God has designed us. It is found in 2.7, 3.5, and 8.4. “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.”

This is the advice that the Beloved gives to her friends. She shares with them an amazing truth about love and sex and desire and discipline and design. She recognizes that sexual desire has a strong power and sway over us. But she also recognizes that it can get out of control, and so we need to handle it with care.

Sexual love is strong. It can be overpowering. When sexual energy begins to crash on a guy or girl, junior high years can be ruined. Sexual passion can lead to stalkers and obsession. It can fuel a wildfire that wipes out marriages and families, friendships and relationships.

It is not something to be trifled with. It has a proper time and place for its expression and release. Wisdom is doing the right thing at the right time in the right way with the right one. The Beloved is passing on words of wisdom to those who hear her – sexual desire is strong, and it needs to be disciplined.