Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. This passage from the Song of Songs was used in a wedding I once did at LSU. The groom was a defensive lineman for the football team — with the size to match. People started laughing as they envisioned Ivan “leaping across the hills” — like the HULK. Interestingly there is an alternative reading as a possible substitute — almost as if the church fears people will feel a similar discomfort with the use of erotic poetry as an image of our relationship with God. Do we limit our faith to an intellectual assent to a set of propositions or are we able to feel a passionate intimacy with the God who loves us unconditionally?






