Wisdom on Sex

How lovely is my hour with you. This hour flows forth for me forever -- it began when I lay with you.  In sorrow and in joy, you have exalted my heart. Do not leave me" (Fox, 26).

The Song of Songs intends to increase our ardor in loving our human beloved. In that loving we experience the good gift of a loving God. And in our gratitude to that loving God, we are energized to love our beloved. When it comes to what we hear and say from the pulpit, we realize there need to be boundaries in between appropriate self-disclosure and inappropriate self-exposure. Still, the relationship between the joys of faithful sexuality and the joys of faithful devotion to God needs to be preached about. While there is silence on this subject from the pulpit, a cultural cacophony of voices offers a superficial, violent version of a sexual education. It's a topic everyone is interested in. We'd better talk about it.

 

Portions of this article appeared first in Quarterly Review, Summer 2000 under the title "The Appeal of Wisdom."

The Rev. Dr. Alyce M. McKenzie is Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.

  She is the author of several books on preaching the Bible's wisdom in today's churches, including Preaching Proverbs: Wisdom for the Pulpit, Preaching Biblical Wisdom in a Self Help Society, and Hear and Be Wise: Becoming a Teacher and Preacher of Wisdom.  Her most recent book, Novel Preaching: Tips from Today's Top Writers for Crafting Creative Sermons, was published by Westminster John Knox in February 2010. She recently completed What Not To Say: Practical Advice for Provocative Preaching, co-authored with John C. Holbert, to be published in 2011 by Westminster John Knox Press.