What aspects of your body are you unhappy with?  I thought of that and came up with a depressing number of things.  We can be self-conscious.  There are things about our appearance that we don’t like.  Writing about this morning’s verses Tom Gledhill states, ‘In these verses we are brought face to face with problems of our own self-image.  How do we view ourselves?  When we look in the mirror, do we like what we see?  Can we accept ourselves as we really are, with all our quirks, idiosyncrasies and limitations?’

Of course it is not just the exterior that we worry about.  What about your temperament?  Maybe people find you highly-strung.  You fear that people think you are too serious.  You worry that they find your humour annoying.  You have been made feel stupid.  You are not popular.  You fear you would not be popular if people got to see beyond your crafted image.  You are shy.  You are giddy..  We are self-conscious.

Then there is our soul.  It feels like there are stains on our conscience.  We have both sinned and been sinned against.  What if they knew what I am really like?  We have regrets.  We feel dirty.  There are dark blotches that we want to remove.  There are secrets that we fear being exposed.  There are memories that haunt us.  There are wrongs we want set right.  There is shame.  We are self-conscious.

In our reading we encounter a self-conscious teen and her encouraging lover.  We know these verses point us ahead to Jesus, so we will hear his delighting words for his bride, the church.  I have called this talk, ‘self-image and the delight of Christ.’  I pray that it will be healing for us.

We feel insecure because we are so flawed.

The girl begins, ‘I am dark but lovely’ (5a).  She knows that she has good looks, but she is also self-conscious.  In that culture a pale complexion was considered desirable.  Tanned skin spoke of someone who worked outdoors.  The cultured women on that day made great efforts to keep their skin from being sun-kissed.  ‘Do not gaze on me because the sun has looked upon me’ (6a).

She then goes on to mention her mother and brothers (or step-brothers).  There is no mention of her father.  Perhaps he is dead.  Her family has forced her to keep the vineyards, ‘… but my vineyard I have not kept’ (6).  She has not had time to look after her appearance.

She wants to go and be with her lover at noon, the time when the men rested.

Are we people that others can be real with?  Do people feel safe with us?  Will we listen to their pain?  Will be point them to God’s grace?  Will we take their hurts seriously?  Reading these verses reminded me that God cares about all the small things that cause us to be anxious.  He even takes our self-consciousness seriously.

In Christ we are made perfect.

Now the young man speaks.  ‘I will compare you to a mare among Pharoah’s chariots’ (9).  It may be that she is dressed up and looks impressive.  ‘Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with a string of jewels’ (10).

We will see in this song the back and forth between the two.  ‘I love you’.  ‘I love you too.’  How hard it is when we declare our love for someone only to be greeted by their indifference!  That is not the case here.  He calls her beautiful, she calls him handsome and charming.

Marriage is the union of an imperfect man to an imperfect woman.  We are flawed both physically and morally.

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