Derek Webb, harlotry and the Service of the Bridegroom

When I was in college, I went to a bar in downtown Chattanooga, TN to see Derek Webb in concert, he of Caedmon's Call fame. That night he introduced a new, as-yet-unreleased song that immediately became a favorite of mine. It was called "Wedding Dress," and it pulled from repeated themes in the scriptures of harlotry. One thinks of Hosea's wife, various other Biblical allusions to the nation of Israel and her prostitution of herself, and also a few notable courtesans of the New Testament. If you're unfamiliar with the song, have a look at it here:

The theme of spiritual harlotry is prevalent in the Scriptures, and Webb's incorporation of it into a Christian pop song was, at the time, a rather daring act. Just going there was attention-getting enough, but the lyrics were uncompromising:

I am a whore, I do confess
I put you on just like a wedding dress
And I run down the aisle, run down the aisle

Like a prodigal with no way home
I put you on just like a ring of gold
And I run down the aisle, run down the aisle to you

The biblical writers are rarely discreet in their pronouncements against the fickle people of God, and Webb's song was really the first my generation had heard that doubled down on this coarse image of prostitution.

Some twelve years later, my family and I now belong to the Orthodox Church. While Derek Webb's "Wedding Dress" served as a jolt to the sensibilities of Christian music listeners in 2003, Orthodox hymnography has been employing such hard, cold, Biblical imagery for centuries upon centuries. A few times during Holy Week--which for the Orthodox is presently in swing--there is an evening service called "The Service of the Bridegroom." In it there is a prayer called "The Hymn of Kassiani." It is named for the 9th-century nun who wrote it, and the hymn's perspective is of a composite of the women who anointed Christ's feet (one with tears and the other with expensive ointment). While in one sense the hymn is liturgically present as a natural element in the narrative build-up to Christ's death, it is also a spiritually introspective hymn, calling the one offering it to humility before the faithful and merciful Bridegroom whose death and Resurrection is being anticipated. An excerpt:

Woe to me! For me, night is an ecstasy of excess,
Dark and moonless, and full of sinful desires.
Receive the fountain of my tears,  
You who gather into clouds the waters of the sea.  
Incline to the groanings of my heart, 
You who in Your ineffable condescension bowed down the heavens. 
I will embrace and kiss Your sacred feet  
And wipe them again with the tresses of my hair,  
The feet at Whose sound Eve hid herself in fear when she heard Your footsteps  
As you were walking in Paradise at twilight.  
Oh my Savior who saves my soul,  
Who can measure the multitude of my sins and the depths of Your judgment?  
Do not disregard me Your servant, You Whose mercy is boundless!

The theme of harlotry is necessary because it is biblical and because it is historically true of God's people. May our promiscuous hearts be ever stilled by the faithfulness of our Bridegroom the Savior!

 "Behold the Man" - Icon of Christ the Bridegroom