"Smell," said Helen Keller, "is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived. The odors of fruits waft me to my southern home, to my childhood frolics in the peach orchard. Other odors, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief. Even as I think of smells, my nose is full of scents that start to awake sweet memories of summers gone and ripening fields far away."
Smell is the sense that reaches deeply and quickly into our emotional center to evoke feelings and memories of our past. The smell of roast beef and memories of leisurely Sunday afternoons with the family. The smell of an aftershave like that your ex-boyfriend used to wear.
When was the last time you paused and took notice of an aroma? When did a certain scent evoke nostalgia by transporting you to that specific experience? What has been known implicitly for hundreds, if not thousands of years, is just now beginning to be explored by scientists throughout the world. They are starting to research what perfume industry experts certainly know and work to their full advantage.
Smells matter.
Odor is powerful.
The human nose can distinguish around 10,000 different aromas. As they reach us, some of these smells can have a significant effect on us. Lose your ability to smell and your well-being is significantly hampered. Just ask an anosmic (someone who has lost some or all of their sense of smell). There are suggestions that smell can influence mood, memory, emotions, mate choice, the immune system and the endocrine system (hormones). We can communicate by smell - without knowing it. In fact the sense of smell could be said to be at the mind-body interface.
Smell.
Tonight we’re going to "think about stink."
Not, perhaps, from the perspective of a 21st century aromatherapist, but more from the vantage point of a 1st century resident in the Roman empire. One setting where they would have experienced the power of aroma in a particular manner was during victory parades.
As long as there have been battles and wars, as long as there have been conquerors and the vanquished, there have been parades.
The Roman Empire was no exception. After warfare, the victorious general, together with his troops, would return home to a victory parade. They, together with some spoils and prisoners of war, would march through the city. Jubilant crowds would cheer them on. A large banquet would be served.
Depending on the time and place it would look somewhat different. But the basic pattern was generally the same.
And, in virtually all cases, the festivities were enhanced by the spreading of large amounts of flower petals where available. As the people crushed them, their smell would fill the air.
Others would burn large quantities of incense. The perfumed odors would spread throughout the city and everyone would be aware of what was happening. Even for those not present their day would be brightened by the aromas wafting into their homes and businesses.
It was a celebration time. With smells being a very intentional part of the whole affair, designed to build the mood and enhance the festivities.
The only ones who didn’t celebrate would be political adversaries of the conquering general. They would just as soon he not get the attention. They weren’t thrilled by the aroma of incense and flowers. Or - if you happened to be from the nation conquered - the fragrance, the sights, the sounds were downright heartbreaking, a reminder of what you have lost.
Victory parades, with perfume in the air. That’s the image in the mind of the apostle Paul as he writes the words we’re about to read. They will only be a few short words, words inserted in a longer defense that Paul is giving of his ministry. He’s been having a tough time, facing challenges from some upstart preachers who have wandered into town making rather brash claims about themselves, trash talking Paul and his colleagues. What you have in the opening pages of 2 Corinthians is Paul’s come back, his defense.
And then, right in the middle of that defense he does something which he has a rather bad habit of doing - interrupts his train of though and heads off on a tangent. He’d have made a rather poor school teacher. It’s always interesting to hear school children announce rather victoriously, "Yep, we got Mr. Smith distracted. In the middle of history class he began to talk about how to build campfires. Took up the whole period!" I have this feeling that if Paul was their teacher, the kids would be able to head home with such a triumphant statement just about every day.
Paul gets off on a tangent. He bursts into praise for the Corinthian believers. No matter how difficult things were personally, there was something deeper which was positive, and Paul celebrates it. We’ll read those words of celebration. Words that are built around the picture of the sweet smelling Roman victory parade.
2 CORINTHIANS 2: 14-17
Are you a believer?
Then you’re part of a victory parade.
Jesus is the General, and He has conquered Evil. Death, the Devil, sin - they’ve been dealt their death blow at the cross and in the tomb. They threw the best legions they had at General Jesus....... and they lost.
He’s in command, and He’s on his way home.
You’re traveling with him.
And, as in the ancient victory parades the feet of the soldiers would tramp down the flower petals and release their fragrances;
and
as those celebrating the victory with them would burn sweet smelling incense to let everyone in the city know of the victory
So
in the same way
You are living lives that send out signals every bit as powerful as aromatic signals; your lives are sending out signals which let everyone know that Jesus is alive, that He is the conqueror, and He’s coming home for the victory celebration!
Oh, not everyone is going to be terribly happy about it.
There are going to be those who will find the whole thing a stench. They are the ones who refuse to ally themselves with the conquering General. They’d far rather he not be noticed. Maybe they even rather blatantly ally themselves with the enemy, and mourn his defeat.
But let the home-coming parade go on.
Continue to throw the flower petals.
Continue to burn the incense.
Don’t quit letting the aroma fill the city.
Spread the sweet fragrance of Jesus wherever you, however you can.
Which is something you, primarily, by your actions.
Live lives that please God.
Ultimately - HE is the one who must find the aroma pleasing!
We are to God the aroma of Christ.
Not to our friends, or our spouse, or children, or employer, or neighbor.
That is of first concern. Directing our lives to the Lord. Doing it in the name of the General at the head of the procession - Jesus Christ. Who we are, what we do - it finds identity, value and acceptance through Him...... alone.
Christ, who, says Ephesians 5:2, "loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
In that same passage Paul writes to believers, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us...." (Eph 5:1).
You spread the fragrance of Jesus in a way that pleases the Lord through a life that is infused with obedient, holy love.
Your caring word, your intentional presence, your self-sacrificing assistance to someone in need will break through virtually any barrier – it will have as powerful an effect on one’s heart and mind as any aroma could possibly have.
I was in a public meeting place some time ago, and as we were sitting there kept hearing a little psssst, psssst, psssst at regular intervals. Couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what it was. Till finally I noticed it - way up the a corner, a little automated squirt bottle sending a particular fragrance in the air at a steady rate, keeping the atmosphere in that room a certain way.
Our actions are like that - each word, each touch, each helping hand, each listening ear keeps the fragrance of Jesus in the air. As verse 14 says, "spreading everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him."
Remember one thing as you read those words – "knowledge", in biblical terms, always involves doing as well as speaking. People in bible times understood:
- I can know about something by mere speech.
- I can only truly know something when I am involved.
As a man I can know about childbirth. But never know it in anything more than a secondary manner.
I know how to prune a fruit tree only when I pick up clippers and a saw.
I know how to write a computer program only when I slide behind a keyboard and actually begin to work through the logic sequences, and struggle with the debugging.
I know about teaching only when I stand before a class.
Knowing comes with doing.
People only will come to know Jesus when they see you and me doing Jesus - living in intentional, pure, love-filled, caring ways.
You know, there’s nothing like the smell of nice dry cherry wood burning on an open fire. Or think of the aroma of a BBQ wafting over a backyard neighborhood, some nicely marinated meat sizzling away. Ahhhh!
But if you happen to have a neighbor who burns garbage in their fireplace, as sometimes happens, or someone who uses cheap junk or garbage to light their BBQ, which also happens..... oh MAN does the odor ever change!! Yikes.
Many times in scripture God refers to sin as a stench or stinking odor to Him. How easy it would be to get some garbage tossed into the fires of our lives. And how the aroma changes.
I was chatting with someone earlier this week who wondered out loud about believers getting caught up in our society’s insatiable appetite for bigger - bigger homes happened to be the focus of this particular conversation. Bigger salaries. Consume more. Never enough.
Or getting caught up in the well accepted social ideal of everyone for themselves. Live as an individual and never mind the needs of others - others in your church, others in your office, others in your neighborhood, other nation groups in the world.
Consume what you want. Seek your own pleasures. May God bless and keep warm all the rest.
When our greed and selfishness makes us indistinguishable from anyone else in Canada. When we in the Church become so insular that Ottawa doesn’t even notice if we exist or not. When groups in the Church begin to turn on each other.......
what kind of fragrance are we sending out?
You’ve probably noticed that many public places are going scent-free. Including us at Calvin. It’s being more and more recognized that certain aromas can cause allergic, even life-threatening reactions in people. There are some who absolutely cannot come into a church out of fear that someone will, as has traditionally been the case, be wearing perfume. If they catch a whiff, a trip to Emergency may well result.
By analogy, we live in a society that would dearly love us to be scent-free from a Christian point of view. The broadly accepted liberal mind set suggests that faith is something to keep private, to oneself. Keep your aroma under cover. Which, I sometimes wonder, if we aren’t pretty good at doing.
The Word of God tells us, "No! Never! Be pure. Be public. Spread the aroma of Jesus. No matter what others may think."
First priority is what God thinks. Does HE find the aroma pleasing?
If so, keep plugging.
And as you do, you’ll notice that some will resonate with it. Hallelujah.
Others will not. Lord, have mercy.
How they respond is not your responsibility. That’s between them and the conquering General. The signals you send out - that IS your responsibility.
Which God takes seriously.
Also for us here at Calvin.
So tell me – as you head into this new week,
What smells will the Lord find in your life?
Will He be pleased?......
......And will anyone notice?
