Genesis 8:20-22; Genesis 27:27-29; John 11:38-44; Mark 16:1-2
August 28, 2022
- Experiencing God through our smell
Have you ever worn perfume or cologne?
I am going to bet that maybe everyone out there has worn either perfume or cologne at least once in their life. Do you remember the name of the fragrance?
Some of the best names that I could find for such personal scent enhancers are quite good: Did I Meow?, Oh My Gourd (even comes in pumpkin shaped bottle), You’re So Vain, Flower Bomb, Whipped Dog, Yuck, Skunk Spray, I Am Trash, and Scent of a MacBook Pro. If you are really reaching for a crazy new fragrance (and Walmart carries this one), you can try Funeral Home. Sadly, sadly, sadly, I have never given any of these a go. Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, I will never feel the need.
But is it nice to smell nice. A nice perfume or cologne can make you feel more confident or comfortable or social. It can make you happy or relaxed to be surrounded by certain scents. Or maybe you did not notice what happened to the candle industry over the last couple of decades. But the question is why? Why do we like to add fragrance or scent or perfume to our lives?
Honestly, I have found this sermon to be of the most interesting in this sermon series on the senses and our experience of God. Smell is really interesting because how we experience smell has changed so much since the days of Jesus or the days of the Bible. We are going back to the day before scented candles or sprays or plugins or dangleings or perfumes or detergents or deodorants or toothpaste or mouthwash or even accessible soap. Life smelled. It stunk. Maybe it was not quite as bad as that packed subway car I was stuck on in Rome, Italy in the summer once with a bunch of arms raised holding on, but life could be pretty stinky as we might imagine. This was before plumbing, sewers, public sanitation, refrigeration, embalming, or trash pickup. Animal life and people life was mixed together. Times in the ancient world compared to modern American times with our “at least one bath every day” was hugely different when it comes to smell. When things did smell nice, it was a real grace from God. Pleasant smells were a real delight back then. Lovely, good, or beautiful fragrances were extra special in a world like that one. Ointments and perfumes back then were precious and only used for very special purposes. That’s why the woman who broke that jar of perfume oil and washed Jesus’ feet did something astounding and shocking to say the least. That jar was worth an entire year’s worth of wages. Two of the kingly gifts that the magi brought the infant Jesus were fragrant substances – frankincense and myrrh were very valuable for their scents.
The nose knows, even God’s. If you ever wondered why God might like a burnt offering, it’s not for the meat. The priests actually burned the fat, anyway, back then. God is not consuming the animal or just watching all those sacrifices burn. You heard in that first reading how God was pleased by the smell – the part of the sacrifice that drifted up into the heavens. I have been to some barbecue events or cookouts where the smell of cooking meat has been right enjoyable, but you almost feel sorry for God who does not get to taste any of the sacrifice. The priests got to eat the animal back in the day, yet the smell was also supposed to be a blessing to God.
Pleasant smells are a signal that blessing is coming.
When Isaac wanted to bless his son Esau, he was tricked by his other son Jacob who pretended to be Esau. You may remember the story, but the cue for the blessing to happen here was the scent of the son. Esau’s blind father wanted to bless his son very greatly. This was the blessing that would carry the covenant forward to all generations. This is the linchpin in God’s plan for salvation, and see where the whole blessing turned right here – on the scent of Esau, the scent of the fields, the smell of the outdoors in which Esau spent his time. Jacob was not an outdoorsy kind of fellow. He did not carry that scent… until he wore his brother’s clothes. Then, Isaac placed the greatest blessing he could ever pass along on the man with that scent.
Scent has continued to promise potential goodness to us through the generations to come. We do know each other through this sense. We use fragrances to brighten the air around us. We try to delight ourselves and others with smell. It still has the potential to be the bearer of blessings to come.
This is especially good in our stories about Jesus. Generally, good smells signal something good or better is coming. Bad smells signal something you don’t want to find. This is how we are wired to identify health and nutrition. We are warned against consuming things that reek. We shy away from substances that are putrid. Death itself in the world without today’s funerary tools was experienced differently. You know this. It was not too long ago that funerals had to be much quicker than today. The body begins to decay quickly after death, and that decay leads to bad smells. This is the warning to Jesus as he tells the crowd to open Lazarus’ tomb. His dear friend has been dead for days. “No Jesus, death is horrific. No Jesus, death is the end. No Jesus, the evidence is the smell.” Of course, when they listened to Jesus, when they all held their breath as the tomb was opened, when they covered their mouths and NOSES, they realized the blessing that had come with the smell of life, not death. They were prepared for the worst but received the best. Not only was their dear, dear Lazarus alive, again, but they also had living evidence that Jesus was the bearer of salvation for us all.
Death and smell is also at the center of Jesus’ own death. I mentioned the woman who poured the perfume on Jesus feet and washed them with her hair. That took place just before his death, and the smells would have filled the room in a powerful way as they pointed to what was to come. The passage I read from Mark, however, is the time after Jesus’ death when the women return to finish the burial. Because Jesus died just before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, they had to put his burial on hold until after it was done. That work had to cease with the Sabbath, but as soon as they could resume the proper burial for Jesus, the women returned with what they needed, including spices.
Jewish custom is very particular today about the care of the body following death. I will link a short video on our Facebook and YouTube pages that I think does a good job explaining some of this care from the community in death. These rituals have grown from a long tradition of care for the body of their loves after death. Special attention was given to this person who is being prepared to meet God. In addition to being cleaned, the spices, the perfumes, the ointments would help mask the physical decay. That gave something good and healthy and lively to smell rather than the odor of death.
Speaking of lively, Bill Hendley and I got into a lively discussion about this very point. Should we be masking smells associated with death or allowing people to be confronted with the fullness of mortality. In other words, can the unpleasantness be helpful as a signpost to the end that waits for us all? Can the difficulty of the experience of death usher people to take it more seriously? In this thinking, we are perhaps doing a disservice by masking the evidences of death. Bill’s thoughts were helpful to me in reflecting on my message today.
Ultimately, I am grounded in this idea that smell is supposed to cue us in to what is coming. Good smells indicate that goodness and blessing are ahead; bad smells the opposite. You can imagine how smells are at work in places of war or drought or sickness or pestilence, much different from where life is rich and good and healthy. God had mirrored this in God’s relationship with us and has given us a world in which smell can itself be such a blessing. Flowers in church are a small window into God’s beauty not only with sight but also smell. Many churches have through the centuries also relied on incense and other fragrances to enhance worship and call our attention to the divine presence.
This is most important as we do prepare our loved ones to meet God. The women around Jesus wanted him to be his very best self as they laid him to rest. This included washing but also giving him healthy smell. It was an act of worship, an act of love, an act of faith to send him on with that care. Thankfully, it ended up being unnecessary, but it is a witness to us all in how we entrust those who are dear to us to God. The care is always necessary.
Smell is a particular way to experience joy and despair in the world. It can delight or disgust. It is a signal for God’s goodness in the best of circumstances and a warning in others. Hopefully, we see the joy that God took in smell as people of faith offered their love to God in sacrifice. Hopefully, we see the joy that Isaac took in the reassuring smell that his blessing would have a home in his son, even if the son was not the one he intended. Still, it gave him confidence to extend the blessing as God intended. Hopefully, we see the way smell confronted the powers of death with faith and can be a testament to how we hold our loved ones before God. While our practices are different today than in ancient times. There are many ways our smell is engaged through those times in food, company, flowers, candles, and the gifts of grace that a community brings to those moments of giving our loved ones to God.
Sadly, we do little with bringing smell into our lives as people of faith. Aromas can be therapeutic and helpful, but for many of us, we leave them at the door. This is to our loss. If our whole bodies can contribute to worship, our whole bodies can contribute to worship. If we can love God with our whole bodies, that includes with our noses.
We will not save the world with smell, but it is a window into love when we are aware of this aspect of life and joy. We are whole people, and we are wholly God’s. Next week, I want to get into that. For now, find joy around you. Lift up the blessings before us. Look for God’s goodness and live into it, even with our smell.
To God be the glory. Amen.