The Smell of God

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 1-3, Psalm 108.

There's a peculiar phrase in today's scripture that I will highlight for you in case you glossed over it in your reading: "and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him." We officially have biblical precedent for "church stink." Many church buildings have the old and musty smell that I'm sure you have encountered. Trinity has a bit of a different smell that is most likely because of the kids that occupy the building most of the week (some parts smell better than others). But what does God smell like?

Roman Catholics (and some Lutherans and others) use something called incense, one of the gifts given to Jesus in Matthew's version of the birth story (frankincense, which is a specific kind of incense). It usually gives cathedrals a completely different smell than other church buildings. Some call this smell holy, but is it what God smells like?

Paul tells us that God puts his smell out through us. So in some way, we smell like God. But the smell of God is not perfume nor cologne. It is not a fancy restaurant or a backyard barbecue. It is a sincerity of one who has encountered God; and I hope that makes you say, "What?"

Since God sees on inner things, God smells inner things too. You may have a fantastic appearance and a beautiful mask, but if on the inside you are decaying that is not a godly odor. When you come in contact with someone who shares a story of the living God, or you yourself share one, you participate in the godly stench of life. It is the divine nose that smells a dirty diaper from a mile away and says that it is a good smell. It is the divine nose that may smell one of the worst prepared soups given away to the starving and says it is a feast for kings. It is the divine smell that inhales the final breaths of one decaying in a hospital bed, and speaks the words of new life.

Everywhere we walk and talk, God is spreading this divine fragrance through us, when we encounter someone and seek the creation that is within them. When we reuinite with Christ's body, it smells like Jesus in here.

Betrayal

Today's Reading: Obadiah, Psalm 107

The more we become aware of our inmost thoughts, the more ugliness we find. It's written all over the life of the saints of the church who drove themselves mad trying to get to a place where they felt good about themselves and what they thought, and yes, dear child of God, the same is true of you. We are quite good at hiding these feelings, but as I watched someone swerve in and out of backed up traffic last night, I hoped in my own head that Dante had missed a level of punishment (Circle of hell for those who missed the reference) for those who have complete disregard of others on the road. That in my heart, I hoped for swift justice from God. I won't judge them now (whoops, I already had) but God will certainly get them.

Obadiah is a very short book about this retribution from the perspective of someone who was wronged. That even those closest (here brotherly tribes) delighted in some perverse sense at the misfortune of others, aka when push came to shove, there was a sense of minute joy at a neighbor's downfall. In this book, there will be delight once again upon looking to the future, this time when the field is leveled.

Am I suggesting you are as messed up as the saints?...umm, yes; as would brother Martin (Luther). There is something very misdirected and dysfunctional at our very core which makes us very thankful that someone else is in charge of making sense of it all and making it right. It is precisely this part of us that is in need of desperate help from Jesus. Keep these moments of self-reflection in your heart, they are brought to the front of my mind each Sunday as we kneel at the foot of the cross in great expectation that we be united with Christ in death and resurrection, being drawn into a completely new being not governed by such thoughts.