Trinity Lutheran Church

John 12:1-8

April 7, 2019

5th Sunday in Lent

  

Worship engages all our senses in the encounter with God. More than just for spirit, soul, or mind, worship is for the body as well. We may not think about it that way, but think about it.

• Worship is an ear experience. We hear the word of God, the Bible, preached, witnessed, taught, sung and prayed. Sound fills worship. Even in silence the ear is aware, and asks us to focus, preparing for the holy. Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. Is sound in worship and For God alone my soul waits in silence; is no sound in worship. Worship is for the ear. Whoever has ears to hear, listen.

• Worship is an eye experience. Worship spaces are full of beauty, stained glass, art, color, symbols, and banners. We build majestic spaces to gather for worship, Cathedrals and this space given to us by those who built it for us. In nature the eye beholds the wonders of the heavens and gazes in awe before the power of the storm or the delicacy of a flower, and there is worship. Worship is for the eye. Whoever has eyes to see, see.

• Worship is an experience of touch: the touch of blessing making the sign of the cross with water in baptism, oil for healing, ashes for repentance, or simply a touch and a cross for blessing and confirmation. It is the kiss of peace, or the hug, or handshake. It is holding another’s hand in prayer. It is safe touch, comforting touch, welcoming touch. Worship is to be felt.

• Worship is to be tasted. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Worship is a foretaste of the feast to come. We eat and we drink as an act of worship. There is bread, I’m glad we don’t use the styrofoam tasting wafers very often. We express our tastes  about the wine, we like it not too sweet and not to dry. A nice blush or rose seems to fit. The taste of the wine is bittersweet. Bitter because it comes to us through the suffering and death of our Lord. Sweet because it is the taste of our salvation. Fellowship is tasted too, but the tongue experiences worship not only by making sound, but by tasting God.

• Worship is for the nose too, though we have largely eliminated this from church. Ancient worship practices probably always included incense, Holy smoke, and smells. The scriptures are full references to incense offered at worship, Let my prayers rise before you as incense, the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Many churches still burn incense in worship, though increasingly this is difficult and even prohibited as smells adversely affect people. If I were burning incense this morning I’d have to answer for it later. Some churches don’t want Lilies at Easter because the scent is overwhelming. I remember a youth gathering in Montana when a friend and I were walking through a building and smelled some distinctive smoke. We immediately suspected and began searching for the culprits, until we realized that Burton Pretty on Top was burning sweet grass in a workshop on Native American spirituality. Worship is for the nose, though the nose most often gets left out of the celebration.  

The reason for this rambling is the line form the story of Mary anointing Jesus feet with the abundance of pure nard. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Mary had poured very expensive, very fragrant ointment called Nard on Jesus feet. Jesus interpreted this as a pre-death, pre-burial act, but Nard was the perfume of love and Mary’s act was full of devotion and worship and passionate love for Jesus. The contrast of this scene of fragrant perfume that filled the house is the story that happened a few days earlier at the tomb of Lazarus, Mary’s brother. When Jesus told the mourners to remove the stone from the tomb, Martha, also Lazarus brother, told him, Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days. The King James translation puts it a bit more crassly, Lord, by this time he stinketh… They had smelled the fragrance of death that stinketh, and in worship, adoration, and love Mary poured out the fragrance of love and life on the Lord of life and love. While playing with these terms this week I came across this passage from Paul’s 2nd letter to Corinth. ... thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.(2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

I never thought of our faith as having an odor, an aroma, a fragrance. We end to cover up our smells, though aroma are some of the most powerful stimulants of our memories, pleasures, tastes, and loves. When I smell almond, I close my eyes and my mouth begins to water. When I pour a glass of wine and swirl around I breathe deep in anticipation of the taste. Aromatherapy uses smells to induce calm, energy, reduce pain, or induce sleep, and I’ve always wondered if there was a scent that would encourage generosity because I’d burn that incense every Sunday morning.The contrasting smells of these stories of Lazarus and Mary, the words of the Apostle, it’s all metaphorical to us, but it also suggests that there is a scent of love and life that we have to share with a world of suffering and death. Paul says, we spread the fragrance of Christ who leads us in the triumphal procession of life. We are the aroma of Christ for a world that knows the stench of death to death. In Christ we bring the fragrance of  life to life, as valuable as pure Nard worth a full years wages poured out in love, devotion and worship.

After a long winter, dwelling inside with recycled air, it’s like that first warm day when you open the windows, the wind blows in, maybe the scent of rain is in the air, and you breathe deep like you are breathing in the breath of God. Then you wait for the trees to flower and the lilies to grace the celebration of new life. So we who are in Christ, with Christ fill the world, the house that has known death, the house that has been closed off against the cold dark world, we spread the aroma of God’s love everywhere and everywhen with the rich fragrance of the perfume of worship, life and love. Amen.