Lectionary Texts: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36

"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."

Sermon Text: 2 Corinthians 2:12-17

12Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia.

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.

On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. Pine trees, spiced apple cider, candles, a wood-burning fire, peppermint candy canes, Starbucks Holiday Blend. Boy, do these things smell good! Because of things like this, it’s not just beginning to feel a lot like Christmas; it’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas. I’ve heard the sense of smell is the strongest sense connected to our memory. Maybe that’s why the aroma industry is so huge. Candles, plug-ins, air fresheners, deodorizers, perfumes, smell-good deodorants, air fresheners for your car, aroma therapy. There are enough stimulants for our noses to keep us happy no matter where we are or what our favorite scent might be.

It’s easy to associate certain smells with certain experiences. In late July and early August, there’s something about the grass that changes. I can tell right when it does not by how it looks or how it feels, but because it notifies my nostrils that the start of football season has arrived. I can smell it. There are smells connected with Thanksgiving, and definitely a smell connected with New Year’s if you come from a family that has sauerkraut on that day. It’s the same with Christmas. What stands out about Christmas is not just the sights and sounds, but the smells.

It was probably that way for Mary and Joseph on the first Christmas. I imagine after that holy night in Bethlehem when the Son of God became flesh, the smell of a barn had a whole new meaning. Never again would they smell hay the same way. It was associated with an experience that transformed the smell of a barn into the smell of a miracle. It was the smell of God come to earth. It was the smell of life.

I googled the word ‘smell’ a couple weeks ago and discovered that there is actually a real research organization called the Sense of Smell Institute. This is no joke. This place really exists and there front page boasted of a researcher who had won a Nobel Prize for smell research.

1. The average human being is able to recognize approximately 10,000 different odors. Dogs can recognize about 200,000 different odors. I have learned that little boys can make about 300,000 different odors.

2. A woman’s sense of smell is keener than a man’s. This answered one of the great mysteries of life for me. It explained why my wife changed most of the diapers when our children were young.

3. Everyone has his or her own unique odor-identity or “smell fingerprint”. I don’t think that needs further explanation.

4. Our sense of taste is greatly influenced by our sense of smell. Our sense of smell in responsible for about 80% of what we taste. Without our sense of smell, our sense of taste is limited to the taste sensations of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. All other flavors that we experience come from smell. This would seem to say that we smell before we taste. That we choose to taste something because it smells good to us. This reminds me of what Psalm writer David said in Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

So when we think about our community I believe we need to think about how we smell to them? Are our lives so saturated with the person of Jesus Christ that our “aroma” causes people to want to discover for themselves how good the Lord is?

When I think about the smells of Christmas from my childhood, I recall the smell of homemade doughnuts, homemade noodles, homemade rolls, a real tree and turkey. Often we would open a gift the night before Christmas morning and the memories of that time are sweet indeed.

There was the year my dad decided pastor a church in Chillicothe Ohio. All I knew about this town is that nine times out of ten when you drove through the city there was this really bad smell thanks to the Mead Paper Plant. I can still remember the smell. I can remember it on the clothes of my best friends Dad. I can remember smelling it in his truck. I suppose if you live in Chillicothe Ohio all the smells on Christmas are not that great.

My own experience as a kid taught me that sometimes the smells surrounding Christmas aren’t just the good ones like pine trees and pumpkin pies. In fact, I think in a lot of ways, we can all relate to the way life was in Chillicothe, because the truth is, we don’t have to live in the shadow of a paper plant to know how stinky life can be.

The world can really stink. It’s been that way ever since sin contaminated the Garden of Eden. The world we live in stinks because of sin. There’s a stench because of abuse and divorce, poverty and injustice. What’s going on in Iraq stinks. The animosity between Israel and Palestine reeks. Prisons filled to capacity smell like hopelessness. The poison being manufactured in meth labs in our own town is a stench. Teen pregnancy; an out-of-control media that promotes sex and violence; basketball games that break out into brawls; kids killed in drunk-driving accidents. It stinks, it stinks, and by the way it stinks! The world Paul lived in was pretty much full of stink too—literally and figuratively. Besides open trenches that served as a sewer system, the world then was as full of the stench of sin as it is now. One of his biggest challenges was to help people coming out of the stench figure out what it meant to live in Jesus Christ. Teaching how to live like Christ in an ungodly world was a “How to live in stink and come out smelling like a rose” kind of thing. But the purpose and power of Christianity has never been only in the power of a pure life in an impure world, of a sweet-smelling soul in a sea of stink. That’s huge in and of itself, but that alone isn’t the whole picture. We’re not called just to live in stink and come out smelling like a rose, but to invade the stink with another aroma.

To put it in today’s terms, we Christians are what God wants to use as aromatherapy for the world. We are the air fresheners, plug-ins, scented candles; we are the distributors of the nostril-notifying presence of God. We are to be the aroma of Christ while living in a world that often stinks to high heaven.

To those who believe: The aroma of Christ is spread with the smile or hug from a friend in a nursing home. The fragrance of the knowledge of Christ is spread by senior adults who invest in teaching and loving children. The aroma of Christ is spread when a familiar voice offering encouragement is on the phone when you answer it.

Paul says we spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ to those who are being saved, and to those who are perishing: What does that smell like? It smells like a couple with a boatload of kids adopting the other kids in the neighborhood who have had no Christian influence. It smells like a righteous life held strong even when it’s surrounded by sin, which means that for those who embrace a way of life without God, sometimes we’re the ones who don’t smell very well. It smells like the lone person exercising self-control in a crisis situation. The aroma of Christ is spread in jails where prisoners are visited, in pantries where the hungry are fed, and in conversations with lost friends, neighbors, and relatives when the gospel is shared. Through us—that’s how God wants to get the aroma out. Both to those who are being saved, and to those who are perishing. We are the aromatherapy the world needs.

Sometimes it can feel like we’re one 8-oz. can trying to fumigate an entire landfill. That’s probably why after saying we are the aroma of Christ, called to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere, Paul goes on to say, “Who is equal to such a task?” (v. 16). He recognized his own inadequacy. In his own strength it was a losing battle. In our own strength the stink of the world overcomes the scent of the Christ who came to save it, which really makes me glad we’re not asked to spread the fragrance of Christ in our own strength.

I guess if anyone is from Chillicothe they might take a little offense to me saying their town stinks. In reality there are some really good people in Ross County Ohio that love God and their neighbors as themselves. Although they live in an area that sometimes smells pretty bad actually they are a metaphor for the same point Paul is making in 2 Corinthians 2. Even in the midst of the stink there can be places permeated with a different fragrance—the fragrance of Christ that invades the stench and somehow overcomes it.

The last few times I driven through Chillicothe it didn’t smell the same. Chalk it up to the EPA, advances in technology, the perfection of chemical processes or whatever, but the truth is, it doesn’t stink like it used to. I think when Paul said what God wanted to do through us is spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him, He had something similar in mind. He probably had in mind that the next time He comes back (the 2nd Advent) through this world He created and died to redeem, it won’t smell like it used to. With the power of the Spirit within us, and the Risen Christ before us, maybe, just maybe He’ll be able to use us to spread Him everywhere, so that it’s not just beginning to look like Christ has come, it’s beginning to smell like He has come as well. “For we are to God the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved, and to those who are perishing” (v. 15).

A. It’s Christ….not us.

First let’s keep in mind that God’s power finds its full expression in our weaknesses. 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” As we are the aroma of Christ to our community be wary of ever thinking that we smell good in and of ourselves.

One final thought. One of my favorite foods is pizza, specifically supreme pizza. I love the taste but remember that smell precedes taste. So I love the smell of the pizza as its cooking knowing I’m about to have a great taste experience. But let’s back up one more step. Before we smell we must prepare. Go through the process of cutting and preparing a supreme pizza. Ingredients to cut: onions; peppers; ham; mushrooms, olives, sausage and hamburger meat.

Now that is a pizza that smells good and will taste good. As I look at all those ingredients I see one thing in common. Each ingredient had to die so that I could have a great smell and taste experience. The vegetables began to die as soon as they were plucked from the vine or pulled from the ground. A pig and cow gave their lives.

Ephesians 5: 1-2 say, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

B. Model Christ….sacrifice yourself for others

What does it mean to imitate Christ? It means to love people. How to we imitate Christ’s love for people? We sacrifice ourselves just as He did. What happens when we sacrifice for others? When we sacrifice ourselves for people in our community the aroma of Christ spreads among them…and some of them are going to want to taste and see that God is good. And you and I will be there for that moment.

I want to go back to our text for a moment.

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Heroes, in Paul’s day, were usually great generals, leaders of mighty armies, and conquerors of nations. Really it is the same today. That is why we know whom Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great is. These men whose fame and fortune came from desolated cities and enslaved people—were allowed what was called a “triumph.” A triumph probably looked much like Times Square in NYC looked on New Year’s Eve. A triumphal procession was arranged in their honor and this was the event for any Roman general. The general was received at the city gate by the nobles and wealthy of the city and was led through the streets of the city. The streets were crowded with shouting people and adoring fans.

The parade was in a very specific order. First, the older Roman senators would walk and simply by their presence you knew what was coming was important. Then, other leading men of the city would follow behind them—leading merchants, government officials, and other politicians. Then, then came the trumpeters ringing out the huge sound above the crowds. They were announcing the real beginning of the celebration. Following the trumpeters, were carriages and wagons full of the spoils of war. The most beautiful and rare items were out on display for all to see. Look what this general has done! On a flat wagon, there might be a model of a fort or city that had been conquered. Then in cages, animals of the region would be on display. Gold and silver statues or perhaps articles dedicated to these defeated people’s gods.

Then, there were servants who carried censers filled with perfumes, burning incense, and other fine materials that sent a sweet smelling aroma into the air and onto the ground and into the crowds. The wonderful smell was everywhere. This would have been quite a change from the animal smell or the other aromas of so many people in such crowded spaces. The aroma filled the air. But, the “triumph” was far from over. After the servants, came the conquered. They would march in chains, humiliated and defeated. These people were the leaders, conquered generals, and other soldiers who had been captured. Look at what this general has done!!

And then… Majestic white horses would come into view and here was the conquering hero. He would stand in this splendid chariot adorned with gold and silver and carried a royal scepter in his hand. After him would come his officers and honored soldiers. They would march all through the city until they reach the capitol building. Some captives would be killed. Some animals offered in sacrifice. But always, there was a great feast waiting. Look at what this general has done!

You and I are in a warfare down here on this earth. We have been left orders that are clear and demanding. We are to be faithful to God and we are to make a difference in this world. We are to live for Christ (Vertical) and we are to serve others. (horizontal)

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[n]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[o] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

This Christmas and Advent season we are remembering that Christ came and that He is coming again. He came as a Savior and He will return as a Sovereign Lord and victorious King.

Prayer

Benediction: Go forth in the power of the Spirit to permeate your surroundings with the aroma of the Christ.

Sermon and series based on a sermon by Dr. Steve Estep