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Date:      July 3, 1999
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
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213th Annual Conference 
Saturday evening sermon, July 3, 1999

"What's That Smell???" by Kurt Snyder, pastor of Roann (Ind.)
     Church of the Brethren

Scripture text: Luke 7: 33 - 50 

Returning from Volunteer Service in 1981, I sought employment in
virtually the only place in our rural mountain area which was
available , a leather tannery.  The 25 mile drive was pleasant the
mountain road which meandered through a landscape of forest and
Appalachian farms.  I often lost myself on the drive, devouring the
scenery and the solitude of the car.  Each morning, however, the
spell was broken as I rounded a particular bend in the road.  Not
yet within sight of the factory, a foul odor from the tannery
invaded my space of solace, slapping me sharply back into the
reality of the day.  Such an ambush was only the harbinger of
things to come.  Within the factory a myriad of other pungencies
lie in wait.  Ammonia, chemicals, sweat, leather, dankness, and
exhaust.  I would return home each day with not only the physical
remnants of the job upon my clothes and body, but also with the 
pervasive aura of the environment enveloping me like a shroud.  It
not only announced to the world where I had been, but also what I
did and even somewhat who I was.       

We rarely assess the power and complexity of our sense of smell. 
We only really become aware that our sense of smell is at work when
taken suddenly by surprise by some invading aroma.  For example, we
enter our home from a particularly difficult day and we become
pleasantly aware that our spouse has been preparing for our arrival
by the excellent smells coming from the kitchen.  Or worse, we
arrive home after a particularly difficult day only to be cruelly
confronted with some malignant form of mold or something which
strangely resembles a backed up toilet.  Have you ever gone to the
refrigerator eagerly anticipating a sandwich or snack only to find
as you open the crisper drawer you are viciously attacked by the
repugnant oder of broccoli that is weeks over due?  My frequent
excursions to the local gas station/coffee shop hang out seldom go
undetected by my wife as I return with a pungently offensive aroma
of stale coffee on my breath and second hand smoke on my clothes. 
Smells are unavoidable: Perfume to ammonia, fabric softener to
sweaty socks, new leather to gym bags, baked ham to the hog farm,
baby powder to dirty diapers, honeysuckle to honeywagon, rosebuds
to roadkill, a new car to your favorite mechanic's body odor.  You
get the idea!  

It is certainly safe to say that we  often underestimate the
ability of aroma to engage and captivate us both physically and
emotionally.  A variety of emotions, sensations and even memories,
both positive and negative, are associated with smell.  Smell may
reassure or repulse, comfort or offend, bring someone to your mind
or stir up a long forgotten feeling.  It may also befuddle,
confuse, calm, or alarm.  To test my theory about the variety of
reactions that may be raised at the idea of aromas, just turn to
the person beside, look at them very seriously, and say, "Excuse
me, but what's that smell?" and watch their reaction.  

You know, the Christian witness of our lives emits an "aroma" of
sorts which makes associations in the minds and hearts of those we
interact with.  Such unexpected encounters with others either
compels or repels.  As a result, our active witness for Christ
contains a subtle, yet distinctive, pervasive and far reaching
fragrance which either invites people closer to Him or hinders an
further desire for a  relationship.  The essence of evangelism is
our attempt to attract attention to Jesus, the Son of God through
the witness of our lives.  His mission becomes our mission.  Luke
19:10 says that, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what
was lost."  Both Seeking and Saving are essential elements in God's
quest for the hearts of humanity and humanity's search for God.  It
is not an either/or, but a both/and proposition.  It is the
fragrance of our life that either invites the separated persons to
search or the excuse they need to discredit any spiritual pursuit. 
Our approach to evangelism and method could make all the difference
in someone else's life.  Evangelism is the community of God's
people bringing others into an encounter with the Christ and with
the Cross.  

Tonight's scripture lesson illustrates this truth, which changed
the focus of my ministry.  Luke 7:33 and 34 says, "For John the
Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say,
'He has a demon.' 34  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and
you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax
collectors and "sinners."

Despite this irresponsible critique of Jesus, my heart leapt at the
utter truth it contained.  At the very center of a defamatory
remark aimed at attacking Jesus credibility as a spiritual leader
comes an unwitting confirmation of all that He stood for.  Jesus
was indeed a "friend of sinners!"  It was His pattern, His
distinction.  See how many other times this criticism was leveled
at Jesus and these similar "scandalous associations" - the
disciples questioned His behavior among themselves "Why is He
talking to that woman?" (John 4:27), The muttering crowd as He
meets with Zacheaus "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner'!"
(Luke 19:7), the Pharisees condemnation of Jesus acceptance of
Levi's invitation "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and
'sinners'?" Jesus answer? "It is not the healthy who need the
doctor, but the sick"(Luke 5:30).  Indeed, "for while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).  

Christians who have forgotten this will not honestly work at the
concept of evangelism.  Jesus compelling attraction, His fragrant
appeal, was that He loved people! How much of our current approach
to the witness of our faith is in terms of the mediocrity of being
known for who we don't associate with, where we don't go, who we
would not want to be seen with, etc.?  Our first impression may
create a long standing and entrenched reputation of not only our
church, but of our Lord. Evangelism is a partnership between God
and God's people which is described by Frederick Buechner as "the
place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet". 
 
Jesus did not avoid sinners, indeed, He sought them out, befriended
them, brought His "deep gladness" where the "world's deep hurt"
exists.  Rick Warren ("The Purpose Driven Church", 1995) evaluates
the work of witness in that "we cannot do it without God but He has
decided not to do it without us."

II.   Jesus came to Seek   

Humanity at large has lost themselves to God.  He, of course, knows
where we are as certainly as He knew where Adam was the entire time
He called out, "Adam, Where are you?"  However, He searches in
order to alert us as to where He is and for us to discover the fact
that He desires us to find Him.  He has not abandoned us. He
searches in such a way to make Himself available.  "I will be found
by you, when you search for me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:31). 
We need to search not because God is illusive, but because we must
be sincere in the desire to find.  The passage continues into a
story of the "sinful" woman who invades a private audience with
Jesus in a Pharisee's house.  

"(Verse 37)  When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town
learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought
an alabaster jar of perfume,

(Verse 38)  and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she
began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her
hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

(Verse 39)  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said
to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who is
touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.'"
You really did not need to be a prophet to guess the particulars of
her life.  Yet, it is not our past that concerns Jesus, but our
future!

What do we smell like to those whose encounter with Christ begins
with their association with God's people?  The Pharisee chafes at
this invasion of his space, his sanctity, his professional
credibility, his spiritual persona. Yet the woman risks the
scornful rejection of  self righteousness  in her search for God, 
even to the point of coming to God's people, sometimes a very risky
thing to do.  The aroma that literally filled the room, because of
the woman's adoration and anointing of Jesus, offended the
Pharisee.  

It was to him the smell of a sinful life, a decedent way of living,
a disgusting pronouncement of her unfitness for the Kingdom of God. 
Robert Schnase (in "Testing and Reclaiming Your Call to Ministry",
1991) says that, "Pharisees who always deal with the clean, never
unclean are like doctors who avoid the sick."  He had no personal
encounter with grace to which he could relate.  He had no sense of
his own lostness, of his need for grace, his own dependance upon
and thankfulness for God's love.  Quite frankly, to this seeker,
his witness and proclamation of his spiritual life stinks! Yet to
Jesus, her offering was the smell of repentance, of a life changed
by responding to the grace of God, of the unfolding of change, the
fragrance of worthiness refreshed upon a burdened child of God. 
C.W. Brister says (in "Pastoral Care in the Church", 1977), "In
reality, it is not to church men that the world's sin sick and
embattled citizens turn, but to Christ who they hope to find
through us or in spite of us." 

Jesus displays His heart of searching as He reaches toward her
searching heart. V. 44 thru 48 says, "Then he turned toward the
woman and said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman?'"  Good question. 
Simon probably had an immediate answer.  "Of course I see her! 
She's invaded my home, disturbed my dinner, insulted my guests,
brought her languorous lifestyle in to the sanctity of my home!  Do
you think I cannot see her?"   It was not, however a question of
eyesight, but rather a question of insight!  No, Simon, "Do you see
the woman???"  The person!  Not the prostitute!  Do we enter our
community hoping to support and interact in anyway we can?  Do we
assume that because our building is in good repair and open Sunday
morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, that we have an
inviting fragrance.  

Is our only interaction with the wider communities of which we are
a part our coming to them with some fund raiser to pay our bills or
finance some obscure mission work.  Do we absolve ourselves of the
guilt of neglect by reassuring ourselves that we have a correct
theological understanding of scripture?  James says it so plainly,
"Faith without works is dead!"  Evangelism is taking the initiative
to see the persons in our communities, to invest in their needs, to
make friends, and demonstrate the love of Christ in ways that
release the fresh fragrance of the value of a Spirit filled life,
not the moldy staleness of entombed tradition.  Jesus calls us to
Seek. To find "the place where your deep gladness and the world's
deep hunger meet".  

Some of  our own congregation's seeking has taken the form of
persons joining local organizations, such as the fire department or
Lion's Club, hosting "appreciation Sundays for various sub groups
in the community, sponsoring a community Child care ministry,
weekly meetings for community youth in our old remodeled church
building, county wide concerts with cross over appeal to secular
youth yet with clear Christian ministry, etc.  Mission trips have
been initiated in disaster areas, inner city, other countries. 
Recent trips have brought our members face to face with the depths
of human need in a Tiajuna landfill.   
 
Jesus came to seek . . .

III.  Jesus came to Save 

"Simon," He says (Luke 7:44 thru 48), "I came into your house. You
did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her
tears and wiped them with her hair.  45  You did not give me a
kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped
kissing my feet.  46  You did not put oil on my head, but she has
poured perfume on my feet.  47  Therefore, I tell you, her many
sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been
forgiven little loves little."  48  Then Jesus said to her, "Your
sins are forgiven."

Evangelism is bringing people not only into an encounter with the
Christ but also into an encounter with the Cross,  the fragrance of
transformation, liberation, welcome, inclusion, belonging, Jubilee,
freshness.  Consider these passages;

John 14:6  Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  Yet God did
not wait for us to attain a prescribed criteria, "for while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).  

John 1:12 "to all who received him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God—13  children . .
. born of God.  14  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Col. 2:13 "When you were dead in your sins and in the
uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with
Christ. (How???)  He forgave us all our sins, 14  having canceled
the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and
that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross
(emphasis added).  15  And having disarmed the powers and
authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over
them by the cross."

After humanity was created in God's image, Jesus came into this
world made in our likeness, took the initiative to seek us out,
reveal the heart of God to us and invite us into a transforming
dynamic relationship which lifts us out of our futility and into
His kingdom.  This access, this spiritual transmutation, this
personal connection comes at a price.  Jesus died in our place for
the sin which separates us from God.  God does not overlook sin, He
deals with it.  Heb. 9:11 thru15 "When Christ came as high priest
. . . He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves;
but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood
(emphasis added), having obtained eternal redemption. . . . How
much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences
from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! 
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promised eternal
inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from
the sins . . ."  

Compassion without the cross is like comfort without a cure.  The
unconditional mercy of God is a healing reality only on the basis
of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross which specifically confronts
and conquers our sin.  We are in error when we proclaim a
legalistic doctrine which requires people to come the Christ
throught unattainable effort or perfection. Yet we are likewise in
error to declare Jesus a champion of  all inclusive illicitness.  
Jesus said, "I have come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Jesus came to save . . . 

IV.  What is that smell????

"The Lifesaving Station"  (Time permitting, see attached sheet)

2 Cor. 5:14  For Christ's love compels us, . . . he died for all,
that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for
him who died for them and was raised again.  
. . .  17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!  18  All this is from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: 19  that God was reconciling the world to himself
in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. 

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  20  We
are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his
appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled
to God.  21  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that
in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Will we befriend and embrace the lost, the misguided, and the
misfortuned?  Do we anxiously seek the return of the prodigals of
this world?   Will we run to welcome the repentant, the returning
with the same grace we ourselves have received,  though they still
may smell like their former surroundings?  Evangelism is the
converging of the wandering heart's willingness to be found with
God's watchful heart's willingness to forgive.

May humanity find sudden and surprisingly pleasant encounters with
God's people.  May we take the initiative to serve, to proclaim, to
model a love that commands attention and leaves a lasting
impression.  2 Cor. 2:14 "But thanks be to God, who always leads us
in triumphal procession in Christ and through us (emphasis added)
spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.  15  For
we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved
and those who are perishing."

The search is over, the Christ welcomes you, the Cross vindicates
you, your faith in the Christ of the Cross has saved you. Go in
peace.  Go into all the world.