SERMON
Have you ever tried to sit down at a beautiful, decorated dinner table, seated next to delightful people and truly anticipating a delicious meal, - only to realize at the first bite that someone dropped the salt tray into the sauce?
Have you ever tried to take the first long awaited bite of one of your favorite dishes, only to realize that it was too bland, too tasteless and too salt less, ever to be called your favorite dish?
Have you ever completely lost your appetite over a delicious looking meal because of the smell of the meal, that told your senses that looks can deceit, but smells tell the truth?
Good food, delicious meals and wonderful dinner parties all need the ingredients of taste, smell and looks to fill our senses and make these meals enjoyable for body and soul.
One of the signs and complications of Covid19 has been the loss of taste and smell. Many people have told me that losing their sense of taste and smell truly were the first indications of their Covid19 infection – and it was the foretaste of all the other more severe complications to come.
The condition of losing ones’ smell or taste is called anosmia, a deficit for human because smells and tastes are important informants. Smells warn us of danger, of change, of people or animals approaching, of weather changes, of harvest, love, sickness or death. Tastes warn us about poisonous or decayed food.
When we lose our smell or taste, we are not able to register disgust, distaste, danger, or joy coming our way. Without smell and taste our brains offers us absolutely no counsel about the taste of a meal, the smell of a perfume or a flower, the crisp morning air or the scent of public restrooms or rotting leftovers in our sink. Without smell or taste it really doesn’t matter if it is a fine seasoned Merlot or a lazy Coke.
We were made with our senses: to smell, to taste, to feel, to hear, to speak, to see – and all of them makes us open to life as we encounter it. And all our senses are interconnected and intertwined to give us a full sense of life.
When our senses are in full function, my nose, my ears, my mouth, and my skin sense and report their findings to my brain. And these reports connect with my memories, my emotions and my experiences, so smells, sounds and tastes can transport us so many places:
· a certain smell of tobacco and old men gets me to think of my grandfather,
· a certain smell of dusty books transports me to the Library of Aarhus University
· and the taste and smell of a well cooked and roosted chicken in a pot reminds me of my mothers cooking and times at the family tables.
Our senses are vital to us experiencing and navigating life.
Throughout the Old Testament there are stories about God smelling too. Not that he is smelly, but that he smells!
Throughout the Old Testament God seems to be in the habit of smelling. Using all the senses as we do too, made in his image as we are.
Offerings are like incense, a pleasing aroma and gift to God. Like us, God inhales the air and breathes in scents that activates memories and feelings. And the more God smells, the more God remembers, the more God feels, and the more God responds.
In Psalm 115:3-6 it reads: “Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.”
According to Leviticus, God is especially fond of the smell of burning sacrifices. In some cases, these sacrifices would smell just like meat being grilled over coals on a summer's evening, or like freshly baked Cornbread. Of course, what pleases God is not simply the smell of grilled meat or burning grain combined with herbs or spices. Rather, the Lord is moved by the faithfulness of the one who presents the offering.
When we usually think of God, we always picture him “watching over us”. But the biblical stories tell us that God has a smelling sense too. That God can “smell” is indicated as early as the book of Genesis with the story about Cain and Abel. Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. The brothers made sacrifices to God, each of his own produce, but God favored Abel's sacrifice instead of Cain's. We often envision the bonfires and the sacrifice being lifted to the sky or crawling along the ground.
Later in Genesis, we listen to the story about Noah who following the flood, comes out of the ark, and sacrifices burnt offerings on an altar. The first thing that God does is smell:
“The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” – Genesis 8:21
In the New Testament, Paul borrows the language of Leviticus to talk about how we should live as imitators of Christ. "Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God" (Eph. 5:2).
Christ's life and death was "a pleasing aroma to God" because the Father was glorified and moved by the Son's faithfulness and self-giving love.
And then there is the sense of taste.
“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”
These are the closing words of todays gospel. A gospel filled with shocking harsh words from Jesus, where we most often her gentle soft words. In todays Gospel he speaks about chopping off hands, and feet, tearing out an eye and being drowned by a heavy stone tied around ones’ neck. It does not sound like our beloved Good Shepherd, it more sounds like a chapter from one of the dark Scandinavian Thrillers of murders in the dark forest! We almost get a distaste for Jesus speaking like that, as we don’t like the violent language and images.
I do think that the shock effect is the point of todays Gospel. We read or listen to the words and strong emotions rise in us. Jesus wants us to use our senses fully to live fully. We need to listen. We need to see. We need to wake up. We need to feel. We need to taste and smell.
Jesus wanted to wake his disciples up to understand that there are many ways of placing stumbling blocks in front of small children, of women, of tax collectors, of strangers, of non-believers and prevent them from being accepted, welcomed and included in the community of followers.
Last Sunday we heard about the disciple’s argument about who was the greatest and most important among them – and how Jesus told them that the first should be last and a servant.
Today Jesus is addressing all the different ways we can be stumbling in faith and as believers: when we are chopping people of; people who might approach and worship God in a different way that we usual do; people who might look different than us; or people who is not part of our inner circle.
So instead of being afraid of the stranger, the unknown and think that he is not ones of us, so we must stop him – Jesus turns it around and says: do not stop him, for he does a good deed and whoever is not against us is for us.
As usual Jesus calls us to deep discernment about our expectations of others and our view of life: do we move through life assuming that people are against us until they prove otherwise, that we see strangers and smell danger?
Or do we move through the world assuming that people are for us, that we see strangers and unknown ways and smell fresh beginnings, fresh coffee and now possibilities?
Salt is good, as Jesus says today. Salt is good in its saltiness and its preservation. We are called to be salt and light in the world but if we lose saltiness or if we lose light, how can we be?
Salt is good for seasoning.
But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again?
By praying: Fill up our senses again, come O Holy Spirit, and make us alive again: make us listen, see, smell, taste and feel so we can make others listen, see, smell, taste and feel.
Let me conclude with a meditation over salt:
Salt:
to melt away the frozenness of God's People
To take what has been dulled
and add the flavor once more
Of tasting suffering in breadcrumbs
as well as the heavenly banque.t
Of tasting creation in a bite of apple
and the pain of it all
Of tasting the whole story of faith
in a glass of water
Bringing out the life The fullness
The richness of what lies hidden
And letting the potential
Change us Enthuse us Delight us
Salt: melting away what has been frozen
and setting free the fullness
That energizes our expectations
Once more
Let us be salt and light in the world.
God, you filled up our senses, come fill them again!
Amen