Follow your nose--it's a matter of perspective

2 Corinthians 2:1-10, 14-17

            What does the word of God smell like? Kind of an awkward question. If we’re judging by the churches of our childhood, perhaps it is mothballs, oak pews, grandma’s perfume, and just a hint of mold. But that’s not the question Paul is asking in 2 Corinthians. It’s a question of what the actual words and the people who bring them call to mind. After all, smell is the sense most closely tied to memory.

Paul writes, “We smell like the aroma of Christ’s offering to God, both to those who are being saved and to those who are on the road to destruction. We smell like a contagious dead person to those who are dying, but we smell like the fountain of life to those who are being saved.”
            It’s all a matter of perspective. The dead smell a rotting corpse; those alive smell the embodiment of the fountain of life—the very sweetest smell.

This question of perspective is closely related to wisdom. When we are young and naïve, we assume other people see the world as we do. If we are particularly sour, we assume others are particularly sour. The same goes for happiness. Having seen the world with our eyes, we imagine all of us have the same biases—even God. So, we draw pictures of a God who looks like us, talks like us, thinks like us, and (lo and behold!) this God likes the people we like and dislikes the very people we dislike. Perspective also colors our understanding of sin, because (again, at first) we assume others face the same temptations we do. So, when we lack perspective, we imagine that since we can have a drink and stop drinking, it must be the same for an alcoholic, or since I am not tempted to steal, it must be the same for the person who does so compulsively. Then, we assume that what others lack is simply a matter of will power, or a character flaw I don’t possess, rather than acknowledging that there are areas in all of our lives where willpower is not enough. Some covet power, some sex, some wealth, some freedom. A person can have absolutely no attachment to unhealthy sex yet be a power-hungry lunatic. Another may have the exact opposite problem. None of this is an excuse; it’s simply the first step in understanding our differences.

            It’s a matter of perspective. But when I say perspective what I’m not saying is the ol’ glass half-full versus glass half-empty, optimism-pessimism question. You can most definitely be a pessimist about human nature and believe strongly in God. I mean, Paul was a pretty serious pessimist about people, and nobody understood the importance of faith more than Paul. When it comes to faith, the question of perspective is not a question of rosy or poopy-colored glasses, but a question of what is leading us. Are we allowing ourselves to be led by Christ, or are we taking the reigns and trying to lead Christ where we want to go?

            In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul uses that aroma metaphor to demonstrate how we perceive the word of God. Do we perceive it as something lovely smelling or a diseased corpse? The answer, I think for all of us, is both. Some days when we are trying to save ourselves, the word of God comes to us like a recently dead skunk. It smells like death, because when we try to save ourselves, God’s word comes to kill us—to make us take up our crosses. God’s word reminds us that we are mortal, that we will one day die, and on our own our stories will vanish with us. Of course, it smells like death. Yet, once we have accepted that fact—we are mortal, we stink—then it’s not the word of God that changes but our perspective on it. Suddenly, the word of God smells particularly wonderful, because we-who-stink have admitted our unworthiness and in so doing we have opened our noses to the possibility of salvation.

            As we look at a world where people are struggling, where people are hurting, and where people are dying, we are not required to put on rosy glasses and be optimists. If you are optimistic about most things, wonderful, but if you are pessimistic about many things, that is not a mark against you. The question is: “Do you understand your own stench?” Have you recognized your need for something more wonderful than you yourself can create?

            If so, the word of God is going to be a wonderfully pleasant aroma, not something to ignore or run away from. One of the silver linings of the pandemic age is that these dramatic sea change moments in society tend to allow us to reset our priorities. Nobody knows the right answers right now, and that can actually be kind of freeing, because it means that we should feel free to be wrong, to change our minds, and to understand that we-human-beings can’t figure this stuff out.

            It is for moments like this that the word of God comes as a sweet-smelling aroma, because all of our cards are on the table and we don’t have the hand we need to win. We need somebody to come and save us.

            Jesus Christ.