A quiz about the content of various Bibles verses would yield quick results with familiar passages. John 3.16, “God so loved the world.” Psalm 23.1, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Ephesians 5.2? The scriptural reference might not be familiar, but the content is. “Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.” As we work our way, phrase by phrase, through that passage under the guiding theme of “Walk in Love,” tonight’s reflection is on the phrase, “an offering and sacrifice to God.”
Only there’s something puzzling in the way that Ephesians 5.2 gets used from Sunday to Sunday as an offertory verse. The prayer book deletes a word from the biblical passage. What Ephesians 5 says is, “as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Only why the edit? Is there a problem with ‘fragrant?’ Were the prayer book compilers skittish about a word that has a sort of sensuality that might be distracting, a sweet-smelling aroma? Were they worried some churches would take this verse literally and insist on having incense at every service to express Christ’s fragrant offering? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the loss of ‘fragrant’ is not just the loss of a word but the loss of meaning.
And it’s not just because the global aromatherapy market is worth upwards of $6 billion a year or that the Wall Street Journal had a story last month about companies doing research on what smells and scents would enhance worker well-being. Smells evoke memories and touch us in ways other senses can’t get near—coffee brewing in the morning or the smell of cookies baking, taking us back to a kitchen of our childhood. A sense of smell adds delight to how we perceive the world. Think of a TV food show where the host looks at the viewer through the camera and says, ‘I wish you could smell this.’
For the early readers of Ephesians, to speak of Christ as a “fragrant offering” would’ve stirred up all sorts of biblical memories and meaning. So many of the descriptions of sacrifice and offerings in the Old Testament say things like, “It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” It’s our own reaction to burgers on a grill somewhere in the neighborhood on a spring evening. “It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” God’s delight in the world is a delight shared with us. It’s St Paul’s delight as he writes a thank you note to the Philippians. “The gifts you sent…are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.”
We need the word ‘fragrant’ to speak of Jesus because it adds meaning to his life in all dimensions. Seeing his presence among us; hearing his word; touching and being touched, “That which we have touched with our hands we declare to you;” tasting, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” And for smell? Along with biblical passages about sacrifices that have aromas pleasing to the Lord, there’s a biblical description of the presence of God’s Wisdom in the world where Wisdom speaks and says, “Like choice myrrh, I spread my fragrance.” God’s Wisdom is made known in Jesus Christ and the fragrant offering of his life.
And included in that is a hint of our life in the air, too: our mission, our purpose. Tonight in 2nd Corinthians, St Paul says, “Thanks be to God, who in Christ…uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are…the pleasing aroma of Christ…an aroma that brings life.” As we are caught up in Jesus’ life, as his way of life becomes our way of life, we also become, in him, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to spread the sweet smell of grace. “Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
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