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Advent means coming. During this season we anticipate the Second
Advent, and celebrate the first. But it’s also a time when we see the
advent, or coming of people, to the sanctuary who aren’t often there.
After a decade of Advent preaching, I continue to be frustrated when folks
come for the Christmas program or Cantata and never get it that Jesus’
coming was supposed to make an every-day difference for all of us. It causes
me to keep asking, “How can our Advent preaching help people get it?”
Somehow, we have got to preach sermons that help people not only hear, but
also experience the gospel.
Experiential preaching requires the preacher to give attention
to the hearer’s emotive process. According to Dr. Frank Thomas, appeal
to the senses begets identification.1 If hearers identify with the preacher,
it opens the door for emotional involvement. Once the hearer is emotionally
engaged, they will be interested in whatever else the preacher has to say,
and as a result their mind and heart are open to new possibilities. In other
words, a hearer who identifies with the preacher, becomes emotionally engaged
in the sermon, and has an interest in what is being said, is a hearer who
will be receptive to change. Attention to this emotive process calls the preacher
to be intentional in sermon design, so hearers are given the opportunity fully
to experience and willingly embrace the implications of the gospel—which
more often than not call for some kind of change.
Advent, maybe more so than any other season of the Christian year, is full
of possibilities for the preacher to engage the hearers through sense appeal.
The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches people experience throughout
Advent can be a deep well from which the preacher can draw to evoke identification
from the congregation. In a season where so many non-Christians make their
annual obligatory visit to church, it is imperative that we preachers make
connections that at least open the door for life change to happen. This sermon
series is designed to capitalize on the sense appeal of Advent so emotionally
engaged hearers might not just hear, but experience the God who has come to
dwell among us.
I have given a few suggestions for celebrating the sacrament
of Communion. The December 24th sermon is intentionally shorter in length
and could be used on a Sunday when a children’s program or choir cantata
necessitates a shorter message.
This text is rich with images. Paul paints the picture of an
open door for ministry, a victory parade featuring the triumphant Christ,
and a picture (more like a scratch-and-sniff page) of the Church spreading
everywhere the fragrance of Christ. The text is also full of contrasts. There
is the contrast between a sincere apostle and those who peddle the Word for
personal profit. There is also the contrast of the perishing and the saved,
and the implicit contrast of aromas. The central image this sensory Advent
sermon focuses upon is scent. It is important to note that the image Paul
gives is not one of just eliminating foul odors, but filling the air with
something good. The Church doesn’t mask the odors around it or simply
eliminate them without replacing them. The Church, as the aroma of Christ,
is God’s instrument for eliminating and replacing, filling the air with
the sweet scent of Christ. “The reference to fragrance would have meant
much more in the first-century world with its open drains and foul smells
than it does to us. God uses his servants not just to expose human sin but
to spread abroad the beauty of the gospel. Unfortunately, many Christians
are more enthusiastic about denouncing evil than in proclaiming the beauty
of Christ and the gospel.”2
The text also mitigates against any claim the Church might have
of self-sufficiency or self-reliance. Paul recognizes the difficulty of such
a calling when he says in verse 16, “And who is equal to such a task?”
The answer is clear. None of us are equal to such a task. But the Christ who
always leads us in triumphal procession enables us for the task. Through us
Christ emits the fragrance of the knowledge of himself. This grounds the appropriate
response of God’s people squarely on the foundation of grace that comes
through Christ to the Church. It is a grace that empowers us to spread His
fragrance everywhere we go.
The human need in an atmosphere dominated by the stench of sin
(at this time of year the specific sins of consumerism, materialism, selfishness,
and economic exploitation come to mind) is to encounter the life-changing
aroma of Christ. The truth is sin stinks and most folks who live in it, no
matter how much they may have gotten used to the smell, know it stinks. Just
as the sweet smell of perfume can permeate a room without being so strong
it makes everyone sick, so the people of God can permeate an office, a home,
a construction site, a nursing home, or a city bus with the aroma of Christ.
When we live out our faith, the impact is meant to be noticeable. One doesn’t
have to look far to find people who need the Spirit to help them find the
breath of fresh air that Paul here calls the knowledge of Christ. They are
everywhere. During this time of year when depression is rampant and the scent
of despair fills so many places, the Church has been equipped to make a difference.
The need is for life in Christ, hope, faith, love, and the knowledge that
Jesus’ coming really did change things.
In a word, God’s answer is the Church. God has chosen
to use us, His people, as part of His answer to the problem of the stench
of sin that leads to death. Verse 14 says God uses us to spread “everywhere
the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” This sermon then, just as Paul’s
letter, is addressed to the Church. On this first Sunday of Advent, it is
an opportunity for the Church to be reminded of who we are—an opportunity
for the preacher to elevate the congregation’s ecclesiology. We are
God’s answer for a world filled with the stench of sin. As we go into
the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, every time our sense of smell
is stimulated, it can serve as a reminder that we are called to be the aroma
of Christ in our world. When we walk through the perfume section of the department
store, step into a candle shop, smell the sweet scent of spiced tea or catch
a sniff of a peppermint candy cane, we are reminded. We are God’s answer
to the aromatherapy our sin-stricken world needs. For those who wish to bring
in the lectionary theme of the Second Advent, the question can be raised,
How will Christ find the world smelling when He returns? Will it be better
than how He left it because of the faithfulness of the Church?
Live as the aromatherapy the world needs. It’s more than
living in stink and coming out smelling like a rose. It’s more than
maintaining our personal purity in a cesspool of sin. It’s bigger than
our private parties and insulated existence as God’s people. The olfactory
image Paul uses in this text is a call for the Church literally to impact
the atmosphere. Change the world. Let them catch a scent of Christ mediated
through us. It’s a call to be intentional, both individually and corporately,
about living so others can see, hear, and even smell the reality that Jesus’
coming changes things. If they can scent how His coming has changed us, they
might be drawn to the aroma, and ultimately drawn to Christ. At this point
the preacher can find an infinite number of practical and specific ways this
might be accomplished in his or her own setting. How is the church already
emitting the aroma of Christ? How does the vision of the Church find specific
expression in ways that reveal to the world the reality of the risen Christ?
Given our context, how, and with whom, can we do that more effectively?
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons.”)
What meaningful and memorable experiences do you associate with
Advent smells? Deep within the archives of our own experiences are smells.
Whether pleasant or painful, they can be used to personalize this message
that leans heavily upon the use of Paul’s aromatic metaphor. What was
the smell that stands out? Remember it. Describe it. Relive it. As you do,
your hearers will join you and before they know it, they too will be drawing
upon their experiences, connecting with your story, and becoming open to what
the text has to say.
In what ways have you witnessed people spreading the fragrance
of Christ? Using examples from your own congregation will be an encouragement
to them. Often in our zeal to be better and do more, preachers miss opportunities
to affirm the ways in which our people are already living as a committed community
of faith. While the call will be to go forth with an increased awareness of
our role as God’s aromatherapy for the world, there will most certainly
be evidence of that already happening for the preacher who wishes to look
for it in the lives and examples of his or her own flock.
How is the hearer expected to respond to this message? The temptation
might be to have a response of despair. “How on earth can we make a
difference? It feels like we are an 8-ounce can of air freshener with the
task of transforming a sewer plant.” Paul reminds us it is not in our
own power, but in the power of God that we live out this call to be the aroma
of Christ to the world. Therefore, the response isn’t based on what
we must do, but on what God desires to do through us. The appropriate response
then, is simply our availability and willingness to invade our world intentionally
throughout this season and beyond, with the aroma of the Christ whose birth
we prepare to celebrate.
Communion idea: If your sanctuary is not within smelling distance of a kitchen,
make use of some breadmaking machines and have fresh bread baking in the sanctuary
as worshipers arrive. Throughout the service, this will stimulate their sense
of smell and create expectancy about coming to the Table, where we will receive
the grace needed to live out our call as followers of Jesus. Coming to a place
of grace should be something about which we have a continual sense of anticipation
and expectation, but the smell will certainly help foster that sense as the
service moves toward the Table.
1. This comes from a lecture by Frank Thomas, but for an understanding
of the emotive process, see his book, They Like to Never Quit Praisin’
God: The Role of Celebration in Preaching (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 1997).
2. Ernest Best, Second Corinthians, Interpretation: A Bible
Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1987),
26.