SOMETHING SMELLS

Be forewarned: My writing today stinks--more so than normal. I love reading history, not just for what I learn from the narrative of the event or the unfolding of the biography, but also for those tidbits of trivia I come across. Recently, while reading a biography of Winston Churchill, I read, “The poor reeked which was why they were unwelcome in Victorian churches.” How condemnable. How understandable. For centuries, people of all classes infrequently bathed, but especially the poor—and most were poor. Most had only four changes of garments, one for each season. Clothing was worn for days without being changed. Often, it wasn’t even removed at night. People slept in the same garb in which they had labored and sweated in throughout the day. I hate to take any romance out of a wedding, but has any paused to think why brides carry bouquets and grooms wear boutonnieres? The practice originated in this era when people didn’t bathe. People, and not just at weddings, carried or wore flowers to cover their body odor. Often, a person would carry a small bunch of flowers still called today a nosegay. The flowers were to make the nose happy. Thus, its name. Folks who come from the world to church still stink. I’m not talking about from body odor. Body odor comes from bacteria on one’s skin that break down the acids in sweat. There is also an odor that comes from the lives of people who may begin attending a church—an odor, mainly, from sin. Sin does have an awful smell to it, one of decay and death. Depression and discouragement have a toxic odor that causes others to avoid the one in despair. Addiction too has an odor. The psalmist noted that his “wounds” stunk. But, there are also odors that often come from those who have long been a part of a church. Hypocrisy, pride, unkindness, criticalness, and gossip have their own acerbic stench. We who make up a church should pause and think when we feel a revulsion at the odor of those who come reeking of the sin, habits, problems of a life without God. We too have things that stink in our own lives. A skunk doesn’t stink to a skunk. Often a person reeking with body odor does not notice his own smell unless it is by others’ response to him. Sometimes, a person who has an odor will remark and criticize another’s odor. In analogy this is also true: One can be highly critical of what stinks in another’s life and seemingly unaware that there is something that is literally stinking to high heaven in his own life. We should also note Jesus’ example (He, the Rose of Sharon, had absolutely no stench in His life.): When Jesus walked this earth, the poor massed around and pressed upon Him. Yet, we have no record that He recoiled in repulsion of their smell. His enemies meant it condemnatorily, but they actually complimented Him: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Most of the sinners that flocked to Him were the great, unwashed poor. I can never forget a pastor’s story of the homeless man who came to church and met him in the aisle afterwards. The pastor said that the man’s stench was so horrible he couldn’t stand it. He tried to give the man money just to get rid of him. The man rebuked him, “I don’t want your money. I want to know about this Jesus.” Chastened, the pastor began to weep and hugged the malodorous man. In his weeping he noticed that the man’s stench had turned into a pleasant perfume like smell. Yes, sin (and the rest of our faults, foibles, failures, hang ups, etc.) stinks to God. Yet, one’s brokenness, repentance, cries for mercy, confession before and to God, turn that stench into a sweet smell. If we would respond to others as God has to us, we would find that their stench too could turn into the most pleasant smell of a God-changed life. Something smells, and it’s not the stench of the unsaved’s problems. It is often the “saints”’ response to the stench of unsaved’s problems. But wait! Something smells!

SOMETHING SMELLS

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