St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
July 3, 2022
Year C, Proper 9: The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6:1-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
A Fragrant Offering of Peace
It’s hard to believe, but Sue and I have been here with you for almost a year now. And, while I still have a long way to go, in that time I’ve learned a lot about this place and its people and its history.
I’ve memorized many names, and I’m working on those I still don’t know yet!
While I still rely on my GPS quite a bit, at least I know my way around Owings Mills, mostly.
Over the past year, I’ve tried to stay mindful of just how blessed I am to be here. I’ve tried to keep on seeing how beautiful this place is. But, the truth is, I’ve sort of gotten used to it – with one big exception.
Are you aware that this place smells really good?
Over at the rectory where we are surrounded by grasses and trees and flowering plants, it smells really good each time I step outside the door, especially when the mowers have been by and the fresh-cut grass smells like… life.
And, as you may know, the church rents out some of our land – including the plot beside the rectory – to a farmer who grows hay.
I didn’t much notice that the his crop was growing, but couple of weeks ago the farmer came by to harvest and bale the hay – you can still see the large round bales along the edge of the field.
I’m sure this is old news to all of you, but this city boy just doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe how good the harvest smelled.
I hope I never get used to it.
While these beautiful smells occur naturally, human beings love being inventive and creative – so we spend a lot of time and effort and money to come up with our own fragrances.
I guess about ten years ago now, a couple came to see me in my office in Jersey City to talk about getting married.
They weren’t parishioners. They reached out to me because the bride and I had served together on a committee a few years earlier.
As always when I first meet with a couple, we spent our first session getting to know each other. I asked about their families and their work lives, how they met, what they love about each other, and why they wanted to take the big step of getting married.
Since over the years I’ve had a lot of these conversations, the details of this particular meeting have almost entirely faded, except for this:
When the bride talked about her family, she mentioned that her father was a chemist – but not just any chemist – he was a chemist who designed perfumes – fragrances. And, although his name was not well known, he had created scents that are famous and quite lucrative.
I love learning about unusual occupations like that, so I probably spent too much time asking too many questions about what goes into creating a successful fragrance, until I finally cleared my throat and said something like, “So, about your wedding…”
After our meeting was over, I saw them out and then returned to my office.
And it was only then that I smelled just a lingering hint of the fragrance that the woman had been wearing.
Later, at the rehearsal dinner, I spoke with her father the perfumer and told him that story – how I had not noticed the scent while we were together – how it wasn’t anything overpowering like we sometimes encounter – just a subtle but lasting scent.
And in reply, he gave me a slight smile that looked to me like the satisfaction of a job well done.
There are natural fragrances and artificial fragrances – and there are also spiritual fragrances.
In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Luke, we pick up right where we left off last week.
Jesus and his disciples continue on the way to Jerusalem and all that awaits them there.
As we heard last week, they first passed through Samaria where in at least one village the welcome was not so enthusiastic, which made the disciples James and John so angry that they wanted to call down fire and destruction.
And now today, despite that inauspicious start, Jesus sends out seventy of his disciples – sends them out in pairs as a kind of advance team for Jesus himself.
Jesus acknowledges that this work – this “harvest” - is dangerous. The disciples are being sent “like lambs into the midst of wolves.”
And even when it’s not dangerous, the disciples should expect to be rejected.
Jesus says, “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house! And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person.”
I love that – I love the sense that there is nothing trite or abstract about “Peace.”
“Peace” is not just a nice feeling – not just the absence of conflict.
For Jesus, peace a sense of wholeness and wellbeing.
Peace is something that we can actually give to others – that we can share with others.
And as I’ve imagined the sharing of peace, peace “resting” on others, I’ve imagined it like an invisible but perceptible aroma – like the perfume worn by the bride in my office – like the smell of freshly harvested hay – smells that don’t overpower but simply give a sense of beauty and, most of all, peace.
And just in case you think all of this fresh country air has gone to my head, I’ll just note that the author of the Letter to the Ephesians describes Jesus himself as “a fragrant offering,” and in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes that we are to be the “aroma of Christ.”
So, I’m in good company.
But, just how are we to be the “aroma of Christ” – how can we be a fragrant offering of peace – especially in our often dangerous world, where so many places don’t smell good at all - where the stink of hatred and suffering and greed and death is all around?
Well, back in the last century, the pastor and social activist A.J. Muste wrote, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way.”
“There is no way to peace; peace is the way.”
And, Thich Nhat Hanh the great Vietnamese Buddhist monk and spiritual teacher wrote, “Peace is present here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.”
Well, the seventy disciples seem to have had a very successful mission. They returned to Jesus overjoyed – and maybe surprised and relieved. They couldn’t wait to tell him all that they had seen and done.
And maybe the seventy were successful because when they showed up at the doorsteps, there was no stench of greed or judgment, just simply the fragrant offering of peace – invisible but very real.
So, here in this beautiful and sweet-smelling place, our task, with God’s help, is to follow the way of peace – to go in peace when we’re here in church – to go in peace when we’re at home or at work or in the supermarket – to go in peace when, God help us, we’re driving - to go in peace when we’re alone or when we’re online or when we’re watching the news – to go in peace with every step we take.
With God’s help, as we begin our second year together, may we, the people of St. Thomas,’ be a fragrant offering of peace.
Amen.
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