Go tell it, M


The aroma of good news comes through you By Mike Weaver


smell it


any years ago I sat with a college friend outside her dorm. She had just shared why she was an atheist. “Why do you believe this stuff?” she asked.


I remember feeling defensive, frustrated and scared. I didn’t know what to say or how to convince her to believe in God. At that time I misunderstood what sharing your faith really means. I thought it was about convinc- ing someone to believe, when it’s really about letting your life speak. I thought it required intellectual debate, when in reality sharing faith is about sharing life with someone. What I had to say was important. But who I was as a person mattered more. Psychologist Les Parrott often


tells parents that “who you are mat- ters more than what you do.” The same holds true for us as Chris- tians—as we find ways to share our faith, who we are matters even more than what we say.


Weaver, pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church, Worthington, Ohio, is the author of Your Life ... Improvised (Blurb Books, 2011).


You stink in a good way “This car smells like you,” Nathan said as he sat down in my passenger seat. I wasn’t sure if this was a compli- ment or a criticism.


“It does?”


I asked. “Yep. It


just has a 16 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org unique smell,” he said.


It was kind of like someone saying, “That was interesting.” It’s all in the vocal inflection.


Could he have meant that I smell


like a Christian? The apostle Paul wrote that as God’s people “we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15). Our unique scent reminds people of God. When ancient church theologian Origen reflected on this verse, he encouraged Christians to “put an altar of incense in your innermost heart. Be a sweet aroma of Christ.”


Researchers from the University of Southern Brittany in France recently tested the theory that smells influence altruistic behavior. They asked four volunteers to stand outside a bakery and another four to stand outside a clothing store. The volunteers were told to rummage in their bags before dropping a glove, handkerchief or packet of tissues in front of passers-by. In the 400 times this procedure was repeated, researchers found that 77 percent of the time people would stop and help retrieve the item from the ground in front of the bakery.


Outside the clothing store it was a dif- ferent story: only 52 percent of people helped. The key difference between the two locations was the strong smell of fresh baked bread.


You are what you eat If God’s people smell like Christ, could this help us draw people to the living God in Jesus? Could the smell of the word in our living as faithful Christians help us make the world a better place?


Scientists will tell you, and some of us know from experience, that certain foods affect our smell. When ingested in large portions, asparagus, garlic and cumin, for example, produce their aroma through us.


So by ingesting the bread of life


regularly, Christ in the sacrament, could we begin to smell more like the bread of life? What if we didn’t simply read or hear God’s word? What if we allowed it to fill our very lives? Would we begin to smell even more like the grace of God found in Jesus Christ? I think so.


Before sending Ezekiel out to speak to the people of Israel, God commanded: “Eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll” (Ezekiel 3:1). The prophet ate it and then began speaking God’s word to the people of God. In case you’re wondering, Ezekiel said it tasted like sweet honey (3:3). So our first step as Book of Faith people is not to read the word but to eat the word. When we allow these nutrients to course through our souls, our lives become living witnesses to God’s grace and our words become God’s words spoken to the people around us. We don’t have to struggle to find something to say to our non-Christian friends or any friends in need—the word is already inside us and flowing through us. God’s word isn’t simply a book to be studied or a moral code to live by. These are words we are


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