Calgary First Mennonite Church

In our worship services on the last two Sundays, we have considered themes of thanksgiving drawn from places where the apostle Paul speaks of thanksgiving in his second letter to the church in Corinth that we have in the Bible. There is one more place in that letter where Paul expresses thanksgiving and that spot leads us to consider another theme of thanksgiving: that gratitude to God inspires us to bear witness to what he has done.

Paul encapsulates that thought in this sentence in 2:15. “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” Because of our gratitude to God, we need to be an aroma that points to Jesus. That thought reminded me of a story I told you some years ago. I told you about the ongoing conflict between Jake and Bill Reimer (unrelated, by the way) of the Beside the River Mennonite Church near Winkler, Manitoba. I told you about how they were in conflict over a proposed renovation in their church and how they spited each other creatively to demonstrate their views about the proposed renovation. The renovation that their church was proposing was to remove the permanent choir risers from the stage and create a flat surface that would be more flexible for a variety of purposes in worship. Jake was in favour of the renovation and Bill was opposed. Jake used the municipal grader he operated and performed an operation one day designed to spite Bill and create a visual. He leveled a hill on Bill’s farm to demonstrate the desirability of the flattening of an object that had elevation differences. Bill returned the favour by creating a hill on Jake’s farm to demonstrate the desirability of some elevation difference. He used the most ready material on his farm, that being manure, to create the hill.

That action relates to the idea of being an aroma, the theme of the sermon this morning. There was aroma in Bill Reimer’s act, all right, but it was an entirely offensive aroma. Not unlike the citizens of Calgary when the aroma of manure hung over our city about a week ago, those who lived near Jake and Bill Reimer were less than impressed by both the sight and smell of the newly constructed hill on Jake’s property. What was more important, though, was that the actions of these two members of Beside the River Mennonite Church smelled very badly as people in the community wondered at what two members of a Christian church would do to each other. The aroma created in that act failed in every way to be something that spread the fragrance of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul speaks of spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ and being an aroma to God in his second letter to the Corinthians. I think we all understand quite well that when Christian people create a bad smell by their words or actions they hinder the likelihood that people who don’t follow Christ and observe them will choose to respond positively to Jesus. The kind of smell we create by our words and deeds is an important part of whether people with whom we are in contact will respond positively to Jesus. Creating a good smell is part of a thankful reaction to God. Let’s look at Paul’s guidance in that statement and the reasons for us to be a helpful aroma to Christ as we respond to 

God in thanksgiving.

In verses 12, 13 of 2 Corinthians 2, the opening verses of the Scripture reading for this morning, Paul wrote that he had traveled to Troas in order to preach about Jesus. He found that the people there were receptive to the message. It seems unusual ,then, to hear Paul say that he didn’t have peace of mind there and that he left place as a result. It sounds like he left the preaching of the gospel unfinished in Troas. What happened to cause him to leave and how does that relate to what he goes on to say?

It appears that Paul was quite anxious to make contact with his friend Titus whom he had sent to Corinth to help with collecting funds designated to help struggling Christians in Jerusalem. He wanted to make contact with Titus quite badly, perhaps to see how the fundraising had gone and perhaps to hear news about Corinth. I think we can assume that Paul found himself in considerable tension at this point. He was in a place where his ministry was desired and effective but he badly wanted to do something else. What was he to do? He must have felt some compulsion to remain in Troas since God was using him effectively there but he decided to go find Titus instead. There, Paul leaves off the telling of the story to think about God giving direction to him and his traveling companions. In response to the confusion he must have felt he says, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” No doubt, Paul feels confident that even though they left an important ministry in Troas, God continued to use them to spread the knowledge of God. Paul’s gratitude seems to be rooted in two things here. One is that, in a time of confusion, God provided guidance to him and his companions. The way he says that indicates that he is confident that God always provides guidance. The other is that God helps them to be effective in spreading the good news of Jesus by enabling them to 

be a good smell.

I think that God continues to work that way in the lives of those who follow his path and that we should also think in terms of being thankful to God for those possibilities. Let’s explore those two possibilities a little further. The first is that of guidance in confusing times. We have all been in situations where life felt confusing. We have wondered how God would possibly lead us in those situations. I’m in such a place right now. However, in many cases I believe God’s guidance is quite clear. I believe that in this time of confusion for me, God’s word to me is that I must remain true to the commitment to marriage I made. With God’s grace, I commit to that. However, if that is never reciprocated, I will be thrown into a time of confusion. As I think about that, I draw some courage from these words that God will provide guidance in times of confusion. Somehow, God will lead even when the road of life doesn’t make sense and feels completely confusing. That’s something to be thankful for.

There’s quite a bit more to consider when we think about the second idea for which Paul thanks God. That is that followers of Christ serve the purpose of bringing a good smell to people around them, a smell that reminds people of the goodness and love of God. Paul, in his letter to Corinth, follows the thought of being a smell that brings attention to Jesus with the reflection that the smell he casts off is the smell of life to people who are following Jesus and the smell of death to those who are rejecting Jesus. While this sounds unpleasant and negative, I think Paul is simply stating the facts of his belief. He believes that those who reject Jesus experience death, both in this life and in eternity while those who follow Jesus experience life, both now and in eternity. When he speaks of Jesus to the people around him this belief becomes clear and thus can be a smell of death or a smell of life to those people.

Does this suggest that the good news of Jesus can actually be bad news? Can it smell bad? I don’t think that’s what Paul means to say. It is always good news. It is always good news to think about being in relationship with God because of what Jesus did. It is always good news to think about living the way Jesus modeled for us with the Holy Spirit within us directing us toward that lifestyle. One of the reasons I had us read also the verses we read from 2 Corinthians 1 was to speak to this question. Perhaps you were confused by all those words about yes and no in those verses. Well, let me explain them. It seems that Paul had earlier promised the Christians in Corinth that he would be coming to visit them. Other matters got in the way and Paul didn’t come when he had said he would. Some of his critics in Corinth (and it seems they were vociferous in their criticism) were saying that Paul’s word wasn’t much good. He couldn’t be trusted. His “yes” might just as well mean “no.”

In responding to that criticism, Paul got to thinking about how faithful God is. He wasn’t conceding that he had been faithless; he was just compelled to think about how with God there is never a “no.” God can always be counted on. God is following through on his promises to humans all the time. The absolute goodness and faithfulness of God can be seen in Jesus, God come to earth in human form to teach humanity and draw them to a relationship with God.

Then he speaks of a wonderful truth for those who have responded to the call of Jesus and are following him. Paul says that God has anointed them, set his seal of ownership on them and put his Spirit in their hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” This speaks several important truths to us about what God does and is doing. The first is simply that God gives the Holy Spirit to live within us. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in us, speaking to us in order to direct us by reminding us of what God has revealed to humans in Scripture. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in us, bringing God’s peace and joy to our lives. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in us, enabling us to feel the comfort of God in all of life’s experiences. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in us, gifting us with abilities for the work of the church. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in us, encouraging us to grow stronger as followers of Jesus.

What’s particularly interesting in Paul’s description here is that he calls the Holy Spirit a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. I believe Paul refers to eternity. Our understanding is that the Bible teaches that there is ongoing life when life on this earth ends and that Christians live that life gloriously in the physical presence of God. Paul’s use of banking language here signifies that when we receive the Holy Spirit within us, we are already getting a taste of the future. A deposit is a partial payment that promises that full payment will be made later. The full payment of eternal life is already partially ours because the Holy Spirit lives in us. When we recognize what the Holy Spirit is doing in us, we’re observing in a partial sense what eternity with God will be like. That’s a very personal way of understanding this Holy Spirit as a deposit language. But that language also tells us that God is breaking into our world with the goodness that will be part of heaven. In a partial sense, God is already bringing glimpses of heaven to earth. I believe we see that when Christians respond to the call of God and put themselves in the face of danger in order to proclaim peaceful resolution to conflicts. We see that when Christians respond to the needs of the poor and homeless in society to improve

their life conditions. We see that when Christians show prisoners that they care about them by visiting them. We see that when Christians live together in mutual care and support. We see that when Christians speak of their experience with God. Heaven breaks into our earthly experience when those things occur. This doesn’t take away from the truth of eventual eternal life in heaven. That’s still very much something to await. But it does tell us that we shouldn’t be so focused on future eternal life that we do nothing on earth for God because we’re just waiting for that life. That brings us back around to being a good smell in our grateful response to God. We, as followers of Jesus are called to spread the delightful aroma of God’s goodness. We are called to speak of his loving response to humanity. We are called to respond to the needs of humanity in order to show the compassion and love of God. We are called to extend loving friendship to all with whom we relate. When we do those things, we spread the aroma of God’s goodness. And we do it as a response of thankfulness to God for the love He has shown to humanity.

Let me recap the route we followed in this sermon for you. We have continued to think about gratitude with reference to the places in 2 Corinthians where Paul mentions thanksgiving. Today we observed that Paul responded to God with thanksgiving in a time of confusion for two things. He was thankful for God’s guidance and he was thankful that God enabled him and his companions to spread God’s good aroma around. From that, we draw encouragement for ourselves to continue in thankfulness. We’re thankful for God’s guidance in our lives and for the way he enables us to be positive conduits of his love for humanity, thus bringing good smells into the lives of people around us. Finally, we recognize that being a good aroma for Christ is a very important way to respond in gratitude to God’s work in our lives and on Earth. We remember that Jake and Bill Reimer at Beside the River Mennonite Church created a pretty bad smell for God in their neighborhood. It’s true that what they did to each other in no way demonstrated that God is any less or loves people any less. It’s true that negative acts by Christians do not negate God’s love and goodness. But God’s love and goodness is most evident to people when Christians create good smells. And so we are reminded when we think of the virtue of thanksgiving during the season of Thanksgiving to be the good aroma of Christ to the people with whom we are in contact.