Rev. Tessie Mandeville
March 25, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30033

I had an experience a while back where I was walking through the mall and smelled something familiar. I immediately thought of my first love, Renee. I hadn’t thought about her in a long time and we’ve only seen each other once since college. I looked around and realized that a woman, who had just walked past me, wore the perfume “White Diamonds.” I smelled her perfume and immediately remembered Renee, who also wore “White Diamonds.” And I was reminded of one particular interaction we had: I had sprayed Renee’s perfume on an embroidered pillow of mine and she, with hands on her hips turned and said, “I’m so glad you thought you should spray my $50 perfume on your pillow!” It seemed like a very good idea to me at the time.

But I was amazed that something so far back in my memory could be brought to the present by something so fleeting as one smell . And as I wrote this sermon yesterday, I was also reminded that today is the birthday of the man I was set to marry, until I fell in love with Renee. It’s incredible to me how one smell can conjure so many memories. I want you to know, before I move on, that none of what I just shared about Renee and Christopher is new information to Lisa! And it is Lisa herself who reminded me that the sense of smell and memory are linked together.

There are probably a lot of things you expect when you come to church but I’m willing to bet that a science lesson isn’t one of them. But let me give you quickest science lesson you’ve ever had on the sense of smell and memory. The process of smelling goes more or less like this:

• We breathe in through our noses odor molecules that float in the air.
• Specialized cells in the back of our nose receive the odor information.
• They send the odor information to the limbic system in our brain.
• The limbic system has everything to do with memories and emotions.
• When it perceives the odor, it accesses memories and reminds us about people, places, or events associated with those smells.

You see. Religion and science can work together. The sense of smell is deeply connected to our memories. That's why when you smell something, it brings back memories associated with it—even the ones we think we’ve forgotten.

There are many smells and aromas in our gospel story today. It is a sensual story and Wild Fragrances abound. We find ourselves in Bethany, a place where Jesus had been before when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus is at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Maybe we’d call them Jesus’ family of choice because he spent a lot of time with them and referred to them as his friends.

A meal is being served in their home. You know what it’s like when you have special friends over and you cook together. Smells waft through the home. When I think about it, I can smell some good, old fashioned, down home, southern cooking. Can you? I’m sure, after all, their home was in Southern Bethany!

But there are other aromas in the air. Other memories stirred by fragrances. Lazarus had been dead for four days before Jesus came and brought him back to life. You can imagine the smell of death and decay at Lazarus’ tomb. Perhaps some of that smell still lingered in their home, or at least the memory of it.

The Pharisees, a certain group of Jewish leaders at that time, were angry when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, because when Jesus performed that miracle, many people started following him. They were so angry with Jesus about this that they conspired to kill him. So in effect, the decision to put Jesus to death results from his giving life to Lazarus. Can you smell the irony of that? Most of us have probably been in situations where people were angry and can remember the smell of that anger and rage.

But there’s more. Because the Pharisees were so angry with Jesus and planned to kill him, the scriptures tell us that Jesus “no longer walked about openly…but went to a region near the wilderness.” (John 11: 54) For you see, Jesus is still on his Lenten journey; the 40 days in the wilderness. Things were difficult before but they just got worse. And his journey wasn’t over yet.

Jesus can’t show his face in public, so I imagine under cover of night, Jesus slips into the home of his family of choice. Imagine what that encounter must have looked like. It’s dark. Jesus is pounding on the door, out of breath, afraid for his life. Fear has its own smell and conjures up its memories in our lives. Because that’s the thing about smell and memories: not all of our memories are pleasant ones.

But Jesus finds safety and refuge at Mary’s home. She is a longtime friend. She loves Jesus and she knows he loves her. This is his last place of rest before he enters Jerusalem where he will be killed. I believe that because of their intimate connection with one another, Mary knows what’s about to happen to Jesus. She senses, maybe even smells, what is about to happen to him when he enters Jerusalem. She smells his vulnerability. His sadness. Their sorrow. In a deep spiritual way, she realizes there is nothing she can do to turn back the hands of time. But she knows she can anoint him in this moment and remind him of her love for him. She can meet him in this wilderness and remind him that he is not alone.

I believe the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, captured a moment like this best when he said,

I’m slipping

I’m slipping away, like sand,

Like sand slipping through the fingers

All my cells are open and all are thirsty

I ache and swell in a hundred places

But mostly in the middle of my heart.

Mary enters that place aching place with Jesus and touches him. In what I consider one of the most beautiful, sensual stories in our sacred scriptures, Mary lets her hair down so that it flows over her shoulders. You can imagine the hush that falls over the room. She opens a bottle of perfume and pours it all over Jesus’ body. He is mesmerized by the fragrance of the perfume. She uses her hair and touches Jesus’ body with it. The fragrance of their love fills the room. And the fragrance of their love reminds him of the fragrance of God’s love for him.

Because that is what we do for each other. At our deepest and darkest moments, when we ache in the middle of our hearts, when our yearning for God is so great, when we can’t remember who we are and who God is, when we can’t find our way through the wilderness, we gift one another with the fragrance of God’s love. We become God’s love to each other. We remind one another that we may have to go to Jerusalem, but we do not go there alone. We are one another’s companions.

Companioning is about honoring the spirit; it is not about focusing on the intellect.

Companioning is about curiosity; it is not about expertise.

Companioning is about learning from others; it is not about leading or being led.

Companioning is about being still; it is not about frantic movement forward.

Companioning is about discovering the gifts of sacred silence; it is not about filling every painful moment with talk.

Companioning is about listening with the heart; it is not about analyzing with the head.

Companioning is about bearing witness to the struggles of others; it is not about judging or directing those struggles.

Companioning is about being present to another person's pain; it is not about taking away or relieving the pain.

Companioning is about respecting disorder and confusion; it is not about imposing order and logic.

Companioning is about going to the wilderness of the soul with another human being; it is not about thinking you are responsible for finding the way out.

May the fragrance of our lives demonstrate our love for one another and may it stir in us the memory of God’s love for us. Because the fragrance of God’s love is always at work through us. Thanks be to God and amen.

The Sense of Smell: A Powerful Sense by Gloria Rodriguez-Gil, M.Ed., California Deaf-Blind Services Educational Specialist (adapted by Rev. Tessie Mandeville)

Dr. Alan Wolfet, Center for Loss and Transition