Scripture: Leviticus 2 and Acts 10
Sermon: Holy Smoke and the Scent of Holiness
Topics: holiness, diversity, Gentiles
Preached: July 26, 2015
Rev. Mike Abma
LEVITICUS 2
When anyone presents a grain-offering to the Lord, the offering shall be of choice flour; the worshipper shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it, 2and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. After taking from it a handful of the choice flour and oil, with all its frankincense, the priest shall turn this token portion into smoke on the altar, an offering by fire of pleasing odour to the Lord. 3And what is left of the grain-offering shall be for Aaron and his sons, a most holy part of the offerings by fire to the Lord.
4 When you present a grain-offering baked in the oven, it shall be of choice flour: unleavened cakes mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers spread with oil. 5If your offering is grain prepared on a griddle, it shall be of choice flour mixed with oil, unleavened; 6break it in pieces, and pour oil on it; it is a grain-offering. 7If your offering is grain prepared in a pan, it shall be made of choice flour in oil. 8You shall bring to the Lord the grain-offering that is prepared in any of these ways; and when it is presented to the priest, he shall take it to the altar. 9The priest shall remove from the grain-offering its token portion and turn this into smoke on the altar, an offering by fire of pleasing odour to the Lord. 10And what is left of the grain-offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings by fire to the Lord.
11 No grain-offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you must not turn any leaven or honey into smoke as an offering by fire to the Lord. 12You may bring them to the Lord as an offering of choice products, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing odour.13You shall not omit from your grain-offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
14 If you bring a grain-offering of first fruits to the Lord, you shall bring as the grain-offering of your first fruits coarse new grain from fresh ears, parched with fire. 15You shall add oil to it and lay frankincense on it; it is a grain-offering. 16And the priest shall turn a token portion of it into smoke—some of the coarse grain and oil with all its frankincense; it is an offering by fire to the Lord.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
In our trip to Southern California, we stayed in a number of campgrounds, but we never had a camp fire.
Campfires have been banned in many, if not most, parts of California because of the severe risk of forest fires.
But camping hardly seems like camping without a fire —
without watching the dance of the flame.
Camping hardly seems like camping
without being able to smell smoke that hangs over all the campsites,
and that also has a way of lingering in our clothes for days.
I am not sure if we would call the smell of smoke
“a pleasing odor.”
But clearly,
in Old Testament times,
the smoke of offerings was considered
“a pleasing odor to the Lord.”
That phrase, “pleasing odor”
is repeated 3 times in our passage of Leviticus 2.
Grain or fine flour
mixed with oil,
frankincense
and some salt
made for a fitting grain offering.
This is what was put in the fire to produce the smoke.
It was only a small portion or token portion of the
cake, or waver, or loaf that was offered.
The larger part was food for the priests.
It is interesting that neither leaven nor honey
was allowed to be part of this grain offering.
Why not leaven or honey?
Commentators really do not have a clear answer for this.
The best answer is that both leaven and honey
were prone to fermentation.
Fermentation was a type of decay.
In other words, it was in the realm of death.
Anything in the realm of death would be unclean.
Of course, it was not only the smoke of offerings that ascended to God.
The prayers of God’s people also ascended.
As we already read and sung in Psalm 141,
the prayers of God’s people were like incense,
the lifting of hands like the smoke of evening offering.
In fact, this is the original meaning of the expression “holy smoke.”
Back in 1627, in the English poem “The Epiphany”
we find the lines
“Who lifts to God for us
the holy smoke of fervent prayers.”
This is the first known use of the phrase “holy smoke” in the English language.
Let’s pause a moment,
And sing another version of Psalm 141 — Blue 141A.
It is a version that not only connects
Our prayers to the smoke of the evening sacrifice
But also emphasizes the need to remain holy.
SING BLUE 141A: 1,2,5 O Lord, Come Quickly, Hear Me Pray
PREAMBLE to PART 2
In the Old Testament setting,
leaven and honey threatened to corrupt the holy smoke of the offering;
and anyone unclean threatened to corrupt the holy prayers of God’s people.
The unclean were
any Jew who was unclean because they had eaten something unclean
or had a disease that rendered them unclean.
So in the story of the 10 lepers healed by Jesus,
9 of those lepers went to the Temple
to offer the type of Grain Thank Offering mentioned in Lev. 2
because now they – the unclean lepers – had been made clean.
Of course, anything non-Jewish,
anyone Gentile,
was immediately considered unclean.
In fact, as a Jew, you were not allowed to eat with Gentiles,
or even visit them in their homes.
We get a sense of the Jewish-Gentile divide in Acts 21-22.
In those chapters,
Paul is almost killed by the Jews in Jerusalem
because they thought he had brought a Gentile, an unclean person,
into the inner courtyard of the Temple
the inner courtyard of their House of Prayer.
With this clean/unclean, Jewish/Gentile divide in mind, let’s read the beginning of Acts 10.
Peter and Cornelius
In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius.’ 4He stared at him in terror and said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ He answered, ‘Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.’ 7When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Acts 10 is a revolutionary chapter.
Cornelius, a Gentile,
a Roman soldier and part of the enemy-occupying force
is visited by an angel of God
who tells him his prayers and alms
have ascended to God as a memorial offering;
Who tells him his words and deeds
are acceptable and pleasing to God.
Who, in essence, tells Cornelius, the Gentile
that his prayers and deeds are a pleasing odor to the Lord.
That was inconceivable.
That a Gentile,
Who had not been circumcised,
Who did not necessarily keep a full kosher diet,
Who did not necessarily observe the 613 laws of the Torah
would receive the favor of the Lord
and be considered acceptable in his sight….
Inconceivable!
But that is what Peter
a Jew, and leader among the Jewish Christians,
had to conceive of and accept.
How was it possible?
When Peter meets Cornelius
Peter says to him
“You know the message God sent to the people of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ – who is Lord of all.”
You know the peace of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the one who made this possible.
Sure, Cornelius was a good person,
devout, generous, faithful.
But what made his prayers and alms a pleasing odor to the Lord
was the work of Jesus Christ.
As Paul puts it in Ephesians 5,
the love of Christ
and the forgiveness of Christ
is the fragrant offering to God.
And we believers,
Jew and Gentile
through the work of the Holy Spirit,
become the aroma of Christ in this world.
No matter how badly we may stink
through Christ and the Holy Spirit
we have the scent of sanctification
the scent of those made holy.
PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON
I think this is made pretty clear in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
You know that Parable.
But there is a detail in that story that you probably have not thought of much.
Remember how the son takes his inheritance,
goes off to a far away land — Gentile territory.
and blows all his money.
Where is he left working?
He is left working for a pig-farmer.
He is left among the pigs — pigs, unclean animals.
That is when he decides to return home.
Here is the detail of the story that you probably have not thought of.
How did he smell?
Anyone who has ever worked with pigs
knows that it is hard to get rid of
the eau de swine,
The aroma de hog
The perfume de pork.[1]
That is the person walking down the road.
He stinks. He is unclean in every sense of the word.
That is the person the Father sees in the distance,
That is the person the Father runs toward
That the Father embraces
That the Father kisses.
That is the person the Father loves and forgives.
Peter was challenged to welcome Cornelius.
Peter was challenged to realize that God shows no partiality.
Peter was challenged to confess that
every person from every nation
is acceptable to God
through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
That has been and always will be the challenge of the church —
to treat every person from every nation
as acceptable to God
through the redeeming work of Jesus.
Are we living up to that challenge?
The magazine Christianity Today
recently had an article about an experiment that was recently run
to measure how well we really welcome
people who are different from us.
It is called the “Dear Pastor, can I come to your church experiment.”
This is how the experiment was run.
3160 emails were sent to 436 different churches
representing 6 different denominations.
Each email was supposedly from someone moving to that city
and expressing interest in visiting and possibly joining the church.
The emails were signed by one of several different names.
The names were actually fictitious names gathered from Census data.
They used a very common White caucasian name: Greg Murphy
A common African American name: Tyrone Jefferson
A common Hispanic name: Carlos Garcia
And a common Asian American name: Jung Soo Kim
Would they all be treated the same even though the only difference was the name attached at the end?
Let me simply say, we as a Church have work to do.
We have work to do to be welcoming of everyone —
Especially of those who may be somewhat different from us
racially, or culturally, or ethnically.
Cornelius stands as a testimony to the wideness of God’s mercy
And the extent to which God’s blessing abounds.
May we, with Peter confess,
God shows no partiality
And neither should we.
Amen
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Having been raised on a pig farm, I know this smell in a personal way. ↑
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