Sermons for the Month

The O Zone
DATE: May 28, 2000
SERVICE: Easter VI
TEXT: John 15:9-17

“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

The nose.

An innocuous and bulbous appendage occasionally the object of derision. Remember the movie Roxanne. It is a modern remake of the classic Cyrano De Bergerac. Consider briefly some of the abuse that Steve Martin, who plays the lead, receives about his nose:

Excuse me. Is that your nose or did a bus park on your face? You know, you could de-emphasize your nose if you wore something larger. Like ... Wyoming. All right gentlemen. Your nose was on time but you were 15 minutes late. Oooh, I wish I were you. Gosh. To be able to smell your own ear. You know. It's not the size of a nose that's important. It's what's in it that matters. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Sneeze and it's goodbye Seattle. Say, does that thing there influence the tides? The Lord giveth and He just kept on giving, didn't He? Say, who mows your nose hair?

It must be wonderful to wake up in the morning and smell the coffee ... in Brazil. If you don't think the nose is important, you haven't walked your dog lately. The nose is a hardware device for a sophisticated olfactory program that both allow your Schnauzer and you to enjoy aromas deemed pleasurable to our respective species. By use of this device, we can both enjoy flowers and perfumes, as well as avoid rancid food and chemical dangers. For humans and canines, smell is one of the most important means by which our environment communicates with us.

Of course, in order to smell a rose, you need both a rose and a nose. And not just a nose, but an olfactory epithelium, located in the roof of the two nasal cavities of your nose, just below and between the eyes. In addition, your system has to be hardwired with approximately 50 million primary sensory receptor cells, olfactory cilia, and a couple of olfactory nerves, which conduct chemical indications of smell to the brain.

A simple system it's not. Which makes it all the more amazing that modern companies are now entering the "O Zone," the olfactory zone, and trying to sniff the future with artificial noses, high-tech honkers, synthetic smellers.

One company, California-based Cyrano Sciences, is putting its money where its nose is building the "Cyranose 320," a $10,000 hand-held electronic odor detector which can digitally analyze and identify a wide range of smells - all within 10 seconds. Essentially a reverse-engineered human nose, the Cyranose uses its 32 olfactory sensor elements to pick up many of the same odors as a real flesh-and-blood snout. Commercial applications include catching spoilage at food plants, detecting hazardous chemicals in the air and water, testing perfumes for quality, and diagnosing certain odorific diseases in patients - diabetes or lung cancer, for instance.

That's not all. The manufacturer's three-year goal is to shrink the Cyranose onto a "Nose-Chip" cheap enough to embed in smoke detectors or, say, pots and pans to sniff out contamination. Pretty soon, the Nose-Chip will be able to sense danger long before your own nose knows.

The O Zone, however, is not just the olfactory zone, and it's not just an odor zone. It's also the obedience zone for people of faith. Today's text speaks of authentic discipleship, a way of life that smells like obedience to Christ's commands. "You are my friends if you do what I command you," reveals Jesus to his followers. "And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another" (15:14, 16-17).

We are getting close to the end of the Easter season and the seven weeks where we remember each year Jesus' post-resurrection appearances. These last few weeks we have been going over some of the final face-to-face messages of our Lord to his disciples before he returns to be with his Father. Last week it was "God is Love" -- no mere platitude but a statement that must be pursued in spite of contrary evidence. Two weeks ago it was "I am the good shepherd and I stand by my sheep." This morning it is Obedience. Friendship with Jesus. Good fruit. Good fruit (did you notice?) that lasts, doesn't rot. Love of one another. We can smell these qualities of authentic discipleship in ourselves and others, up close and at a distance. We don't even need a Cyranose or a Nose-Chip.

Of course, some stuff stinks. It's filthy, fouled, dying or decaying. Generally, if a product does not pass the smell test, we don't buy. That's why we always sniff stuff first, and why car manufacturers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure their products have a pleasing "new car smell." We must have the scent of authenticity to help others "buy into" being a disciple of Christ - the smell of good fruit, love of others, and life in the O Zone, the obedience zone.

Have you heard about Joel Lloyd Bellenson and Dexster Smith, a couple of biotech entrepreneurs? If not, you'll probably catch a whiff of them soon.

Bellenson and Smith are determined to produce the smells you want, through the wonders of high technology. Their Oakland-based company called "DigiScents" wants you to go on the Internet, download "streaming scent," and play it back on a device called an "iSmell," a portable scent synthesizer that's sort of a cross between a printer and a speaker. That means you'll soon be able to click-and-sniff a few cologne samples before clicking on the order button. Or drop into an online cooking show and literally smell what's for dinner. Or maybe you'll click on a Lexus banner to get a lungful of those leather seats. Their latest synthesizer, set to debut this summer, is proudly equipped to deliver trillions of combinations of human-detectable aromas. DigiScents hopes that by broadcasting scents to Web sites, games and ads, businesses across the digital spectrum will experience the sweet smell of success.

Although the name "iSmell" is sure to lead to a few laughs, this technology is no joke. Macromedia founder Marc Canter can already sense the scent of sales. "Imagine you're watching TV and can smell McDonald's French fries," he suggests. "You'll want to buy some."

We all know that scents are incredibly powerful, able to attract or repulse, entice or disgust. Problem is, we Christians too often don't smell right - we have subtle aromas that cause people to turn away from the life of the church. This is not to say that we stink, that we're rotten. No, nothing that strong. Rather, we at time have been know to give off a faint aroma of disobedience in the body of Christ - one that is subtle, but strong enough to give us away. Maybe it comes from a lack of compassion, a tendency toward quick tempers, failures in self-control, ingratitude, spiritual stagnation, foul language, or pride.

If it smells, you won't buy it. And neither will anyone else. Not even God will be pleased, since based on Old Testament testimony it seems that God has nostrils - able to sense sweet-smelling offerings, or abominations that make a stench. The apostle Paul bakes this into the program even more strongly: "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).

You can guess what gives off an offending aroma, even without an iSmell: Religious picketers who hold up signs saying "Fags will burn in hell ...." Denominational leaders who commit financial fraud and tax evasion .... Pastors who engage in sexual misconduct with parishioners .... Churchgoers who worship the Lord God on Sunday and the Money God on Monday. For the ChristBody to lose its odor, we're going to have to learn some obedience and find ways to bend our own will to the divine will.

The story (perhaps apocryphal) is told of a young man named Bill, a college student with wild hair, torn clothing and rather imperfect personal hygiene. He's a brilliant but off-beat guy who became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They say they want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how to go about it.

One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with jeans, torn T-shirt, no shoes and wild hair. The service has already started, and so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed, and he can't find one. By now people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit and, when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet.

By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick. About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill. Now the deacon is in his 80s, has silver-gray hair, wears expensive cologne and a three-piece suit. A godly man - very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane and, as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?

It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The minister can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do. And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and worships with him so he won't be alone.

Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever read.

Or, in the case of the O Zone, the only Bible some people will ever smell.

AMEN

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