Play Your Hand V

LAVISH INCENSE

See other reflections:
Erin
Schweer's Mom on Family Food Traditions
Schweer's Mom
Erin's Blog Post on Lavish Incense

Scent for the King

Song of Songs 3:6 - Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?

Say three words—gold, (frank)incense, and myrrh—and what do most people think? Yes, magi bringing gifts to the Baby Jesus.

Did you know we also find gold, incense, and myrrh in Song of Songs. “Gold” appears five times, “incense” three times, and “myrrh” seven times.

Of this trilogy, we find “myrrh” most often, so let’s take a closer look at it. The beloved says her lover is a sachet of myrrh. Later she says he smells like myrrh. And then he’s dripping with myrrh. There’s no doubt about it—she definitely associates him with myrrh.

We know myrrh was and is a perfume, but a quick glance through the entire Bible tells us that it appears more often in association with scenting men than women.

“Myrrh” means “bitter.” And myrrh was used for more than providing fragrance on special occasions. It also deadened pain. And people used it to prepare the dead for burial. Jesus turned down wine mixed with myrrh when He hung from the cross. And Nicodemus brought about seventy-five pounds of spices, including myrrh, so he could prepare Jesus’ body before it was placed in the tomb.

Because so many of us read the New Testament a lot more than we read the Old, we may associate myrrh more with death than with life. I’ve heard it said, for example, that the myrrh that the magi brought to the Christ Child foreshadowed Jesus’ death. The person who said it thought the wise men consciously brought a substance associated with death to give to the Baby Jesus, knowing He was born to die.

Now, what would you think if someone gave you a casket or a headstone as a baby gift? Imagine the conversation! “Here, I hope you like it. I brought you some toys, and some booties, and some expensive embalming fluid. We’re all terminal cases….”

The wise men had no idea that Jesus was going to die to save us from our sins. Even His own disciples didn’t get it. Only Mary of Bethany, Lazarus’s sister, who anointed Jesus’ feet before the crucifixion, appears to have understood “before the fact” that our Savior had to die before He would reign as King.

Reigning as king—that’s why the magi brought myrrh. It was a gift fit for a king. Consider Esther, who, before her “night with the king,” spent six months treating herself with oil of myrrh (Esth. 2:12). Centuries later when the magi found Herod, they asked the location of the one born King of the Jews, saying they had come to worship Him (Matt. 2:2). And when they came to the house and found Him, they fell down in worship, offering that King their gifts.

In Psalm 45:6-8 we read, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad.”

The focus on loss in association with the myrrh brought by the magi to Jesus misses the strong association of myrrh with riches, royalty, and celebration. When Matthew wrote his gospel, he was presenting Jesus Christ as Israel's long-awaited royal Messiah. And the gifts of the magi were gifts worthy of His Majesty--the one coming to reign in glory.

Celebrate His coming and His return!

(Adapted from Solomon Latte, used with permission.)

Contemplative Christmas V

This is our final week of the SoulPerSuit Contemplative Christmas.

I hope you'll stick around and join us for this last theme, because even though the presents are opened, the Christmas musical extravaganzas are concluded, the family photos taken, and the figgy pudding eaten, there is still plenty more going on with the Christmas story. Lots of opportunities to respond.

You can find our previous collective thoughts (and add your own) here:

Week I- Barn Smells
Week II- Bright Light
Week III- Singing
Week VI- Cradled in Arms

Throughout the month of December, SoulPerSuit has been inviting folks to reflect on a theme phrase pertaining to the Nativity. We also offer one or two Shuffle the Deck activities to kick start your creative thinking. All the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations of this Christmas season are at your disposal- you just need your Bible and your imagination.

________________________________________________

This week's theme is:
Lavish incense

Optional Shuffle The Deck activities to get things rolling:

1) There are certain foods that are a tradition this time of year and every family is different. Do you know where those traditions started? Why are these so important? What do these traditions do for the season or family gathering? When is the food served?
Create a recipe card or write a short story about the food and the tradition. Decorate the card or story with clippings, photos, or drawings.

2) Cook a new recipe to ring in the New Year. Try something from an ethnic tradition or region different than your normal fare.

A couple of websites to begin with:
All Recipes
Recipe Source
Epicurious
Recipe Zaar
_________________________________________________

So, what next? We are hopeful that the Holy Spirit will lead you in worship over the next week.
If you'd like to worship and reflect quietly then you don't need to do anything.
If you create a piece of artwork or have thoughts you'd like to share publicly (or you're new here and wondering what we're up to), click here to see what we're up to.

Play Your Hand I

For this week’s shuffle, I spent my time trying to imagine what it was like to be a shepherd. The closest reference I have is camping trips as a kid. Like Erin, I remember nights sitting around the campfire where your backside was freezing and your clothes closest to the fire were scorching hot (although I don’t think I ever melted my shoes).

The sad little photo to the left is of the “fire” I tried to start in an aluminum pan with matches and twigs from my yard. The hope was to recreate the marvelous aroma of a campfire but, as you can see from all the burned and broken matches, the only aroma I appreciated was sulfur. I doubt the shepherd’s of Jesus’ day had the luxury of matches.

From the comments on this contemplation I’ve learned that one woman’s manure is another woman’s rose. Although I tend to think the shepherds had a stinky, lonely job, the descriptions of shepherds in scripture are in tender and loving terms. Their task was more than just labor. This is the way Schweers' Mom describes cleaning out horse stalls and greta lynn hernandez remembers the smell of fresh milk in a barn with a sulfur powered earthen floor. Being a shepherd was more than a job.

He takes me to lush pastures,
he leads me to refreshing water.
Your rod and your staff reassure me. – Psalm 23

Like a shepherd he tends his flock;
he gathers up the lambs with his arm;
he carries them close to his heart;
he leads the ewes along. – Isaiah 40:11

…I will seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a cloudy, dark day. – Ezekiel 34:12

In emphasis, being without a shepherd is described in negative terms.

And they were scattered, because [there is] no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. – Ezekiel 34:5

Did you have any further insights this week on BARN SMELLS?

Check out what others have thought about this week:
Schweers' Mom
Erin
Erin's kids
greta lynn hernandez
Michelle Pendergrass

Shuffle the Deck

"Were you born in a barn?"

What a tacky question! Has anyone ever said this to you? When I was a child, my siblings sometimes said it to me. And their tone of voice told me they meant that only an animal would be so uninformed, so uncultured, so ignorant.

Yet imagine being really, truly, literally born in a barn. What might that suggest about you? Your parents? How clean do you think the feeding trough (manger) would be? If you had the choice, would you volunteer to be born among barn smells and flies and placed where animals slobbered? Think about it...

In case you're wondering what this exercise is all about, here's the scoop.

Contemplative Christmas I

Welcome to Week 1 of the SoulPerSuit Contemplative Christmas.

We have participants coming from near and far and across the globe for this group. A truly international affair. I'm excited to see the variety of worship experiences God will bring about in each of us because, truthfully, joining a community of God-seekers and sharing in the journey is my very favorite part of SoulPerSuit.

Right here on SoulPerBlog each week we'll be posting a theme phrase to reflect on during this Christmas season and one or two Shuffle the Deck activities to kick start your creative thinking. Otherwise, SoulPerSuit is going to let Emmanuel speak for himself. All the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations of this Christmas season are at the disposal of the Holy Spirit. You just need your Bible and your imagination.

________________________________________________

This week's theme is:
Barn smells

Optional Shuffle The Deck activities to get things rolling:

1) What’s the most rugged camping or outdoor experience you’ve ever had? Have you ever sat around a campfire? Our memories of those times are strong because the sensory experiences were extreme. Was there food involved? Was the fire built with wet or green wood? Was it summer or winter? How do the smells differ with the season? Think about what it would be like if your job required you to camp outside every night.

2) If you have access to a livestock barn or stable, spend some time there with your nostrils on alert. Breathe in the earthy smells of the animals, the hay and alfalfa, the watering trough and all that goes with them.
Jot some notes on a 3X5 card about your sensory experience. Describe the smell as best as you can. What arrests you?
If you are not near a barn but have pets, do the same thing as you feed, groom and clean up after them.
No access to barns or pets? Try your compost bin, leaf pile or kitchen garbage.

_________________________________________________

So, what next? We are hopeful that the Holy Spirit will lead you in worship over the next week.
If you'd like to worship and reflect quietly then you don't need to do anything.
If you create a piece of artwork or have thoughts you'd like to share publicly (or you're new here and wondering what on earth these people are doing), click here to see what on earth we're doing.

Engage the Senses

If anybody can sniff out a good article, Kelley Mathews can. She sent us a link to this piece by Lauren Winner on connecting smell with doctrine: i.e., aromatheology. Check it out.