echoes of redemption

An old Jewish folk tale tells the story of a rabbi overhearing a conversation about the purpose of prayer among some of the leaders of the Law. Each one had their own take:

Reb Shmuel Lieb said: The purpose of prayer is to recognize our Oneness with God.

Reb Feivel the Light said: The purpose of prayer is to attune body and soul.

Reb Feivel the Dark said: The purpose of prayer is to open up the heart and let the heart sing its praises to God.

Reb Sholem said: It seems to me that you have overlooked the most basic purpose of prayer, which is to become a servant to God. And if you can’t be a servant first, you don’t’ have the right to be a teacher or a lover or anything else.

Then Reb Hayim Elya spoke up and said: The whole purpose of prayer is to bring down blessings. For without these blessings, prayer serves no purpose.

Then Reb Aharon joined the discussion and said: The purpose of prayer is to perform repentance, for without repentance, what is the point of prayer?

After they gave their theories they look to the only rabbi that had not spoken, because they knew that he was wise and knew the most about prayer – and the rest of the story is his answer.

They were awaiting his judgement about who was right. But he would not give himself to judging them. Instead, the rabbi united each of them together to show how each one’s perspective was needed to lift the prayers of their generation.

Which leads us to believe that they were all right. And that the purpose of prayer is layered, deep and not found in isolation.

What if my relationship with God, as life-defining as it is, only reveals a sliver of the character of God? And what if I need everyone around me to help me understand more of who he is and how I can relate to him? And what if the prayers of our generation are lifted to the heavens when all of us bring our perspectives together and share in the unity of following God?

Ancient Jewish tales talk a lot about the smell of the Garden of Eden. It seems like a strange detail to get caught on, but they describe it as this incredible, beautiful aroma that fills the air with the breath of perfection.

If you’ve ever been to a non-industrialized country, you’ve smelled the smells of humanity. Every day in America we enjoy a cacophony of scents, from our body soap to cologne, perfume, hair product and air fresheners. Things smelling like things actually smells is frowned upon. There are too many easy, and cheap, ways to remedy those kinds of smells.

In the ancient Near East, things were not so. Fabricated scents were for royalty – or at least the ultra-rich. Each day was filled with common smells, normal scents. But every once in a while you would come across the smell of something sweet. A fruit, or some flowers, and it was beautiful. Almost indescribable.

So Eden, this perfect garden, was filled with everything that smelled pleasing in the world. Fruit, flowers, trees, grass – and everyone imagined how amazing a place like this must smell.

Also common in Jewish folklore was the comparison of Eden to Heaven.

So, pleasing aromas were lacking in the cultures that came up with these tales, and Eden was the place those aromas filled the air. And Eden is a model of Heaven. What if Heaven is an endless supply of all the beauty we’re missing on Earth?

Most of us seem to be doing fine on smells (most). But there seems to be a general lack of peace, hope, grace, forgiveness and love in our culture. What if the air of Heaven is full of the breath of peace, hope, grace, forgiveness and love?

And most importantly, what if it’s the Church’s job to fill the Earth with the aroma of Heaven?

It isn’t easy to change a reputation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter which study you choose to look at today, you’ll find the Church’s reputation in America isn’t great.

So what would it take to change that? Maybe it starts with the Church becoming obsessed with beauty.

Taken by the beauty of its own diversity.

Of course this would require a lot of sacrifice. Pet theologies would need to go. Narrow views of what a church service looks like would have to be gone. But after the dust clears, what if every church looked at every other church and saw beauty? Saw that different ways of worshipping and viewing God aren’t just the way things are, they are they way God designed them to be.

Captivated by the beauty in the world.

Could it be that the church’s job isn’t to bring God to a place, but to go to that place and point out what God is already doing? And if that’s so, maybe there is beauty woven in to every part of the Earth. And maybe the Church’s job is to love that beauty. To find that beauty. And to point that beauty out to everyone they can find.

Consumed with unleashing the beauty within every person.

Maybe the idea of Jesus in your heart has been so overused we forget the power of the metaphor. If the God of the universe – in all his infinite beauty – has come to reside inside of someone, it should be the church’s job to unleash that beauty from within those people. Can you picture the world bathed in the beauty of God as it overflows from his people?

What if the church was obsessed with beauty?