Leader s Guide for the Bible Study: The Fragrance of Life 2 Cor.2:14-16b 14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Dear hostess for this Women of Life Bible Study, As we breath, our Creator has gifted each one of us with a wondrous sense of smell. Our olfactory nerves enable us to experience the world around us in a very connected manner. When we breathe-in a certain fragrance in a specific context thereafter, it is highly likely that our brains will react again and again to that very fragrance-breathed-in at later points along the timeline of one s life. For instance, the author of this Bible Study regularly, early in the morning, walks his small dog on five-to-seven mile trials through the woods of a beautiful park of the community in which he resides. This walk-through-the-woods is a time for prayer, devotions, and for reflecting upon what is important in life. The walk that came after a light rain during the night, with the freshness and with the surrounding green life of countless leaves and ferns viewed but an hour after sunrise in the month of May that particular walk epitomizes the experience of connectedness. The fragrance of the forest, the smell of the slightly wet soil of the path being walked, the remembrance of the story in Genesis of how fallen Adam and Eve are hiding when they heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen.3:8) and all of this experience came together in such a way as to create a profound devotional and spiritual moment... one best summarized by quoting In the Garden: v.1 I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses; And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses. v.2 He speaks, and the sound of His voice Is so sweet the birds hush their singing, And the melody that He gave to me Within my heart is ringing. v.3 I d stay in the garden with Him Though the night around me be falling, But He bids me go; through the voice of woe, His voice to me is calling. 1
The connectedness with God our Creator/Redeemer in that devotional moment just described is indeed a profoundly spiritual experience. Because of God s Word a remembered Bible verse and a good Christian hymn that moment was definitely worship of Jesus... a veritable reaffirmation of my faith-relationship with the true Lord of this universe. And then just think about it all of this can be re-triggered in the firing of the synapses of my brain when again the fragrance of the forest is newly encountered at another time during a different walk! And there is still further connectedness which ought to be acknowledged in this example just written about. We are all creatures of this fallen world. Genesis 3:19 tells us: By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. According to the Bible, we human beings are dust people embodied souls. Yes, we are flesh and blood creatures who have been gifted with marvelous brains and with five senses. And yes, the Creator has made us in His own image we have souls and have been created for relationship with Him. But in the end we are only but dust, and that dust which has been taken and shaped and formed from the ground of this Earth. This is all described and commented upon in the Concordia Self-Study Bible on page 8. Gen.2:7 reads: the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. breath of life. + Humans and animals alike have the breath of life in them (see 1:30; Job 33:4). But humans have a superior status because they received the Creator s own breath of life as a constitutive element of their being. man became a living being. The Hebrew phrase here translated living being is translated living creatures in 1:20, 24. The words of 2:7 therefore imply that people, at least physically, have affinity with the animals. The great difference is that man is made in the image of God (1:27) and has an absolutely unique relation both to God as His servant and to the other creatures as divinely appointed steward (Ps 8:5-8). This connectedness of all of the living creatures which live upon the surface of planet Earth is especially known through our sense of smell, as is our relationship with the environment and habitat in which God s creatures reside. The fragrance of life is the natural aromas which we pass by or pass near as we journey through our earthly existence while still in our bodies. And yes the nose knows. We are alive and we experience our consciousness of this life through our olfactory sense of our connectedness with the ground, the dust that we were taken from. Also, when we breathe-in fragrances that experience connects us to places and to the passage of time. The reality of this assertion now being made is part of how we will be connecting with the central message of Holy Scripture through our Bible Study this year. The incense that was used in worship at Tabernacle and at Temple masked over the odor of animal sacrifice. During our 12- month Bible Study we will be lighting some fragrant candles along the way to remind us of this. 2
The sacrificial system of the Old Testament is something that we New Testament Christians of today are far removed from in these last times. In A.D. 70 the Temple that Jesus and His disciples had walked in was destroyed. As Jesus had once prophesied (Mt.24:2) while walking away from the Temple not one stone will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down. All of those animals that were sacrificed there on Mount Zion throughout the period of the Old Testament... we have NO personal experience with! Such an institution as the Jerusalem Temple has not existed during our lifetimes. The sights and the smells of first century Jerusalem is something that not very many of us have ever stopped even to reflect upon. And so a large part of this Bible Study is going to be an attempt to connect us with that other time and with that other place and with what was going on during Holy Week in first century Jerusalem. Through fragrances we will be connected with that mountain (Gen.22:14b) where to this day it is said: On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. It is hoped that during the 12-sessions of this Bible Study, the central message of God s revelation through the Bible will come alive for each one of the participants as they are engaged and connected to the past with various fragrances! And may all who follow Jesus come to this profound realization that we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, (2Cor.2:15) and that through us who are in Christ s triumphal procession that the fragrance of the knowledge of Him is being spread everywhere (v.14)! A statement about the format of this Fragrance of Life Bible Study, and an overview of the 12 Sessions of it which will be experienced over the course of the next year. Preparations: There will be a verily large amount of reading out loud for the group each month. The hostess, who is also the designated Bible Study Leader for the Session, will need to read through all of the material for her Session-of-the-month beforehand. She will have to note in the introductory half of the lesson what parts are labeled Leader and what parts are labeled Reader #1 Reader #2 Reader #3 etc. The hostess will have to at the start of the Session ask for those folks who will be willing and comfortable with reading publicly larger blocks of material for the group and assign them to be whatever # Reader. Thereafter, later, during the second half of the lesson when the Scriptural selection is dug into, ordinarily each person attending the Bible Study will go around the circle each one taking their own turn at reading the material which sets up each individual question. Another point of preparation will involve having the item(s) designated for contributing the aroma of the Session in place for the Bible Study gathering. An incense candle should be made available to each hostess (as the very same fragrant candle is passed along with this Leader s Guide for each month s hostess.) The incense candle will be lighted for the duration of the opening-prayer-time of each Session. 3
However, this is not the only fragrance for the Session. Session One, for instance, will have the group breath-in towards the end of your time together the aroma of Johnson s baby shampoo and baby powder. Later Sessions will have a dozen roses at one, and the smell of freshly baked bread at another as the designated fragrance of the month. If the making of these arrangements for the suggested aroma of the Session is too costly for the hostess of the Session to personally cover... perhaps, for instance, each Bible Study participant in that Session of roses can contribute for the buying of one rose to make possible a temporary bouquet. When that Session disperses each participant will go home with their own rose. Mail ordering fragrances from Avon or from Bed, Bath, and Beyond is envisioned for some of the other Sessions of this Bible Study. And finally, there is even one Session where contact with a local Roman Catholic congregation might be in order it would in the interest of the Bible Study group to have temporary access to the incense dispenser which is used in the smells and bells part of a Roman Catholic Worship Service. Ultimately, here is an overview of the Scriptural material that will be studied over the course of the next twelve months in this Fragrance of Life Bible Study. 1. A study of Psalm 139 and of the First Article of the Apostles Creed (with the Small Catechism s Explanation.) The aroma of Johnson s baby shampoo and of baby powder will be experienced in Session One. 2. A study and survey of the Old Testament sacrificial system which begins way back in the Garden of Eden when God (Genesis 3:21) made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. The aroma of a sweet smelling fragrance from Bed, Bath, and Beyond will be experienced in Session Two. [The particular fragrance has yet to be designated...] 3. A study of Genesis 22:1-18; the revelation that God makes to Abraham and to us when testing the patriarch with a temporarily proposed sacrifice of Isaac. A different aroma of a sweet smelling fragrance from Bed, Bath, and Beyond will be experienced in Session Three. [The particular fragrance has yet to be designated...] 4. A look at the Tabernacle of the Exodus wanderings (and its furnishings) as in Exodus 25 and 26. A different aroma of a sweet smelling fragrance from Bed, Bath, and Beyond will again be experienced in Session Four. [The particular fragrance has yet to be designated...] 5. This month s Bible Study will examine closely the Prologue to the Gospel of John (John 1:1-18). This month s aroma of the Session Session Five will involve a small bale of straw to remind everyone of the manger into which the Baby Jesus was placed. 6. The text of this month s Bible Study is Mark 14:1-11. This is the account of a woman breaking an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, and pouring it on Jesus head and body, preparing for His burial. (It is suggested that Session Six will include the pooling together of financial resource for the purchase of a sample bottle of some very expensive perfume.) 4
7. This month s Bible Study will examine Exodus 12 and the institution of Passover. Even though there will NOT be an aroma of the Session... Session Seven will reflect upon the smells associated with the slaughtering of large numbers of animals. This Session in particular will bring us closest to the events of Holy Week! 8. Session Eight discusses the Jerusalem Temple which was built during the reign of King Herod. The Jewish Day of Atonement and its symbolism and meanings will be explored a wee bit during this Session. Finally, the section of Scripture that will be studied is Isaiah 52:13-15 and chapter 53 as well. The strong aroma of this Session will be the incense used in a Roman Catholic Worship Service! 9. This month s Bible Study will examine the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand in John chapter six. This month s aroma of the Session Session Nine will encourage the fresh baking of bread. 10. 1 Peter 3:15-22 and the Sacrament of Holy Baptism is the focus of this month s Bible Study. The aroma of the Session Session 10 is the smell of freshness that is closest to the way that newly washed sheets smell when they have been hung upon a clothes line, (dryer sheets?) 11. Romans 12 and offering ourselves as living sacrifices in Christ s service is the Bible Study topic in Session 11 plus, there will be a final look at 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, this year s theme. The aroma of the Session will be the Easter Lilly. 12. Session 12 will look at John 3:1-21 with an emphasis upon John 3:16 (Fragrance = a single rose for each participant. The Bible passage will be paraphrased with each participant being presented with their rose, as they recite the passage in a personalized manner, substituting their own first name for world and for whosoever.) The rest of this Leaders Guide will include the Participant s booklet but with suggested answers filled-in throughout all the Sessions and finally, perhaps, there will be some *addendums for certain Sessions which provide deeper insight for a particular section of the material. 5