What’s that Smell?

Not only does God stress his compassion and mercy by placing it first on the virtue list he proclaims at the very time Israel has committed apostasy, but— according to John Calvin—Yahweh also underlines it by declaring his divine name twice before listing these chief characteristics. Calvin argues that God repeats “Yahweh! Yahweh!” to make sure Moses is paying attention to what he is about to spell out. Moreover, Calvin continues, to highlight that God “has no more peculiar attribute than his gratuitous beneficence,” Yahweh refuses to rely on one word alone. Instead, Calvin remarks, God follows the emphatic repetition of his name with two synonyms in order to drive his point home. He is “merciful and compassionate.” Yahweh is not being redundant and repetitive here, rather, he is demonstrating how he is replete with compassionate mercy and merciful compassion.

The prominence of Yahweh’s declaration continues beyond Exodus. As Carol Meyers points out, biblical authors repeated or quoted these verses some fourteen times in Hebrew Scripture (Meyers, Exodus, 264). Later authors considered this list important enough to continually repackage and apply it throughout the Bible. Furthermore, according to Nahum Sarna, his Jewish kinsfolk incorporated this passage into their liturgy in order to instill within their community the imitation of the moral qualities of their God. Sarna explained that being the Lord’s chosen people compels them to emulate his compassion, graciousness, forbearance, kindness, fealty, and forgiveness (Sarna, Exodus, 216).

Since compassion and graciousness lead Yahweh’s divine attribute pack, should not we also—as those who have been grafted into Israel—be known for imitating his graciousness and compassion too? In her book on the Ten Commandments, Carmen Imes makes this point clear: “Unlike the gods of other nations, Yahweh could not be represented by a carved image (20:4); instead he was to be represented by the people to whom he had revealed his name (20:7). Since he had claimed them as his own, their words and actions were to reflect his lordship” (Imes, Bearing God’s Name, 52).

This then brings up a burning question: When people think of us, is the C–word first on the list they’d use to describe us? If not, is “compassion” at least in the middle, or maybe toward the end? Be honest: is “compassion” on the list at all?

Our church in Denver has a ministry where we eat with people experiencing homelessness in our community. Occasionally correlated with this ministry and with Colorado’s legalizing of marijuana, a certain stench often sits around our church building. One day, while my family and I were downtown shopping, a gentleman walked by us who, from the aroma surrounding him, had apparently just “lit up.” Catching the scent, my youngest blurted out: “It smells like church out here!” I laughed but immediately began to wonder: we when pass by people, do we “smell like church”? I am not talking about weed, of course. What I am asking is: do people catch on us the aroma of divine compassion, kindness, and mercy? Do we reek of our God? For example, my former student Isaac Olivarez wanted to smell just like Jesus to the un–homed in our city, so—inspired by the parable of the banquet–rather than just providing staples to the marginalized, Isaac and his friends serve five–course meals for them, often food collected from five–star restaurants. I am convinced that in addition to the taste of the upscale cuisine on offer, these men and women are drawn to the aroma of God’s extravagant love through Isaac and his friends.