Holy Smoke

Holy Smoke

So, what about the “smelly stuff”, as one of our young worshippers called it recently when seeking information. What is it? What do we do with it? And what does it mean? We know the story of the three Wise Men offering, together with their worship, gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense. (Mt. 2:11); but what is frankincense and why would they offer it?

‘Frank’, in this case, means ‘pure’. Frankincense is a resin obtained from a rather unattractive tree called Boswellia (Boswellia sacra), which grows in Oman and Yemen on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsular and in Somalia on the other side of the Red Sea. The resin is produced by making a small slash in the bark of the tree. The resin slowly oozes out and is allowed to harden for about three months before being collected in lumps. At some point it undergoes further processing to mix in other aromatic ingredients. The process is labour intensive, only limited amounts can be produced, and it has then to be transported long distances. Small wonder that in former times it was valued alongside gold.

Incense played an important part in Jewish worship from early days, and there is a recipe for it in Exodus (40: 34-36). It is associated with divinity and reserved for God (Ex: 30: 37-38). Because of its value and possibly because it was a foreign import, it was seen as a gift which would be offered by gentiles when the day of salvation dawned. Two weeks ago, on the feast of the Epiphany, we read in Isaiah

… the lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. …They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the lord. (Isa 60:2-3 and 6)

and it is this idea that Matthew takes up and applies to the birth of Jesus.

Like everything else in our worship incense is a symbol and, like everything else, it achieves its purpose only if the symbolism is understood.

The first aspect of this symbolism can be seen in last week’s New Testament reading, from Revelation, which describes the worship of heaven. Remember those 24, remarkably adroit, elders who fall to their knees before the Lamb while holding harps in one hand, and in the other bowls, of incense, “which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev. 5:8). Later in same book we read:

Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel (Rev 8:3-4).

The ‘saints’ here are you and I, and incense symbolizes our prayer and praise rising to God.

Incense even finds a place in Common Worship. Though perhaps not many of the laity will buy or read the recently published Common Worship provision for formal daily prayer, that book suggests the use of incense at evening prayer, accompanied by words from Psalm 141: “Let my prayer rise before you as incense; the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” (CW Daily Prayer p. 111).

The use of incense, however, should not mean that our worship is just a wisp of smoke. The incense is burning (which is what the word means), the thurible is hot, signifying that our praise should rise from burning enthusiasm within us. Formerly, the priest, after censing the altar, handed the thurible to the deacon with words we should all remember, “The Lord kindle in our hearts the fire of his love and the flame of everlasting charity”.

Worship is more than a series of words, more even than a state of mind, it is a spiritual state, and incense, with its sweet and pungent scent, makes it possible for worshippers to devote themselves to God with all their senses rather than just their minds. Even more than sights (pictures and carvings, stain-glass windows, etc.), and sounds (music, hymns, etc.), certain smells can be deeply evocative of memories and feelings. We worship God with our whole being and all our senses, including the sense of smell.

Secondly, incense is used to symbolize honour or respect, for both people and things. We carry incense in the gospel procession and ‘cense’ the book by waving the thurible at it, surrounding it with a prayer-cloud so as to mark off the gospel as being more important and significant than the other readings. In the same way, when we come to the offertory, the bread and wine, the whole altar, and the Priest are censed as if to lift them up to God with the prayers of the saints. Finally the congregation are censed, the thurifer bows to us and swings the thurible towards the centre, left and right so as to include everyone symbolically; for the Eucharist is not just something performed by a priest which we are allowed to witness, it is something done by us, by you and me, for, as we also heard last week, Christ has made us “to be a kingdom and priests serving our God” (Rev. 5:10 & 1: 6). The censing of the people is a special way of saying that everyone present in the church has a vital and priestly part to play in obeying the command to ‘do this’. As Paul writes in his 2^nd letter to the Corinthians,

Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Cor. 2:14-15).

I would like to finish with a quotation from one of the least quoted Old Testament books, Malachi:

From the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the lord of hosts (Mal 1:11).