The Sense of God

I sat by a campfire this week. I felt my toes and fingers get cold while my face was hot, as my eyes stung in the smoke and I coughed a little, and I knew that my clothes and hair would have that distinctive aroma until washed.

And I smiled! Because for me, woodsmoke is a happy smell - a campfire is a full-sensory experience that also serves to transport me to a hundred other times and places... happy memories come flooding back - of great friends and terrific adventures, of silly songs and creatively cooked meals, of life-long connection and the chance to just BE.

Our senses do that for us; they carry us to one another in ways that we can hardly explain, linking our hearts and minds to one another. For some, an aroma of fresh cookies baking will bring a heart a grandmother's teachings... for others, the feeling of paddling a canoe will focus attention on the epic adventure with friends that still makes them laugh... for others, it's the taste of some comfort food from college days to recall the formative relationships.

For centuries, the church has been a place of sensory immersion: the scent of wood and incense... the feel of the pew where our derrieres are accustomed to being... the perfect acoustics reverberating the musical heartbeat of the building... the taste of the wafer and wine to connect us in the foretaste of the Kingdom...

It's no wonder that church seems less churchy in these COVID-times. Our whole bodies, which for years were nourished in ways we didn't even realise, are missing that. While those of us in the building are grateful for the opportunity to practice safety measures, our bodies aren't used to it yet: yet perhaps, having named it, we can start to see these precautions as the expression of faith that they are. We can re-learn that church has the aroma of protection through the viral-blocking mask... that the echoes from 2m-distanced-pews are angel's wings beating a new rhythm into our souls... that our empty mouths are inviting us to recognise spiritual hunger in new ways.

Perhaps we can use the new sensory revelations of church to explore new ways of worshiping with our bodies: and invite us into deeper relationship with the Divine who journeys with us through the memories we have, and the memories we have yet to make.