From the Rector

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a summary of what Fr Robert presented at Mosaic’s formation hour on Wednesday, April 17, when the sense of smell was explored in the form of incense.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Once upon a time, in a far away land, before the days of Air-wick and indoor plumbing, people’s houses would get musty, and the odors of cooked cabbage and garlic would cling to the walls and curtains. On damp days a crowded house might smell like the locker room of a gymnasium. Folks discovered, probably at first by accident, that if they would burn certain fragrant resins and gums, the smoke would sweeten the air and make life indoors much more pleasant.

However, because these aromatic resins and gums were rare and costly they were saved for those occasions when company was coming. Thus it came to be that burning incense became a sign of somebody important coming to the house.

You walked in, smelled incense, and asked, “Who is coming?”

Royalty and the aristocracy had incense burned before them on all public occasions. If you wished to honor a friend, you burned incense when he visited you.

Incense was burned in temples and all places of public and private worship in honor of the God who was to visit the temple. It purified the place in anticipation of his visit. The Jews did this and the Christians took over the custom. It is referred to in two of the opening sentences of Daily Prayer in our Book of Common Prayer—a signal of the tradition of its use during Christian worship, including in our own Anglican tradition.

“From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to my Name, and a pure offering: for my Name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 1:11 (Daily Morning Prayer, Rite Two, BCP 76)

“Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:2 (Daily Evening Prayer, Rite Two, BCP 115)

Our Book of Common Prayer also indicates that its use is appropriate during the consecration of an Altar (BCP 576), as a symbol of the holiness of this space where God becomes present and as a prelude to its use at the Altar on particularly festive occasions during the church year.

And, of course, incense was among the three gifts brought to the Christ child by the magi, making its use during the principal feast of the Epiphany, the holiday that commemorates that event, particularly appropriate.

It is instructive to notice the places in the Church service at which incense is offered. On the entrance into the sanctuary, at the beginning of Holy Eucharist, the priest “censes” the Altar to prepare it for the coming of God on the Altar. Though we do not do this here, customarily the priest is “censed” by the deacon or thurifer because the priest himself is to become an instrument through which God acts in the service. On some holy days, such as Easter and the Feast of the Nativity, the Gospel is censed because through it God still speaks to us and is both among us as the Resurrected One and always being born anew in us through Word and Sacrament.

The bread and wine are “censed” at the offertory, because God is to make them Christ’s Body and Blood. They are prepared for his arrival.

Traditionally, the congregation is “censed” as well for they are going to receive, their communion. God is going to visit them. Through participation in the Sacrament, they also are to become instruments through which God acts in the service. They further are due honor in their own right as the Mystical Body of Christ through which (with the priest) God acts to become present once more.

At the moment of Consecration, the Bread and Wine, Christ’s Body and Blood now truly Present, are traditionally “censed” by the thurifer, because Christ becomes present there as he promised.

We do tend to limit the number of times we cense on Sundays at Saint Philip’s recognizing that, for some, too much smoke becomes a challenge. So we tend to cense the Altar only during the Gloria (an angelic song of praise marking Christ’s coming among us) and at the offertory when we prepare the Altar to become a site of renewed Incarnation (the making physical of God’s presence) each and every time we gather.

God is acting through God’s ministers. God is present on our Altars. God is speaking to us through the Gospel, and finally God is present in the Christian who receives the Sacraments and hears God’s Word—and more importantly is blessed to live that Word in the world.

Incense is not used merely because it is pretty, or because it smells sweet, or because some people may like (or not like!) something that is “high church.”

Rather, incense is used because, as a living link with Christian and Jewish antiquity, it assures us that the early Christians believed as we believe, that when we gather together in His Name, God is in our midst. We do not merely remember a dead lost friend, but have Communion with a living Christ. We do not merely long for a heaven that is “up yonder,” or “in the sweet by and by,” but adore an Eternal Lord who is “right here and now.”

It adds to our service an atmosphere of mystery—and well it might. For it signifies an invasion of the Eternal into time, of the Infinite All Holy into the midst of God’s people. It sets aside time and space that are set aside.

So when incense is offered, as it is at Saint Philip’s at 11:15am on Sundays and at other major feasts, it should properly awe us with the immense fact of the imminent entrance of the One who flung the stars into space and who numbers the hairs of our heads, yet whose tender love is concerned with the sparrow’s fall, who willed to be laid in a manger and nailed to a cross that you and I might know his love for all eternity.

That is the entrance of royalty into our midst—into the sea of time.

Because we want all people to be able to have this ancient experience of worship with incense, we are very careful at Saint Philip’s. We use the highest quality charcoal we can procure and burn hypoallergenic ingredients blended for us by a parishioner who has deeply studied the history and use of incense.

At the same time, for whatever reason, there are always some people who have some intolerance to incense. Thus, we also always have alternative options for any day of worship when we use it.

Indeed, those who do not care for or cannot be around incense are giving a profound gift to their brothers and sisters by making space in our parish for those who love incense. They help ensure that our parish truly is one that welcomes all people—not by forcing all people into the same experience but by exploring the many and manifold ways in which God’s people have worshipped the Blessed Trinity over the course of thousands of years.

Those who love the incense at Saint Philip’s are always deeply grateful for this gift from their brothers and sisters who may not like it—this gift by making space for its careful use here.

Understanding the ancient meaning of incense, as purification before the entrance of an important visitor, incense as the Church uses it is eloquent testimony and a vivid dramatization of the Church’s most cherished beliefs and vital experiences: God’s coming to humanity in humanity’s worship of God.

I’ll close with one of the prayers the priest says when blessing incense during the service:

At the intercession of the Blessed Michael the Archangel who stands at the right hand of the altar of incense, may the Lord graciously accept this fragrant offering to his praise and glory. Amen.

—Fr Robert