Transcendence through a smelly candle?

So, first there was the Jesus in my toasted cheese. Then there was the Jesus on my brick. Now, some enterprising people have taken Psalms 45:8 and turned it into some profit. "All your robes are fragrant myrrh and aloes and casia . . ." For as little as 17.95 plus shipping and handling His Essence will send you a candle that smells like Jesus. Tens of thousands of these candles have already been sold.

This got me thinking, "What is it that has people seeing Jesus in things like bread, and bricks?" It seems that people have a genuine longing to encounter God in a meaningful way in their lives. Once upon a time the church was a place where this could happen. The fact that people have turned to pudding swirls and lemon rinds to find God speaks volumes of the church's inability to fill this need. Church attendance is down, yet the overall population is up. Churches across the country are closing, and Aunt Bertha has a moldy ham in the fridge that looks like the virgin Mary.

It is high time that we, as the Church, set aside our petty bickering over adiaphora, and help people encounter God in a meaningful way. This might mean guitars and video screens, it might mean candles and incense, but we should spend less time fighting over which of these is best and more time paying attention to the people who are staring at spin art looking for the stations of the cross.