inked on god's hands

8/7/2019 Inked On God's Hands

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Inked On Gods Hands

The Rev. Joseph Winston

Feburary 27, 2011

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ.1

Have you ever been inked? Do you possess some body art that no one else

can see but you and a few of your closest friends? In other words, Do you have

a tattoo? If you happen to have one, I am sure that you have heard at least once

in your life, Why did you go off and do it? That is what I want to know, What

did you tell Mom and Dad?

There certainly are many different reasons why you might place an indelible

mark somewhere on your body. Remembering an important event in you life is

cause enough for some. Here are a couple of illustrations that come to mind. You

have left home for the first time and you just wanted to mark your independence

from your family. Perhaps, a piece of art moved you so much that you always

wanted it to be with you. These examples are some of the possible answers you

1Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians

1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

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could give your parents on why you now have a tattoo when you never had one

before. Then there is that significant other, a special person in your life that draws

you to the needle. Be honest. A new love that makes the world go around sends

countless people to the design catalogs where they look for that one tattoo that

says it all. My true love has to be a popular example. You know that the steady

pillars in your life are yet another group of people that appear on arms and chests.

Think of Mom with Anchor. Maybe, just maybe, Mom and Dad would accept

those answers on why you did it.

Even if you never have thought about an artist drawing something on your

skin, you can see the attraction of having it done. Your inked skin is a permanent

record that is always with you.

Tattoos are not a new fad that is going away anytime soon. For as long as we

have had people, sharp objects, and a way to make a mark last, there have been

people who want to have it done. Their popularity might rise and fall with the

times, but it seems like they are here to stay.

Now it might be odd to think of God with tattoos and as soon as I mention it,

you might become distracted and think of Popeye with the anchor drawn on his

muscle bound arms, Lydia the tattooed lady from the Marx Brothers, Ray Brad-

burys book of short stories titled, The Illustrated Man, Flannery OConnors

Parkers Back, or a thousand other examples you might come up on your own.

That is a risk that I am willing to take because todays Old Testament lesson tells

you exactly that. God has tattoos.

God does this because He never wants to forget you.

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That answer is a little ahead of where the story is right now but it is so impor-

tant that you need to hear it again. God never will forget you.

It is a common problem, one we all share, that is affecting the people of God.

They just do not see it. They cannot find God in the middle of the mess we call

this world.

Who can blame them? Every morning when they get up to the time they go to

bed at night, they are surrounded by reasons to believe God is a liar.

They are not living at home. Those that survived the war and then the forced

march are now captives in a foreign land. Where is the land promised to our an-

cestors they ask? Clearly, the answer is, It is not here.

Conditions are hard for prisoners of war. They always have and they always

will. They have no freedoms. They live and they die at a strangers word. There is

never enough of anything to go around. The children, I mean those who made it

because without fail children are often the uncounted casualties of war, go to bed

hungry at night. Why should anyone care? After all, they are the enemy and we

do not want them too strong now, do we? They cry, Where is the land of milk

and honey? No one needs to tell them, It is not here.

You try to break your prisoners and make them into something new. This is

a constant fact of war. Call it physiological warfare or propaganda if you must.

You do this unless you plan to fight the same battles over and over again. They

need to be reeducated. They must be taught your way of thinking, your way of

government, and to worship your gods that gave you victory over theirs. All of

their old fashioned ideas must go and if they do not, you always have the final

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solution: killing them. Afraid to say it out loud, the prisoners whisper, Where is

our temple? Where is our God? They believe that they already know the answer,

It is not here.

The facts seem to say; no, they appear to shout out for all to hear, God is a

liar. God is a liar. God is a liar.

The author of todays Old Testament lesson replies to the harsh accusations

brought by the prisoners with these striking words from God, See, I have in-

scribed you on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49:16a). God has a tattoo, we are

told, and you are on it.

Right there between the wrist of the Lord and His fingers lives all that makes

you who you are. Your entire being, your complete existence, your total essence

lives on His palms.

This arrangement God has between you and Him does not mean that God is

big and powerful while you are tiny and insignificant. Far from that. God inks you

on His hands for all the same reasons you might get a tattoo. You are important to

Him and He does not want to forget anything about you.

This means that every time the Lord works with His hands, He is reminded of

you. When He picks up a bite to eat, you flash before His eyes. You never leave

God.

That message that God is here and helping us right now was just as difficult to

believe two thousand five hundred years ago as it is today. So, we do what comes

naturally. We take things into our own hands and that is exactly what we do.

If you work outside of the your home, you busy yourself from your first wak-

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ing moment when you crawl out of bed to check your Facebook status, to the drive

into work with the talk radio telling you what lies ahead, to one meeting after an-

other, to retracting your steps back home with the news of the day in your ears,

and finally back to bed but before going to sleep you tweet out one status message

that describes in one hundred forty characters or less how tired you really are.

If you work at home, your story sounds the same. You did not sleep well last

night. The children came in too late and you waited up for them so you could

make sure they make it home safe. You know they never Facebook their parents.

You pull yourself out of bed and face the first task of the day, which is making

sure everyone goes where they need to. You might think that someone like you

would have some free time, but you do not. Now, you settle yourself down to the

business of running the house. Pay the bills. Clean the clothes. Go shopping. Cook

the meals. Nobody asks how you are doing. They are all too busy with their own

lives to even think of you, much less text you. The day starts to draw to an end,

people come back, and start making demands of you. Did you check on this? Did

you get that? Is everything done? That is all they want to know. The dishes are

finally done and you hope to get a bit a sleep so you can start over in the morning.

You know what is going to happen? No matter at how hard you try to fill the

day with work, one day your hands will stop moving. No longer will you dress

yourself in the mornings. No more will your hands bring food and drink to your

mouth. No sheets will you turn down at night. Now, your hands are still. They

cannot work or play. They will not love or hate. They are without life, just like

their owner. They can do nothing now.

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This is what faces each and every of us: death.

You are powerless and cannot change what will happen. Any hope of survival

must come from outside of you. For if your hands cannot shape the world, you

cannot think. For if your hands cannot hold, you cannot love. For if your hands

are motionless, you cannot save yourself.

God promises you that you will live. It is written there on His hands. Your

life is all there: all of your hopes, all of your dreams, all of your pain, all of your

suffering. There it lies, etched on Gods palms, never growing pale, never getting

too weak to read, never ever removed with soap and water. With that picture of

you, God will make you live again.

This gift of new life that the Lord gives you is definitely not limited to your

resurrection that occurs after your death. For if, it were, then this would tell you

that God cannot change the world today. All this attitude gives you is yet one more

case of God not telling the whole truth. It even is not right to say that your new

life starts today. This statement falls into the exact same trap as before. We dare

to hope that God loves you today, tomorrow, and yesterday. If this is not true, then

Gods Word is nothing more than a bunch of tall tales.

The author of todays Old Testament lesson answers the problem of seeing

God in all the pain and the suffering that we experience. God is here and right

now, the Lord is doing what He does best. Listen to the Word of the Lord:

Thus says the LOR D:

In a time of favour I have answered you,

on a day of salvation I have helped you;

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I have kept you and given you

as a covenant to the people,

to establish the land,

to apportion the desolate heritages;

saying to the prisoners, Come out,

to those who are in darkness, Show yourselves.

They shall feed along the ways,

on all the bare heights shall be their pasture;

they shall not hunger or thirst,

neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,

for he who has pity on them will lead them,

and by springs of water will guide them.

And I will turn all my mountains into a road,

and my highways shall be raised up.

Lo, these shall come from far away,

and lo, these from the north and from the west,

and these from the land of Syene.

God is bringing life. In the middle of the Exile, the conquering power does not

control God. The Lord frees His people from prison. Amid all the destruction

caused by war, people go hungry. Gods chosen still eat and drink. Despite the

enemys best attempts at wiping out every trace of hope in God, the Lord still

remains. He brings people you would never expect to faith in God.

Nothing at all has changed today. God is working in this place to bring life out

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of the death that constantly surrounds us. In the middle of all the suffering brought

on by the poor economy, God continues to freely give gifts you could never buy.

Friends, hope, and beauty are but three examples of Gods presents that cannot

be measured in dollars and cents. In this day and age, divorce is a fact of life.

The reality that it is happening everywhere does not diminish the hurt that divorce

causes. God heals the pain. Even when it seems like death will win the day, we

already know what God has done. God raised Jesus from the dead. God will do

the same for you. It will happen because the Lord has you tattooed on His hands.

There are many different reasons why you might want to be inked. One is that

some people want a permanent record of an important event in their life. Another

is the love of art. A tattoo can be magnificent. A third example is always carrying

with you that special person in your life.

At your baptism, God inscribed your likeness on the palms of His hands. If

you could look at your tattoo, you would see that it is beautiful, just like you.

There is nothing that you can do that will make God remove you from His hands.

That is how much God loves you.

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and

minds through Christ Jesus.2

2Philippians 4:7.

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inked on god's hands

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