"The Tattoo of Sin"

A sermon preached on Ash Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at Edgemont Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), by the Rev. Christopher E. Yopp. Sermon based on II Corinthians 5:1-9.

James Lipton, the host of one of my favorite television shows, Inside the Actor’s Studio, has a rather unusual fetish. He in infatuated with tattoos. He loves them, and whenever conducting an interview with an actor or actress, one of the questions he will, undoubtedly, ask is; "Do you have any tattoos?" If the actor or actress answers "yes" and, if permissible he will ask them to show their tattoos to the audience.
Ash Wednesday, and the season of Lent in itself, are reminders that we all have tattoos - yet, in a much different form, we have been tattooed by sin. Interestingly enough, the word "tattoo" literally means; "to stain." And, so it is, we have been stained by sin. And yet, with Ash Wednesday’s reminder of the sin that has stained and tattooed us, we are also reminded that these tattoos are not permanent - they can be washed off, removed, but only by the Christ.
Here is a stark reminder; "Remember you a dust and to dust you will return!" Perhaps it’s a reminder that few of us want to dwell on or think about. However, such a reminder is inevitable - we are "dust and to dust [we] will return!" Perhaps this is why Ash Wednesday isn’t a favorite among many Christians, because we are reminded of the reality of death, the reality of who we are - sinners, mere dust and ashes.
Some of the most poetic words of Scripture are found in the beautiful litany of the creation story. It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to realize the contrast between the creation account of Genesis chapter one and that of chapter two. Some believe that they are the same creation story just told from a different perspective. While others believe that they are simply allegories to define the origin of the world, and of man. But one fact remains, these stories offer an interesting perspective on creation and our Creator.
In Genesis chapter two, we are offered a much more personal perspective of the creation of man, as opposed to the one in Genesis chapter one. In chapter two, the Hebrew name for God is, Yahweh, which is a much more personal name for God; verses Elohim, as we see used in chapter one’s creation story. In fact, in chapter one, we are told that Elohim - God spoke creation into existence; while in chapter two, we are offered a much more personal and intimate approach, Yahweh - God forms man from the dust of the earth and breathes into his nostrils, the breath of life and man becomes a living being. Yahweh - God then forms woman from man.

But the Bible doesn’t stop there with this intimate and personal God - this hands on God! The Bible teaches us that God continues to be intimately involved in the creative process. In Jeremiah chapter one God says "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." It is no wonder that in the 14th verse of Psalm 139, we are told that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made," because we are made by the hand of Yahweh - God.
As scientists continue to unlock the secrets of the genetic code, we see more of the wonders of biology. But the Bible teaches us that there is a theology in creating life, too, and that God is the giver, creator and sustain of all life.
The essential point in the creation story is to show the dual nature of man. It shows both the way we belong to the universe or creation – the physical and also our direct relation to God – the spiritual. The Christian faith says that what we learn about the first man is true of every man. That each and every human being has, on the one hand, a biological origin and yet, on the other hand, is more than just a product of the available genes and DNA, but comes directly from God.
We have within us the breath of God - ruach Elohim! We are capable of relating to God; we can pass beyond the material creation. We are unique in that we stand in the sight of God and we are in a special sense directed toward God.
In Shel Silverstein’s children’s poem; "Tattooin’ Ruth," he writes;

"Collars are choking,
Pants are expensive,
Jackets are itchy and hot,
So tattooin’ Ruth tattooed me a suit.
Now folks think I’m dressed -
When I’m not."

One fact remains, as Ash Wednesday reminds us, our bodies are not permanent tattoos; rather, this earthly body, like clothing, is removable. We are mere dust and ashes. "Outwardly we are wasting away..." as the Apostle Paul tells us and one day, we will step out of this body of clothing and, as Paul reminds us, into a far greater outfit - the outfit of eternity, a glorified outfit made not by human hands, but by the hands of God – the Great Designer!
I love the fact that when our Lord was trying to communicate an idea that was not easy to grasp or understand intellectually or even spiritually, he would begin with an illustration, a parable. And we see that Paul does this very same thing here in our Scripture Lesson this evening. We see that Paul depicts a camper, if you will, in a tent. The tent, of course, is small, it’s confined, it’s cramped and it’s inconvenient, although it is a necessary shelter at the time. But, then, one day, tired of such confinement, the camper leaves his tent to discover that he is in a beautiful garden under the canopy of a cloudless sky. What a glorious discovery! It is like being released from prison, or recovering from a debilitating illness. What a sigh of relief! And it is that relief that the Apostle Paul sets before us as the next chapter of life that lies just beyond the experience of death.
Listen to Paul’s confidence! He writes; "If our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed," which is Paul's way of saying, "when we die," everything is okay, because "we have a building from God, a house not made with hands," but this building is "eternal in the heavens." Paul is saying that dying is not "leaving home" but rather it is "going home." I always like to use the word "homecoming" when referring to the death. Paul did not believe that death was the place of extinction, or that in death we are absorbed up into the divine being, or that we become some disembodied spirit floating around in eternity, or that we are sleeping in the ground waiting for some divine alarm clock to wake us. Rather, he believed that in death we go into the immediate presence of God. "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain," "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord," Paul wrote.
But Paul also gives us a picture of that glorified body, that grandeur body that we will one day receive. After using the analogy of the tent and the house Paul introduced a second picture - that of clothing. While the Greeks looked upon the body as a tomb for the soul and death as an escape; the Jews, on the other hand, thought of their bodies as clothing for the person. The body was what made contact and communication with others possible. To them, the death of the body deprived them of everything; to them, death was like being unclothed or naked. And so, Paul reminds them of the greater clothes, the clothes of eternity that God has designed for the believer.
In another children’s poem written by Shel Silverstein, titled; "The Dirtiest Man in the World," he writes;

"I’d brighten my life if I just found a wife,
But I fear that that never will be
Until I can find a girl, gentle and kind,
With a beautiful face and a sensitive mind,
Who sparkles and twinkles and glistens and shines -
And who’s almost as dirty as me."

This sounds a lot like us, doesn’t it? We put conditions on everything, even when it comes to our spiritual lives. We can’t experience renewal or regeneration under our conditions, but only under God’s - the one who through Christ has removed the tattoo of sin.
In a sense, we come this evening to be tattooed by ashes - to remind ourselves that we are "dust and to dust we shall return." But, at the same time, to celebrate the fact that it is Christ’s blood which cleanses us from all sin and has prepared us an eternal home, one not made with human hands, but made by the very hands of God.
I want to close with a poem that one of my favorite authors and poets, Emily Dickinson, wrote. She wrote a lot about life and death. In fact, she shares these words, which I have used from time to time at the graveside of Funerals I officiate. She writes;

"Death is a dialogue between
The Spirit and the Dust.
‘Dissolve,’ says Death – the Spirit, ‘Sir,
I have another Trust’ –
Death doubts it – argues from the ground –
The Spirit simply turns away
Just laying off, for evidence,
An overcoat of clay."

And so, we come this evening to celebrate that sin and death have no real power over us! For these mere stigmas, which one tattooed us have been washed away by the blood of Christ! Amen.

"How Deep Does Your Faith Run?"

A sermon preached on the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, February 4, 2007 at Edgemont Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), by the Rev. Christopher E. Yopp. Sermon based on Psalm 1:1-6.

I can remember the first poem I ever wrote in 1987 when I was in the first-grade, our assignment was to write a poem about how wonderful trees are. These poems would be entered into a contest, and one student’s poem would be selected from each grade. Whoever’s poem was selected, was asked to read it at a Tree Dedication ceremony that would be held at the school. This was a major event, involving school administrators, the mayor and other school and city officials. It was covered by the press. The tree was planted in the school yard in honor of the school’s first principal. I still have the poem and the newspaper clippings of me, standing at the podium in the school’s auditorium, reading my poem. There has always been something fascinating about trees - they are a symbol of strength and beauty!
It has been said that in the Book of Psalms we become aware of God as a person, not just as an abstract idea; but as a real, intimate and personal God! The Book of Psalms consist of 150 individual psalms which make up what is called the Psalter and these psalms are divided into five separate books, each ending with a similar benediction. A lot of people do not realize that the Book of Psalms actually covers a period of about 900 years. For an example, Psalm 90 is labeled, "A Prayer of Moses - The Man of God;" thus, dating that psalm to at least the 15th century B.C. As you may know, most of the psalms were written by David.
If we read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew, we would discover that about 50 percent of it is written in poetic form. However, keep in mind, poetry in Hebrew is not the same as poetry in English. We usually think of poetry as rhyme involving sounds. And while, oftentimes, Hebrew poetry does include rhyme, it is more often a play on words which, sadly, is oftentimes not distinguishable in the English translation. It is a rhyming of ideas called parallelism. The Hebrew poets matched ideas rather than sounds. They would write a line, then shadow it with another line. It would be like looking across a calm lake at a row of houses and observing the reflection of those houses in the water upside down.
In our Scripture Lesson this morning we have an example of four of the five styles of parallelism common to the Book of Psalms and other Hebrew poetry. The first type of parallelism we find in Psalm 1 is called synthetic parallelism, this is where the poet takes an idea or thought and with each verse expands on it. An example of this is in the very first verse, which reads; "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful..." We see that with each line the poet - the psalmist expands his idea of the blessed man. The second type of parallelism is called synonymous parallelism which makes two elements similar. For an example the Psalmist wrote in verse 2; "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." The third type is called emblematic parallelism, in which the first line contains a figure of speech, and the following lines explain and expand that figure. An example of this is found in verse 3 where the Psalmist writes; "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bring forth its fruit in its season, whose leaves shall also not whiter; and whatever he does shall prosper." And the fourth type of parallelism found in Psalm 1 is called antithetical parallelism, in which there is a contrast, and an example of this is found in verse 6; "For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." In this magnificent Psalm we have examples of four of the five parallelisms found in Hebrew poetry. What a powerful psalm this is, not only because of its literary style, but also because of its message.
Here the Psalmist presents us with a vivid contrast between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. He begins by telling us what classifies a person as being "blessed." A better translation in the Hebrew would be; "O the happiness of a person who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."
Keep in mind, the "law" to the Jews meant more than just the Ten Commandments, or even the entire Mosaic Legislation. It was the complete ongoing revelation of God to his people. To us, God’s law or will is revealed first in the written word - the Bible; second, in the Living Word - Jesus; and third, in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And upon these revelations of God we must base our lives, the psalmist reminds us - for to do so means "blessedness" - happiness!
But then, in verse 4 we have that antithetical parallelism, the contrast in which the Psalmist literally says, in Hebrew, "not so, are the wicked, for they are like chaff that the wind drives away." They have no roots - they have no grounding, no connection to the source of life and strength - thus, the wind - life blows them away!
The Psalmist paints for us the righteous man and the wicked man. And, you might be thinking, but how can I be considered righteous? The Hebrew word here for "righteous" is tsaddiyq, which literally means "to be just," or "lawful" or "blameless." And certainly, none of these could describe our lives. In comparison to God’s law we could never be considered tsaddiyq - righteous. We are far from it! But thankfully, we do not have to obtain this righteousness on our own. Instead, the righteousness of God comes to us through faith and trust. It comes when we find ourselves, as we are told here in Psalm 1, planted and rooted deep in the soil of God. It is then, that we derive, we draw from God’s righteousness, just as a tree’s root system would draw and drink from the water in the ground - so we drink from Living Water of God. This is probably best illustrated by Paul in his use of a powerful Greek word to describe the "righteousness of God" as a legal transaction in which God brings people into his perfect righteousness and into right standing with him through faith and trust in Christ Jesus. We obtain this righteousness of God when we root ourselves, like a tree, into the soil of God!
But then, like a tree, we must become a symbol! To the Hebrews, this use of the word "tree" would have given the image of a desert date palm that has been firmly planted in a well-watered oasis. Everything about the tree is valuable and productive. And likewise, the righteous are valuable and productive to God - people in whom he finds pleasure and who pleasure him through bearing fruit and living in faithfulness and obedience.
I read once that when a tree is uprooted or severed it doesn’t always die immediately. In fact, it may live for some time depending on its roots and how much water the trunk has absorbed - the bark doesn’t turn brown immediately, the leaves remain green for some time. It would appear that the tree is fine, but in actuality it has been severed from its roots - the very source of it’s life.
And, you know, there are many who are like that today! They are walking around, they are in the church; yet, their spiritual roots have been torn away and severed from God. Oh, sure, they may appear to be fine. They may appear to be healthy and vital, but deep down their roots have been disconnected from the source of strength and life - God! And, in time, their spirits will dry up. How deep do your roots run? How deep do the roots of this church run? Have our roots, have the roots of Edgemont been severed? Or, are we still connected to the source of life and strength - Christ?
"Returning to our roots" has a double meaning in this context. We need to return to the roots of our faith, to the ancient words of Scripture that remind us again and again to trust in God, to stay "rooted" in the Divine. You know, in 1987 I wrote my poem about a tree, not fully aware that perhaps I was writing about my own life, for it would only be two years later - in 1989 that I would be make my profession of faith and be baptized and I would start planting my roots in the soil of God’s word! What about you? How deep do your roots run? May we all, including this church always be connected to God - for such a tree, such a life, such a church is blessed and righteous in the sight of God!