Tattoos for God?

John 12:20-26    Jeremiah 31:31-34

Fifth Sunday in Lent    March 29, 2009

So much of conflict in the world is due to the fact that two people have always been able to look at the exact same situation and draw absolutely different conclusions about it.  The presidential election dominated the scene for almost a year as each party attempted to convince everyone else that they had the correct answers to the problems facing our society.  What became clear after the dust settled, was that there was more than one way to approach the problems; what was unclear, and probably will never be totally clear, is whether one approach was far superior to the other or not.  In Vermont in recent weeks, we have been hearing a lot about the Freedom to Marry Act that is making its way through the State Senate and House of Representatives.  And even though it seems as though more and more people are in agreement that passing the Act is a good thing, there are still plenty of people who disagree quite vehemently.

This morning’s reading from Jeremiah pushes me to consider how things might be different if God’s law was written on each of our hearts.  What might it be like if we didn’t have to fret over what is acceptable and what is not?  What if we didn’t have to question someone else’s reasoning or our own for that matter?  What if, as Jeremiah quotes God as saying, “I shall put my law within them; I will write it on their hearts.”  What if every puzzling situation had a solution that was clear as a bell to us because we had an inner compass that kept us on track no matter what distractions might attempt to derail us?

From a very young age I remember taking this scripture to heart.  How wonderful it would be to be able to rest in the assurance of knowing that your heart was especially tuned in to God’s channel.  How wonderful to know that you could only entertain thoughts and ideas that were in keeping with God’s sense of how the world should be.  For quite some time, probably through the course of several years, I thought this would be a wonderful way to solve all of those heavy, pressing issues that threatened to take me off course.  I imagined that life would be a whole lot simpler and more peaceful if only I could know what God expected me to do in any given situation, under any given circumstances.

The reality is a bit different than I might have imagined in my early years of interpreting Jeremiah’s prophecy.  And on the surface it may seem as though the reality is set up to disappoint someone who just wants to do what God would ask of her; and yet it is actually a whole lot better than it would be if it worked as I imagined it way back then.  The reality is that we have quite a bit of free reign in our thinking and in the practical application of our faith.  The reality is that we are not handed an exam card with all of the correct answers checked off, and that is actually a good thing.  We are not handed a dance card with all of our partners already chosen for us before we get to meet anyone in the room.  

Ever since the Garden of Eden, or so the story goes, God wanted human beings to have free choice.  God didn’t want puppets that simply followed wherever the strings attached to their hands and feet and head led them.  God wanted men and women to be free to make their own choices and that included making their own honest mistakes.  It turns out that most of us are able to learn quite a bit from our mistakes.  It is the errors in our judgement that often help us grow stronger and more resilient, better able to move with the ebb and flow of life’s unfolding.

What Jeremiah is speaking of, though, is something very different.  He is speaking of a law that doesn’t govern us from outside ourselves, but rather a law that is a natural part of who we are.  God’s law is an ordering of our lives that comes in a natural way via the love that is a part of our relationship with God and with the others with whom we share this world.  I think this is why Jeremiah claims that God’s law will be written on our hearts one day, because God’s law is intimately related to God’s love.  It is love which encourages us to make choices that support our ability to be in the world in ways that are in accordance with whatever is in the highest interest of all involved, rather than out of selfish ambition.  It is love which enables us to step outside of our comfort zone in order to catch a glimpse of how someone else might piece their life together and what the other person might value that is different from what we value.

When I first read this scripture this week, I thought of all the college students and other people I know who have tattoos that express some element of their faith.  It may be faith in God as we would describe God, but it is just as likely to be faith in God in terms that are new to most of us in the traditional church.  At first, when I encountered someone with tattoos I wasn’t sure what to make of it.  Often I thought it would be polite to ignore the tattoos, but after awhile, curiosity got the better of me, especially since I started noticing that some of the tattoos were spiritual in essence - chinese characters standing for “peace” and “balance,” symbols that came from the celtic tradition, christian symbols and words that expressed qualities associated with faith, affirmation and empowerment.  Are the young people, and some not-so-young people, in essence “marking their hearts”?  Some of the tattooed people I have spoken with say that they like having a very visible reminder of something to which they aspire whether that be a quality of faith or a difficult-to-reach personal characteristic.  Their tattoo serves as an unmistakable reminder to them of something they want to be a guiding principle of their lives.  I think Jeremiah would understand where these folks are coming from.  I think he would be glad that they were willing to stand up for something of value by actually committing themselves to a life-long relationship with a symbol that jogs their memory each time they see it.

As I sat and wrote this sermon I daydreamed about being able to take a look inside my own heart.  I imagined myself shrinking down in size and then walking around my enormous heart, checking to see what it looked like from each angle.  As I saw myself walking around my heart, I imagined that I could see writing on it, the kind of writing Jeremiah spoke of, and I wondered what my heart’s inscription might say.  Would it have a symbol that stood for God? or Love? or Wisdom/Sophia?  Would there be words that might describe something about my relationship with all that is holy?  Would there maybe be a poem, since my mind so often waxes poetic when I am attempting to speak about matters of the Spirit?  I am really not certain what the inscription on my heart might read, but I can tell you that I would hope it would have the effect of guiding me well.  I would ask that it would help me choose my words carefully, that it would enable me to act with integrity in every situation, and that it would keep me close, as close as possible, to all that is sacred and holy and real.  May God write good things upon each of our hearts.  May God inscribe our hearts with the kind of love that is so desperately needed in our world today in order to bring justice of every shape to all people.  May God guide us throughout our lives from deep within this love, at the center of all that is.  Amen.