We are a tattoo
generation. Tattoos are very popular now. Do you remember a time
when only the tough guys and military members would get tattoos?
However, people from all cultures, any socio-economic background,
any gender and really all age groups – even senior citizens
are joining the tattooed generation.
I want you to
notice that Jesus speaks very little today. He never denies or tries
to convince anyone who he was. People know him. His miracles were
known to all. That is why he is standing here. Because they want
him dead. But he only says a few words. His actions speak louder
than his words. He doesn’t have to answer. We know what he
has done.
When we look
at Jesus’ actions we see His love for people tattooed on His
heart. His love is revealed through His acceptance of people.
Our love is revealed through our acceptance of all people.
Jesus’
love had no boundaries and reached out past societal norms to love
the people that society had cast out - the lepers, the physical
handicapped.
Dudley Moore,
the successful movie actor, has that need. As a youngster, Dudley
was born with a clubfoot. He was smaller than the other children
and one of his legs was shorter than the other. Kids laughed at
him and called him Hopalong. Dudley felt humiliated. "I felt
unworthy of anything," says Dudley, "a little runt with
a twisted foot." His parents felt guilty about his defect,
so Dudley felt that he had done something wrong. His home lacked
love, and his parents seemed characterized by fear and anxiety.
When he was
six or seven, Dudley spent a lot of time in hospitals. One night,
a nurse named Pat gave him a goodnight kiss. Forty years later,
Dudley says, "I almost spin when I think about it. She was
truly an angel of mercy, and that kiss was probably the first taste
of real, unqualified, uncomplicated affection I had ever had. In
many ways my entire life is based on recapturing that single moment
of affection."
However, you may think it isn’t hard accepting those who have
physical challenges but what about the people who have emotional
challenges. Sometimes their need for acceptance is even greater
than those who have physical challenges.
It reminded
me of Jesus who accepted the woman at the well despite her multiple
marriages. He accepts us just where we are and draws us into Himself
through that acceptance.
We all have
a need to be accepted. Some people will do far worse than become
the class clown to be accepted. How many young people take their
first drink, or smoke their first joint, in a bid to be accepted?
How many have their first sexual experience for the same reason?
The drive for acceptance is a powerful one. For some people, it
is their greatest need.
Henri Nouwen
reminds us that:
Our true challenge is to return to the center, to the heart, and
to find there the gentle voice which speaks to us and affirms us
in a way no human voice ever could. The basis of all ministry is
the experience of God's unlimited and unlimiting acceptance of us
as beloved children, an acceptance so full, so total and all-embracing,
that it sets us free from our compulsion to be seen, praised, and
admired and free for Christ who leads us on the road to service.
We not only
accept those that society says no to but we accept the people in
our own inner circle. Our family members, our spouse - the people
that are part of our daily lives. We accept them and embrace their
differences.
Our acceptance
of all people is a tattoo of love in our hearts.
I heard about
a man that went to see his doctor because he was feeling absolutely
terrible. The doctor gave him a careful examination, left the room
to look at some tests, came back in with a very somber expression
on his face, and said: "Sir, I don't know how to break the
news to you, but you have rabies and you're going to die very soon."
The man very
calmly got out a piece of paper and began furiously writing. The
doctor said: "What are you doing, making out your will?"
He said: "Oh no, I'm writing out a list of people I'm going
to bite."
When we look
at Jesus’ actions we see His love for people tattooed on His
heart. His love is revealed through His forgiveness of people.
No one condemns you - you are forgiven go and sin no more Jesus
says to the woman caught in adultery. Or the man whose friends carried
him on the mat - Jesus says "Son, your sins are forgiven."
In one of her
books, Corrie Ten Boom tells of meeting the guard from the concentration
camp where she and her family had been held by the Nazis. She had
been speaking at a large church meeting, and after the meeting he
had come forward. He put out his hand to her, and she instinctively
pulled back, remembering the horrors to which that hand had been
put or in which it had cooperated, but then, she testified, something
came over her, she knew not what, and she reached out and grasped
his hand and extended her Forgiveness as the tears rolled down his
cheeks.
We have a hard
time with forgiveness. We are angry and our feelings aren’t
validated. Someone has wronged us and we don’t want to forgive.
But forgiveness is for us as much as it is for the restoration of
relationships.
Forgiveness
means "to let go" or "to send away." Forgiveness
is you giving to God any bitterness that you might feel you have
a right to have toward someone else.
It is the choice
to send the offender and the offense away into the hands of God,
and let God take care of the matter. Even if we don’t want
to, God honors that and as we give it to God, we offer it up as
a sacrifice because it is difficult for us to let go.
The love tattooed on our hearts is revealed in our action of forgiveness.
And lastly Jesus’
actions always glorified God. Each act of acceptance - each act
of forgiveness brought glory to God.
When we choose
to accept and forgive this is our devotion to God tattooed to God.
These actions reveal our own love with God. Each time that we decide
to release our hurts to God, we are showing our devotion to Him
and our own acceptance of His love for us.
Our actions
are our form of worship throughout our lives.
Mother Teresa
worships in this way.
