WHOSE MARK ARE YOU WEARING?

Ezekiel 9:1-11; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

The scriptures talk about marks. Our Old Testament lesson talked about the mark of repentence which Ezekiel saw being placed upon the foreheads of everyone in Jerusalem who was sorry for the sins of the city. In the book of Revelation we read passages about the mark of the beast and the sign of Christ. And, sometimes, as I have read those scripture passages, I have had to ask myself which mark I may be wearing at that moment.

Whose mark are you wearing? Of course, looking at ourselves, most of us would say that we aren't marked, at all. But, perhaps after we've talked about this a little bit, we all may discover, tonight, that we are marked by more than we may know, whether we like it or not. And some of those marks may be good and others not so good.

In fact, most of us sitting here tonight have been marked. Just about all of us who were born before the mid '60's have a little mark, either on our upper arm or on our hip, that certifies that we are protected from the once dreaded disease, smallpox. Now, of course, because the World Health Organization has been unable to discover any new cases of smallpox in many years, being vaccinated for that disease is something that was fazed out about 25 years ago.

So, now, when you go to the beach, you can tell how old someone may be by the mark they wear. If the pretty, young looking lady in the bikini has a little mark on her upper leg, she's probably not as young as she would like you to think she is!

Now, certainly, being vaccinated for smallpox isn't a bad thing. Nevertheless, those who bear the mark have a living reminder upon them that they or their parents are part of a system which puts its trust in medical science. Certainly, it is a good system, but it is a system, nevertheless, which if taken to the extreme, can become a substitute for religion. For there are those who trust their doctors more than they trust God, himself.

Or, when I was a kid, I remember going swimming in Flint. I would ride my bicicle over to Forest Park where there was a nice outdoor pool. I remember paying my quarter to get in and then getting the back of my hand stamped so that if I had to leave and then wanted to get back in I'd be able to do it. The mark on the back of my hand was proof that I had bought into the system.

And that wasn't bad. Except that sometimes on Sunday I'd see kids with those marks going by my house, making me wonder if they had gone to church that day, or perhaps spent the morning at the pool. Had they bought into a system which was taking them away from God?

When I was 18 years old I remember applying for a job at Michigan School for the Deaf for the summer. Because it was a state job, I had to get fingerprinted. And, so my fingers had to be blackened with ink and rolled onto the little squares of a fingerprint form. In turn, that fingerprint form was sent to the F.B.I. and compared with fingerprints collected from crime scenes to see if I was a wanted criminal. Then, that form was put into a large filing cabinet to be kept forever so that it may be compared with other finger prints collected from crime scenes around the world. So, in effect, I was marked for life that day. And even though I don't carry those marks with me, they are, yet, located in some computer system in Washington, D.C.

And, this isn't bad, either. Unless you consider that such a system exists simply because there is so much brokenness in the world. Indeed, if everyone would simply buy into God's system, rather than some other system, there wouldn't be any need for finger prints, at all.

And then, I remember the day I had to sign up for the draft. The war in Vietnam was going, full steam ahead. The cold war had everybody thinking that the whole world would be destroyed by nuclear weapons at any moment. It was in the midst of all of this that I went down to the Federal Building in Flint and filled out the appropriate forms and received my draft card, which I carried for many years. Right or wrong, that card was a reminder that I was part of a system that owned me; that could do anything it wanted with me. And, again, it was a mark which stood as a reminder that we live in a broken, fallen world where people think they have to use violence and even kill other people in order to survive.

I have other marks, as well. I carry them as cards in my billfold. One is a social security number. It is proof that I have bought into a system that, true or false, is supposed to guarentee that I will have some money after I get to the age of 65. And I have another card with a blue cross and a blue shield on it. And I have other cards with the names of petrolium companies on them. And I have another card that I can stick into a machine and punch some buttons in order to get some money when I need it. And I have another card that I can use when I want to park my car at a certain hospital. Indeed, I carry all sorts of marks upon my self.

But the question is this: Do I carry the mark of Christ? Do I carry something, anything, that identifies me as being a child of God?

The question kind of bothered me the other day. I looked into my billfold to see if I had a card that identified me as a member of the United Methodist Church. Nothing. I looked, but I can't even find my baptismal certificate. I've looked in the mirror and I can't see that there is anything physically unusual about me that would tell the world, "This guy's a Christian!" And I think that most of us sitting here today are in the same boat.

What kind of marks do Christians wear to set them apart from the rest of the world? The apostle Paul suggested that the mark of the Christian is one's faith in Jesus Christ. But, who can see faith? Can you simply look at someone and say, "Yep, that person has faith!"? You wouldn't think so. And, yet, if you could look at that person long enough you would know whether he or she had faith by the things that person did. The mark of faith is seen in the kind of life a Christian lives. Or, as one writer of the Bible said, "By their works you shall know them."

So, whose mark do we wear? Whose mark do we put the most trust in -- the marks on the cards in our wallet? the marks in Washington, D.C. that identify us? the marks on our bodies made to keep us well? or the marks put upon us by faith in Jesus Christ? Which marks do we invest in the most? Which marks claim the most of our time? Which marks really and truly tell the world who it is that we are?

Tonight we celebrate the mark of Christ that isn't seen simply by the smudge of ashes upon our foreheads, but is seen in the things we do, and in the things we say, as well. Tonight we celebrate the mark of Christ, as we seek other ways, more ways, creative ways, perhaps daring ways, to live for Christ. Amen.