My Church's Lenten Challenge: Get a Tattoo
"There are some things one can only believe singing," author Lauren Winner told our small writing group. We were gathered in a large, sunny room at Laity Lodge, perched above the prettiest spot on the Rio Frio River in the Texas Hill Country.
As a worship leader, I found that the idea took root with me as I turned the phrase over in my mind. Winner moved on to the next matter, work-shopping another essay, but I was struck.
The phrase came to me again last month when my friend, artist Scott Erickson, told me about his Lenten-theme project for the congregation we serve, Ecclesia Church in Houston. He had designed a series of 10 tattoos representing the 14 traditional Stations of the Cross, and was asking volunteers to tattoo them to their bodies, as a way of observing the 40 days leading up to Good Friday.
Ecclesia is not a typical church: Not only do we have an "artist-in-residence," the aforementioned Scott Erickson, but about half the congregation is already tattooed, says pastor Chris Seay. This year, instead of the annual Lenten art show, the inked congregants would become the Stations of the Cross, and stand in the gallery spaces where paintings or photographs would normally appear.
I didn't have a tattoo when I joined Ecclesia's staff. I grew up in a Jewish home, albeit a nonreligious one, and my brother often reminded me that if I had a tattoo, I couldn't be buried in a Jewish cemetery. I wasn't very Jewish in life, so I'm not sure what made me think I would suddenly become Jewish in death, but nonetheless I shuddered every time we drove past Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Queens. New York's largest Jewish cemetery, it's an endless sea of headstones, jutting out of the landscape like broken teeth. I don't know if my brother was accurate or if he was simply trying to prevent me from, say, inking the name of my favorite band (Jane's Addiction) or boyfriend (Ben) on my body, but whatever his reasoning, it worked.
Not until I became a Christian in my mid-20s did I reconsider a tattoo. I learned that many Christians see the command of Leviticus 19:28 ("do not put tattoo marks on yourselves") in light of Christ's new covenant with the church, and put the forbidding of tattoos in the same category as keeping a kosher diet or stoning adulterers. Even still, I'd been a Christian for a decade before I finally got one. On Fat Tuesday of 2011, I got a tiny tattoo of three small words taken from my favorite poem: the thing itself. The tattoo reminds me what I came to this faith-life for: not for social acceptance or theology, not for ritual or small groups or women's retreats or a place to play my music, but for God, and God alone—for God himself.
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Ginger
Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' Matthew 9:13 From, Hosea 6:6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. "Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?" Proverbs 20:6 Jesus Christ said, "It is finished." This was the final battle cry, and it was a cry of victory. He had to come because the sacrifice of goats and bulls was not sufficient to atonone for the sin, and onlys served to point us to the need of a savior that could, Jesus Christ. We no longer need to circumcise our own flesh as a sign and seal of our love for Jesus. We show our love by loving our neighbor as ourself. Loving our neighbor as ourself is our response for the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. Our response is not to mark ourselves, or "mutilate," flesh as Apostle Paul calls it (Galatians). If you are found in Christ than you have had your heart circumcised, and you can trust and rest in that and in that alone, for He cried "It is finished." Go and love your neighbor! to see true love, is infinitly more beautiful than any tattoo that I have ever seen.
Diakonos
Making your body is a pagan ritual to worship the dead, I don't care if you put a "Christian" slant on it. I can say that my dog is Christian but that doesn't make it so. Just another example of the last days and the deception that scriptures talks about in the last days. http://watchful-servant.blogspot.ca/ Diakonos
Cameron Dezen Hammon
I'm glad to see this piece generated some lively debate! I think the underlying issue behind some of the vehement objections is a reaction to the perceived threat of the subculture. We should rejoice that young people- who see tattoos as a part of their freedom of expression- are pursuing Jesus and striving to be his hands and feet in the world. On any given weekend thousands of people- tattooed or not- are coming to Ecclesia to worship God and be changed by Him- this is something to celebrate! And the fact that some have chosen to make an image of his sacrifice a part of their body is a powerful witness- a witness to people in places most of us would never tread. If you want to get nitpicky about the Leviticus 19 scripture I am sure that every single person who commented here (unless they are Orthodox Jewish) has violated the commands of the Chapter which admonish Israelites from cutting their beards or hair. We don't as Christians living under the new covenant follow that command, do we? Additionally, I'd like to say to "Carter" that I am hardly justifying my tattoo, or anyone's with the "horrors of the Holocaust." My essay had a word limit and unfortunately in this piece there wasn't room to talk more about that quite under reported aspect of the Holocaust. The point I was trying to make is that the Holocaust happened and we do a disservice to future generations by ignoring it or pretending it didn't happen. Likewise as Christians we do a disservice to the world by sugar coating Christs' suffering- by discounting or sanitizing Lent. We MUST remember, lest we forget. If we don't know what we've been saved from, can we even understand our salvation?
Anonymous
The mark of the Christian is love. That is enough.
andysbethy
@older - beautifully said. Makes me want to call my dad When I met my husband he already had two tattoos. Christian, of course, (a cross and a trinity) but he was 19, and had gotten them mostly to let his mom know that he didn't care what she thought. hehe However, he is military, and for the first 9 years of our marriage he worked on planes. For safety reasons he could not wear his wedding band. Soon after we were married he had a band tattooed around his finger, to honor our marriage. When he was thousands of miles away in the desert, unable to wear a ring, he had one imprinted on him and that was a beautiful thing. As Tim pointed out earlier, I don't think scripture condemns tattoos - there are so many old testament laws we don't keep - so as he has added to his tattoo collection I have been excited to see the emotion he puts into them. They are always a conversation starter. But, I know that those around him know he loves Jesus long before they see a cross on his forearm.
Doreen Ashley
@Older I get the less I know: Thank you, for saying exactly what I wanted to say! God requires depth of worship and not superficial signs or fads! @Dan Porter: As regards Lent, it does NOT mean that we are doing anything to EARN salvation! But a look at Ephesians 2: 8-10 shows that: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (KJV) We acknowledge God's grace and we wish to do the good works, not to earn salvation, but to walk in the straight and narrow path that leads to Heaven.
Stephen Clark
Sorry. To me it just looks like graffiti on a temple, and has the same aesthetically desecrating effect
Elizabeth Young
UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE! Laity Lodge's credibility just flew out of the window as well as your own.
B J
Rick, a portion of comments was lost last night due to moderator error. We apologize for the problem and thanks for everyone's patience. CT Moderator
Rick Dalbey
Im not sure why every single one of my comments have been removed and many other people suppressed as well. I suspect the editor felt that comments about the pastor were getting off-target. However, the author brings up the pastor several times. She ascribes the idea of tattooing people in the congregation as an idea hatched by pastor Seay and the artist. Ecclesias Erickson and Seay came up with the idea of tattooing the Stations of the Cross as a way of visualizing the suffering of Christ, and even entering into it (tattoos come with a little bit of pain). People who agreed to be permanently tattooed were then put on exhibit in the Ecclesia art gallery space. Is the pastors role not appropriate to comment on? Or the permanent nature of the skin adornments and the panitential pain produced by needles penetrating the skin that the author refers to? I have no problem with people choosing to have tattoos. It is not for me and I would try to talk my children out of it, but they have their own minds. Bless Pastor Chris Seay, bless the author Cameron, we are all on this journey together but I still have questions and disagreements with the pastors responsibility in all this. Perhaps Cameron could comment here about areas that she feels are off-limits in the discussion, I certainly do not want to be provacative for it's own sake. Thanks!
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