Sometime ago I shared with you an experience when I was a young pastor, leading a tour for the very first time to the Holy Land—and how, in the ancient city of Jaffa, Israel, I unexpectedly met a shopkeeper who somehow had managed to survive the terrible Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, in Poland.  The man’s wife and children had died in the gas chambers there.  And he showed me the NUMBER that the Nazis had tattooed on his arm, to make him their SLAVE LABORER.  Yes, it was STILL VISIBLE after all those years.

    Tattoos are INDELIBLE.  Once on your skin, they’re with you ALL YOUR LIFE!  Tattooing has been a practice among human beings since thousands of years before Christ. And today it’s as popular as EVER. Yes, to many folks in our modern world a tattoo’s a LABEL, declaring proudly that they belong to a certain GROUP:  motorcyclists, truckers, sailors, weight-lifters, Nascar race enthusiasts, such as frequent Daytona Beach and Talledega and Charlotte.

    But, friends, what does it mean to bear THE LORD’S tattoo, the Lord’s LABEL? On this All Saints’ Day, when you and I ESPECIALLY remember our loved ones and friends who have gone before us into heaven, we find these intriguing words about them in the Book of Revelation, chapter 22, that our Lector read to us this morning.  Listen:   “They will see his face”--i.e., God’s face--”AND HIS NAME WILL BE ON THEIR FOREHEADS.”    Yes, labeled THE LORD’s!
    
    Before you and I go further, let me remind you that the Book of Revelation is apocalyptic literature.  That is, it’s highly symbolic.  Written at a time when Christians in Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) especially were experiencing discrimination, persecution, and even death, for their faith, it proclaims great truths NOT in LITERAL language, but in IMAGES.  And MUCH of Revelation tells us certain truths about our brothers and sisters now with God in heaven.

    You know, whenever the biblical writers speak about heaven, they HAVE to use symbols.  For ALL language about heaven is God’s way of putting into human terms that which far surpasses human understanding.  Heaven is REAL.  I believe that my father and mother and those brothers and sisters whom we commemorate and for whom we give thanks today are there.  But heaven’s a state of existence beyond the confines of time and space.  And you and I, who, for now, are BOUND by time and space, have trouble imagining it.
 
    It’s almost as if one tried to explain to tiny ants--insects crawling way down at the roots of the grass--what it must be like to be that Russian cosmonaut or that American astronaut living in that space station, circling through unending skies!   Yes, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “NOW we see in a mirror, dimly, but THEN—in heaven--face-to-face.”

    And this brings us back to our text here in Revelation:  “THEY WILL SEE [GOD’S] FACE, AND HIS NAME WILL BE ON THEIR FOREHEADS.” --Whatever does this mean?  How can you and I EXPLAIN the tattoo mark that our dead loved ones, in Christ, all now bear?  Just how ARE they LABELED THE LORD’S?

    Perhaps we can find a clue in these intriguing words from a beautiful prayer in the funeral service of our Presbyterian Book of Common Worship.  LISTEN!--  “Especially do we thank you for your servant [name], whose BAPTISM is now complete in DEATH.”

    When you and I, as Christians, receive holy baptism, we are, INDEED, “labeled the Lord’s.”  My two greatest joys in my calling as a pastor have been presiding at WEDDINGS and baptizing INFANTS in the wonderful Sacrament of entrance into the Christian Church.  I dearly love, when I hold the infant in my arms before splashing generously his or her fuzzy little cranium with WATER, to ADDRESS the baby in the truly beautiful words from the baptismal liturgy of our sister Reformed Church of France: “/NAME,/ for you Jesus Christ came into the world; for you he lived and showed God’s love; for you he suffered the darkness of Calvary and cried at the last, ‘It is accomplished’: for you he triumphed over death and rose in newness of life; for you he ascended to reign at God’s right hand.  All this he did for you, /NAME,/ though you do not know it yet.  And so the word of Scripture is fulfilled: ‘We love because God loved US first.”

    Yes, friends, the water of baptism upon the head is God’s label on us, God’s children. But it’s an INVISIBLE label. For Christians, the holy baptism of male and female infants replaces the holy circumcision of male babies among the Old Testament peoples.   Circumcision is a visible mark; baptism is invisible.  You and I can only make it VISIBLE to others by the way we LIVE--by how we pattern our words and actions after the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  And none of us EVER does this anywhere NEAR perfectly!  By the sin that so easily besets even the BEST of us, we obscure that label. And sometimes we seem wholly to obliterate in our lives the name of Christ.  That’s why each service of worship, in a Presbyterian church, begins with a humble, common prayer of confession--and immediately afterwards, from the pastor, comforting words of pardon, from Scripture.

    And, you know, our baptismal label can get hidden in OTHER ways, as well.  For example, in grave and terminal illness.  or In deathbed scenes in the ICU, frequently we hardly even RECOGNIZE our loved ones--much less the name of Christ that they bear.

    And, yes, when those whom we dearly love suffer Alzheimer’s disease and senility--often over a period of long years--their personalities seem WHOLLY DIFFERENT from those of the people we CHERISHED.  And the name of Christ upon them then, too, seems somehow covered up, even though that label is indelible.

    But, friends, in HEAVEN--AH!, that’s an entirely different story!  “THEY WILL SEE [GOD’S] FACE,” proclaims our lesson, “AND HIS NAME WILL BE ON THEIR FOREHEADS!”  Yes, “ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,” they, “evermore [God’s] praises sing,” bathed in light that can never be dimmed.  And bearing that glorious, divine tattoo for ALL to see--LABELED THE LORD’S!”

    Friends, here at this holy table today, in a sense, the VEIL between heaven and earth is DRAWN BACK.  And you and I, still confined within this world of shadows, catch a faint GLIMPSE of that heavenly light.  And, indeed, through the love of Christ, we BEHOLD that indelible, magnificent LABEL on the foreheads of those who’ve gone before us --written by the loving hand of Jesus Christ, their Redeemer!

Prayers:
    Mighty God, you comfort us, your children, as a mother comforts her child.  So give us joy today in the knowledge that our brothers and sisters, now in your undimmed presence, bear the label of your Son, our Savior—and that they live in Christ’s glorious presence, bathed in light eternal.  Deliver us from anything that would serve to limit in our minds your ability to heal us in our sorrow, until, in your own time, we join them at your banquet festival.
    
    Hear now our prayers for your Church throughout the world; for all peoples and nations, that peace may reign on earth as it is in heaven; and for one another. Grant your special balm to any in this place of worship today who may be hurting in body, mind, or spirit. Heal the sick and comfort those who suffer.

    Finally, accept our thanks for apostles, martyrs, and all saints who, having walked with you on earth, now feast at your banquet of victory in heaven.  May we know their special, continuing fellowship with us, who gather at your holy table today.

    For we make these and each of our petitions in Christ’s strong name.   AMEN.