Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"You are valuable in my eyes." Isaiah 44:1-5.

Rob Poulos is a walking piece of literature. He has tattooed on his left wrist, "B-A-C-K – period." It looks as though it was lifted from the end of sentence. It was. A few years ago Poulos joined a worldwide effort to help author Shelley Jackson tell her story on people’s bodies. Appropriately titled Skin, the "book" has 2,095 words. Each person bears on their body just one word.

"It’s not that everything I do has to be tricked out with gimmicks and games," Jackson said. "I’m just interested in exploring the range of what a text can do." Poulos heard about it in a literature class at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He said, "I always told myself that if I got a tattoo, it had better be important."

At last count, Shelley Jackson was still looking for 646 people to bear her final 646 words. Just think, we could contact her tomorrow morning, offer our human hides, and be part of an alternative publication! How many are ready to line up for a one word tattoo?

That’s just what I thought. And, truth be told, and much to my children’s dismay, I’m not all that eager get a tattoo, either.

Isaiah also wants people to be marked with one word. He writes in our text, "This one will write upon his hand, leyahweh – ‘Belonging to Yahweh.’" But Judean exiles in Babylon didn’t line up. They weren’t interested in being marked by their Maker. They didn’t want to return to Jerusalem. They weren’t interested in going home.

Because, you see, there was another text in town. One of the ancient near eastern’s most dominate narratives in the sixth century BC was the Babylonian creation epic called the Enuma Elish. The Enuma Elish celebrates Marduk’s defeat over Tiamat. He cut her in two and built the universe out of her remains. Read during the annual Akitu festival, the feast reached its pinnacle with the acclamation, in Akkadian, Marduka ma surru – which, when translated means, "Marduk is King!"

Connected to the pomp and pageantry of Babylonian religion was the empire’s program of changing people’s names. Just ask Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah. Or maybe you know them by their Veggie Tale names Shach, Rach, and Benny. Some affectionately call them, "Your Shack, My Shack, and a Bungalow." But in Daniel 1:7 the empire changes their names to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The goal? Mark the Judeans with a new name that will entice them into worshiping Marduk. And so Judean exiles were slow to line up to be marked leyahweh – Babylon seemed to offer so much more!

The dominate narrative of our day is peddled by the young and the beautiful who guarantee we can be young and beautiful, just like them, if we buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to be surrounded with stuff we finally won’t even like.

Their text is hammered into our heads at an alarming rate. On a typical day in America, from the time we open the morning paper (or more likely, log on to Yahoo News), until we finally doze off in front of another rerun of MASH or I Love Lucy, we will encounter more than 2,000 advertising images. And these images portray over and over again the dominate American narrative – "You can buy happiness!"

In league with the pomp and pageantry of American consumerism is the enemy’s program of changing our names. His goal? Mark us with a new name that will entice us into seeking ultimate fulfillment in things. Deemed beloved through water and the Word, Satan renames us cheap, dirty, and worthless. Deemed washed and cleansed in the name of Jesus, he whispers to us, "Guilty as charged." Designated as "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God," the Liar brazenly boasts, "It’s fiction, fantasy, it’s all a figment of your imagination."

Put together, the dominate narrative and the dominate devil, we become apprehensive to stand against the culture and be marked with the word, leyahweh.

"Besides," we reason, "to stand out in the crowd would be most uncomfortable. And furthermore," we continue, trying to convince ourselves, "I can sell my soul to the American dream and claim its promises of prosperity while, at the same time, profess the name of Jesus."

Oh God! We need an alternative narrative! We’ve got to get home!

Enter Isaiah 40-55 where the prophet takes dead aim at the empire. In 40:12 he maintains that Babylon and all the nations are only a drop in a bucket, while in 40:23 Isaiah dares to write that the empire’s leaders are empty and their god Marduk amounts to little more than dust in the wind. Then the clincher, his oracle against Babylon in Isaiah 47, which includes these words, "Sit in silence, go into darkness, Daughter Babylon; no longer will you be called the queen of the kingdoms."

And the counter narrative in Isaiah 40-55 is just getting revved up! "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her warfare has been completed … Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, Yahweh is doing a renewed event! … How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God is King!’" And, taking another shot against Babylon and every other seductive and satanic way of life, Isaiah maintains, "The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God will stand forever."

With all of this, Isaiah is trying get us all to line up and each one "write upon our hand" not lebabel – "belonging to Babylon," but leyahweh – "‘Belonging to Yahweh.’"

You see, our God has always told his story on people’s bodies, call it … Skin! In Genesis 4 he marks Cain and in Genesis 17 he gives Abraham and his offspring the covenant mark of circumcision. Deuteronomy 6 describes people tying Yahweh’s words on their hands and binding them on their foreheads, while in Ezekiel 9 God commands a man with a writing kit saying, "Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in this city."

And it all points to the most awesome story ever told on human skin. Isaiah describes the body with these words. "His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness … Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not … We all, like sheep, have gone astray. And Yahweh has laid upon him the iniquity of our sin." One spear, three nails, and a crown of thorns left their marks on Jesus. Did they ever!

But first the Ten, and th en climactically Thomas, saw Jesus alive and our Savior showed them his scars. Jesus is forever marked with scars announcing for you, right here, right now, his loyal love and his free forgiveness and his grace gone wild! And so people began lining up to be marked.

To be a part of this counter-cultural narrative all we need to take on is one word, leyahweh." But just how does that happen? Recall the water, remember the Word, and forever cherish this liturgical rite. "Receive the sign of the holy cross, both upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified." Let your mark be seen; Paul puts it this way in Galatians 6:17, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." Eyes marked with tenderness and kindness, a mind marked with toughness and truth, and a mouth marked with Jesus and joy; these are the marks of Jesus that others can see. You are marked with leyahweh, you "Belong to Yahweh."

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.