Hello,
I am a graffiti artist. I guess that I have been one for a long time, but I didn’t
realize it until this morning.
On the way home from worship I passed under an overpass that
I have passed under hundreds of times, never noticing what I noticed this
morning. On each of the overpass’
wide pillars were large white squares painted on them, covering up the graffiti
that someone applied there. I
don’t know why I haven’t noticed them before, but maybe the thing that drew my
attention to these graffiti covering boxes was the fact that I just finished a
bit of my own graffiti artistry.
No less than an hour before I placed the mark of a cross on
the forehead of a little girl just after she was baptized. I admit it. I am a graffiti artist. My canvass is not overpass posts, building wall, or privacy fences…..mine is the
forehead. Mostly the forehead of
little children held in their parents’ arms, but every once in a while on older
children and adults. Having been
splashed in simple water from the tap, and having the stake of God’s claim on
them spoken amid the splash, I take my thumb and inscribe with the oil of my
skin a cross….”you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the
cross of Christ forever.”
The problem is that graffiti artist are considered to be
vandals and pests. Having spent
some time in an inner-city neighborhood, I learned that the best way to discourage
graffiti artists is to paint over their artwork as soon as they spray it on,
which is what the city of Greensburg had done on those overpass posts. It is based upon the theory of least
resistance…..with plenty of places to display their craft, graffiti artists
give up on the places that resist their work.
But not this graffiti artist. I know that the moment that little child that bears the
cross that I drew on her forehead left our church the world was fast at work to
cover it up…covering it up what the world claims is important…hoping that she
won’t see the claim that Jesus has made upon her…to love her, to forgive her,
to walk with her, to break down the gates of death for her.
Call me a fool, a fool for Christ, but I won’t be
deterred. Every time that I will
see that little girl…every time I see everyone who has been washed in the
waters of Baptism, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and “marked with the cross of
Christ forever” … I re-etch that cross over the world’s cover up. I re-etch it by greeting each one with
the love of Christ. I re-etch it
by marking young children with that very same cross on their foreheads when
they come to the Lord’s table. I
re-etch when older children and adults come to the Lord’s Table and the cross
of Jesus bleeds through. I re-etch
it when I raise my hand over a casket and ensign a cross. I re-etch it when I hit the send button
and the Bungee Cord makes its mark on you. I won’t let the world cover up my graffiti.
The world might think that I am a pastor, but that is just
my cover. I’m really a graffiti
artist with a Christ driven determination to never let the world cover the
cross of Christ up.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
Graffiti Artist in Residence, First Lutheran Church
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