Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

1610 Carlisle Road, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania  17011

Phone: (717) 737-0439 / Fax: (717) 737-5421

 Email: gelc@comcast.net

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Devotion for the week of September 16, 2006

            On September 14^th the church observes the festival of the Holy Cross.  It was Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, that supposedly discovered the cross of Jesus Christ.  In a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the early part of the 4^th century B.C.E., she found two sites that in her estimation were the sites of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. 

            The cross of Jesus Christ is the main focal point of our Christian faith.  The apostle Paul says, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). 

            Martin Luther fashioned much of his theology around the cross of Jesus Christ.  He explained that there is the “theology of glory,” which says that we can save ourselves, and leads to boasting of our own works.  And, there is the “theology of the cross,” which says Jesus has done it all on the cross, and we come to know Christ only in the suffering of the cross.  The divinely-chosen way of humility and service is meant to inspire us in a similar lifestyle.

            Perhaps, one way to be mindful of the lifestyle we live under the cross is to make use of the sign of the cross.  In worship, it is becoming more familiar to see people making the sign of the cross at the mention of God’s triune name.  As well, Martin Luther felt we should make the sign of the cross when we go to bed at night and when we wake in the morning.

            The sign of the cross is a reminder of our baptism, when the sign of the cross was made upon each of us.  We remember that we are baptized into Christ’s suffering and death, and the hope of his resurrection.  We live as little Christ’s, walking in humility and joyfully serving.  One poet expressed the gesture of the sign of the cross this way, “Touch the forehead, breast, and shoulders while saying THY…WILL…BE…DONE.”      

            Let us pray…Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself.  Grant that we who glory in his death for our salvation may also glory in his call to take up our cross and follow him.  In Christ, we pray…Amen.

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