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 When
you visit us you will see this Cross prominently displayed. In additional to
being the central image in and of our worship and worship space, the cross is
embedded in our architecture where its meaning has a powerful function in our
congregation's life, identify, and sense of mission.
For us, the Cross of
Christ is a constant reminder of God's insistence that love is the ultimate gift
of faith. This Cross reminds us that Jesus was willing to risk everything, from
the beginning, to live with us, to love us without regard for his own life, to
live as one of us -- fully human -- experiencing all our joys and sorrows, and
to die with words of forgiveness on his lips. Jesus used his last breaths to
tell the world, I love you, the Father loves you, the Holy Spirit loves you. We
live out our faith in his love.
The orb circling the cross reminds us that our mission reaches far beyond our
little world within the walls of our building. It reaches beyond the walls of
our homes, beyond the boundaries of city, county, state, and nation. The orb
reminds us that from the beginning when God spoke the world into being, this
world is the Lord's, all creation is our God's. Now that we live in this amazing
world, it is our duty and our delight to think critically, to behave with care
and concern, and to live in such a way that what we pass on to future
generations will also sustain and delight them.
For many Lutherans and most Episcopalians, making the Sign of the Cross in
remembrance of our baptism is a normal liturgical response, this blessed
physical set of movements by which we tell ourselves and those around us,
including all the worldly forces that come against us, we belong to God through
our baptism into Christ's life, death, AND RESURRECTION and they cannot
overpower us now or in the future. God holds our past and our future securely in
water and WORD and gives us this present moment in which we live faithfully,
hopefully, and lovingly.
 Christ's cross: life, death, and resurrection, gifts for our daily faith.
The Orb: our faith in action for the sake of the world.
Water and WORD: foundation on which our faith rests securely. |
