During the 40 days of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, we will be focusing on a variety of crosses. Whenever I see a cross,  It helps me to remember God’s Word as recorded in 1 Peter 2:24:

“Jesus Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree (Biblical Reference to the Cross), that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.”

Did you know that the Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity? The cross is a symbol used over the ages and spanning the globe as an indication of a belief in Jesus Christ.   A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a crucifix and the figure is often referred to as the corpus (Latin for “body”).

Over the next forty days and nights,I invite you to visit the East Wing hallway directly connected to the Narthex to see Faith’s Wall of Crosses.  These crosses have some very deep personal meaning to me as many were gifts from the Faith Family and each one represents a different mission outreach of the congregation.

Also, during Holy Week, you will have the opportunity to see the stations of the Cross in the Sanctuary.

The two most common crosses you may see are the Greek cross which designates a cross with arms of equal length, as in a plus sign, while the other most common cross is the Latin cross which designates a cross with an elongated descending arm.  Along with these most common forms we will also look at other variants along with their meaning.

Here at Faith, you will see a mixture of both types of Christian crosses.  Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran  depictions of the cross are often crucifixes, in order to emphasize the death of Jesus. That reminds  us that His sacrifice is the payment of our sins and the sins of the world.  Protestant,  Confessional, and Reformation Churches often depict the cross without the corpus, which highlights a belief in the resurrection rather than representing the interval between the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

So at Faith Lutheran Church you will see both types of crosses with an emphasis that “we might die to sin and live to righteousness “ in Jesus Christ.

Looking forward to living out God’s promise that “By His wounds you have been healed”.

May God bless our 2023 Lenten Journey of Faith,

Pastor Don Treglown