July 23
Beloved of Good Shepherd Church,
Grace to you and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord!
We belong to God, and we belong to each other. We are sheep in the flock of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. That is the meaning and purpose of the church. Christianity is not practiced in isolation. Even monks and nuns who take vows which seem to sequester them from the rest of us and place them in solitude are not escaping anything or anyone. Quite the opposite. Those Christians who take monastic vows are joining the human community at a deeper level in the rigor of their vows and the silence of their meditations. Thomas Merton used to tell the novices at Gethsemani that they didn’t come to the monastery to escape the suffering of the world. Rather they came to join in full solidarity with the suffering of the world in silence. The point is, we are all in this together, joyfully knit together as siblings in Christ through thick and thin. That is the glory and the purpose of the church.
There are two signs that Episcopalians and other Christians make as a symbol of our belonging to God and each other, the sign of the cross and reverencing the cross.
The sign of the cross is made by tracing a cross from forehead to navel, then from shoulder to shoulder, finally landing in the middle of one’s chest or over one’s heart. This manual act is a “retracing” of the cross that was traced on one’s forehead at baptism as the priest said this, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” Put another way, You belong to God, forever. You are branded as God’s boy, God’s girl, God’s beloved child. Nothing can undo that brand of love. After you are told that you belong to God, the expectation is that you will go and tell others that they are God’s beloved children too. We are the family of God. We belong to God, and we belong to each other.
Reverencing the cross is done in a number of different ways. In our Episcopal tradition one usually reverences, or bows, to two crosses. The cross carried in procession during a worship service and the cross behind the altar. To reverence or bow slightly to the cross is a symbol of surrender. When you bow as the cross passes by or as you approach or stand before the cross, you are saying to God, “My life is a gift from you, oh God, for which I am eternally grateful. Now I surrender it back to you that I might do with it what you would have me do.” What often happens next is that we are made aware of some way to love our neighbor more deeply. So don’t bow to the cross unless you’re ready to go to work! People reverence the cross in all manner of different ways. Some bow their heads slightly, some bend at the waist, some bend slightly at one knee and slightly tip their heads toward the cross, some stop in front of the cross and make the sign of the cross. There is no right way to do it. There is only remembering that we belong to God and each other, and that our bond is permanent and made so by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The church is a community of people who have surrendered themselves to God that we might love each other and all the people of the world with the sacrificial tenderness of Jesus. I am so grateful to be on the journey with you at Good Shepherd.
Remember this always - God loves you, and I love you too!
Love is all,
Hendree+