Holy Cross Day

Holy Cross Day- Sept. 14th

Many churches- including Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic and Orthodox ones- call today Holy Cross Day.  Most churches won’t observe it with special services, but we put it on church calendars.  And if it falls on a Sunday, we’ll have some different readings. 

The church does this a lot- we set apart days to lift up saints and important realities in the life of the church.  So that we’ll glance at the calendar and be reminded of something that will support us in faith and point us again to God. 

This feast day dates from 335 when someone alleges they found a remnant of the cross that Jesus was crucified on.  Whether that’s true or not, the day gives us an opportunity to think about the cross.  About how even an instrument of death could not destroy God’s love for the world.  About how God bent that symbol of hope, rather than destruction.

Today we remember how even the cross could not stop Jesus’ message or the life he brings to the world.  Today we get to honor the lengths that Jesus went through to love the world and how God rescued us from the power of sin that takes us over, that diminishes us, and that tries to claim it has the last word.  Today we get to cling to the cross and remember God’s victory even over death. 

One of my favorite hymns, “Lift High the Cross” proclaims:

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim
till all the world adore his sacred name.

Come, Christians, follow where the Captain trod,
our King victorious, Christ the Son of God.

So shall our song of triumph ever be:
praise to the Crucified for victory!

To ponder

·      Where in your own life do you need this assurance that life comes even out of death? 

·      How are you being called to follow in Jesus’ way of love and life?

-PL