Daily Devotions

Central to the Christian faith, and worship is the Cross. In  Fred Pratt Greens hymn “God is here as we his people,” we find the verse,

Here are symbols to remind us 

Of our lifelong need of grace; 

Here are table, font and pulpit, 

Here the cross has central place. 

But why the Cross?

A reporter once asked the Rev'd David Watson, 'Of what possible significance is the death of a Jew in Palestine two thousand years ago?' 

I wonder how we would answer such a searching question. The truth is that some people are offended and others call the Cross nonsense. In fact Paul writing to the Corinthians knew this when he said, 

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God... Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-24

It was the Rev'd John Stott who said, "I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I turn to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness.

"That is the God for me. He set aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death."

O God, you hold a mirror before us

and we see love and we see hate.

We see crucifiers and we see the crucified.

Forgive us where we have crucified love – 

your love for ourselves, for others, for you.

Do not abandon us where we have abandoned ourselves, 

where others have abandoned us, 

where we know the pain of crucifixion and rejection and being forsaken.

Take us from the cross to hope and new beginning. Amen