Physical Worship – Crossing
Physical Worship – Crossing.
“Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? With eyes wide open to His mercies, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: I encourage you, as an act of sensible, intelligent worship, to surrender yourselves to God to be His sacred, living sacrifice. Make a decisive dedication of your bodies, presenting all your members and faculties. Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Live in holiness, experiencing all that delights His heart. This offering of the whole of our lives is a worshipful act that is pleasing to God. And this becomes your genuine expression of spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1; a weaving together of The Passion Translation, the Message, Philip’s translation, the Amplified Bible, and the New Jerusalem Bible).
Being Physical with Worship. The spiritual and the physical belong together, and are in fact inseparable. We were created as whole beings with a mysterious fusion of body and spirit and soul and body and everything else that constitutes our personhood. Not only that, the Incarnation reveals how important the body is to Creator God. In a sense, the idea, the reality, of God taking on a physical body was actually a spiritual act. We need to make sure we incarnate our worship. So worship of our Creator needs to include the body if we want to worship with our whole selves. Physical acts of worship become meaningless if it is done thoughtlessly, without its intention of worshipping God. But worship is not limited to the nonphysical, the so-called spiritual either, or one is not truly involved fully in the act of worship. As Rev. Josef Ratzinger once wrote in his excellent article, The Theology of Kneeling, “The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is worship. Without the heart of worship, the bodily gesture would be meaningless, while the spiritual act itself must of its very nature express itself in the bodily gestures.” So physical gestures are invaluable in the act of worship. They can point to spiritual truths, they can stimulate worshipful acts, and they can enable a fuller expression of awe, lament, adoration and worship. Using the body helps us to put the Gospel message into motion. The movement of one’s body can be a sign that communicates a message… Do you want to signal to God that you submit to Him, that you want to confess to Him, that you adore Him, that you intend to follow Him in trust? There are gestures and postures and movements that can express what is on your heart without any use of words. Body language is vital to spiritual life and expression. In this blog series entitled “Physical Worship,” I will focus on the worshipful use of the body through such gestures and movements as: prostration before God; sitting at the feet of Jesus; standing in respect and oneness; kneeling in submission; walking in order to follow; running the good race; jumping for joy; lifting up the heart and hands; offering the kiss of peace;; and the act of crossing oneself with the sign of the Cross. This is important: Physical postures and actions during worship reflect the attitudes of the heart, but they can also help produce the attitudes of the heart.
“The gospel that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
We see all kinds of people crossing themselves with the sign of the cross all the time… a baseball player after he hits a home run; a basketball player before a free throw; a sprinter as she gets settled into her starting blocks; a devout family during grace before dinner in a restaurant; a priest blessing his congregation. Signing the cross on yourself or others can be an irreligious superstition, a thoughtless ritual, a nervous habit, or a physical gesture that is rich with spiritual significance. Crossing ourselves can be as meaningful as we want it to be. It can be an empty hand movement devoid of faith, or it can be a sincere gesture that represents your deepest identity.
When genuine, the act of crossing ourselves is truly making a statement, it is setting us apart. Ever since the 2nd century the traditional hand motion in the shape of a cross , starting at the forehead, then the heart, then both shoulders, then back to the heart again, has been a distinctive symbol of the Christian faith. There have been variations on these movements through time and tradition. And it should be remembered that many believers privately choose to sign the cross over themselves even if not a tradition in their particular church. Down through the centuries, the sign of the cross has represented many truths:
(1.) It reveals our chosen identity as a Christ-follower;
(2.) It marks us as disciples of Jesus;
(3.) It announces that we belong to God, that we are His possession, owned by Him;
(4.) It tells others that we believe in the Bible and the truth contained in Scripture;
(5.) It is a clear confession of faith in the Holy Trinity, since the sign is accompanied by the prayer, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;”
(6.) It is a tangible reminder to us of our baptismal vows and our new life in Christ;
(7.) It is a physical action that reminds us of God’s spiritual presence;
(8.) It echoes the command of Christ to pick up our crosses daily;
(9.) It renews our commitment to crucifying the desires of the flesh;
(10.) It is a picture of Christ’s suffering and our acceptance of suffering in His Name;
(11.) It announces our side in the warfare against the powers of darkness, alerting the enemy that we are on the side of Christ against the demonic kingdom;
(12.) It reminds us of our protection in Christ if we feel spiritually attacked or harassed;
(13.) It is an act of submission to God’s will and His purpose in our lives;
(14.) It is a sign of blessing when we put the sign of the cross over others, asking the Lord to show them favor and mercy;
(15.) When crossing ourselves, it is a way of asking God to help us love Him with all our mind (forehead), our heart, and our strength (shoulders);
(16.) It is an expression of our heartfelt piety and deepest devotion;
(17.) As one traditional church puts it, “The Sign of the Cross disposes us to cooperate with God’s grace if invoking the Name of Christ.”
(18.) “Little” signs of the Cross are also used during Christian worship, in which our thumb is used to mark a small cross on one’s own forehead, mouth, and heart, asking God to sanctify our thoughts, our speech, and our affections for God’s use;
(19.) A little sign of the Cross may also be prayerfully marked with the thumb on someone else ‘s forehead when blessing them, preparing them for a healing prayer, or for many of the sacraments.
My wife and I were unexpected recipients of the little cross when our youngest child was around three years old. He had the intuition that the sign of the cross on one’s forehead meant the equivalent of a blessing that said, “Peace to you.” Perhaps he was remembering the times in church he has had little crosses placed on him, or when we would do likewise at home. At any rate, he was far too young to understand this, of course, but somehow he knew to come to dad or mom if he sensed that we were worried or upset about something. He would reach up and place his tiny thumb and gently mark a little cross on our foreheads. Sometimes when we were embracing him and he wanted to somehow express his concern for us, he would give us another little sign of the cross on our foreheads. Our little toddler was inspired to bless us with the sign of the cross, and we’ll never forget it.
It is fascinating that in the Roman Catholic Church, signing the Cross over oneself is considered a “sacramental… a sacred sign which bears a resemblance to the sacraments, and signifies an action that bears spiritual effects through the intercession of the Church.” The laying on of hands and the sprinkling of holy water are also considered sacramentals and serve a special place in one’s spiritual growth.
The symbolism of the fingers is vital in fully understanding the signing of the Cross. To symbolize the Holy Trinity, using your right hand, the tip of the thumb touches the two tips of the longest fingers next to the thumb. Those three fingertips must be touching when signing the cross because they represent the three Persons of the Godhead, the Trinity. The two fingertips minus the thumb represent the dual nature of Jesus Christ: His divine nature and His human nature. Many have said that the sign of the cross is an abbreviated version of the Apostle’s Creed because of the symbolic use of the fingers.
The Apostle’s Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of the saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
THE OLD RUGGED CROSS (ACOUSTIC) – YouTube
Singing – At The Cross – YouTube