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By: Pastor Berg
Many of you have very fond memories of Ellsworth Shields, a long-time member of Eastside, who has joined the saints in heaven. Ells, through his family, has given a gift to Eastside in order to purchase a processional cross and a funeral pall. The following article talks about the history of the processional cross and how it will benefit us at Eastside. We thank Ells and his family for this very generous gift!
“In the cross of Christ I glory, tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time. All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime” (CW 345:1). What was John Bowring talking about when he wrote this hymn stanza? How can we glory in an object? Doesn’t that constitute idolatry? Similar questions have been raised after people have experienced a worship service with a processional cross. A processional cross is either an empty cross or a crucifix (a cross with Jesus’ body still on it) that is attached to a pole which is carried in the front of a procession, both at the beginning and at the end of worship.
My guess is many heads are spinning with some of the things I’ve just described. So let’s step back a little bit and explain the processions themselves before we get to the value of a processional cross. Processions were used in the earliest days of Christian worship for a practical reason: the ministers and the members of the choir needed a way to get from the back of the church (there were no sacristies in those days) to the front. Very early in the church’s history, the ministers and choir members would enter the church walking behind a raised cross, i.e., a processional cross. Processional crosses were used in Christian churches hundreds of years before crosses were ever placed on altars.
Obviously, we don’t need processions for practical reasons anymore. Most Lutheran churches have sacristies; the pastor does not need a procession to be able to enter the sanctuary. Most Lutheran choirs sing in the back or in the balcony. So why a processional cross today and what does it mean?
The procession and the processional cross can have great benefit for us. The procession and the processional cross are symbols, visual aids that help us understand the truths of the Bible. When we worship, we come into the presence of God, we enter his throne room where he is ready to offer us forgiveness, life, and salvation. As a symbol of our coming before God, the minister walks toward the altar, the symbol of the presence of God. In our place and representing all of us, he approaches God’s throne. But, he does not do this on his own. He comes walking toward the presence of God in the shadow of the cross of Jesus, through whom we all have access to God by faith. Note this passage from the letter to the Hebrews: “Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19-22). The procession and the processional cross say in symbolic form exactly what the Holy Spirit caused the writer to the Hebrews to encourage in written form.
Similarly, when Christians leave worship, they go back to their daily lives. There they carry out the tasks God has given them to do, there they face trouble and temptation, there they go and make disciples of all nations. And so, representing us all, the minister walks from the altar, the symbol of the presence of God, toward the entrance of the church and (symbolically) out into the world. But again, he does not do this on his own, but in the shadow of the cross. Jesus’ final promise to his people, “I will be with you always” is proclaimed to us not only words to our mind, therefore, but also in symbolism to our eyes. We define the cross procession, therefore, to communicate in a symbol what we believe and what we say we believe everyday of our lives.
The apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” What a beautiful symbol of how we won the victory over sin, death, and the devil and Jesus won the victory. “Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes; shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!