A Blessed Holy Cross Day to you all!

This feast day during the church year has always intrigued me. It is one of the few days we celebrate as Lutherans that is not based on an event in the life of Christ, one of the Apostles or another of the Biblical saints.

It may not seem a good opportunity to celebrate our life in Christ and the great blessings we have because of His sacrifice, since the focus is on a hunk of wood, yet that is what today is. This is why the Lutheran reformers kept this day. It was originally celebrated as the date on which the original cross of Jesus was found on September 14, 320, in Jerusalem.

We as Lutherans now celebrate it because through the cross we can focus on the great sacrifice given once for all by Christ Jesus at His crucifixion. It was in that event and His subsequent resurrection that all men were given forgiveness of sins, salvation from sin death and the devil, and everlasting life. This is the heart and pivot of the Christian faith. This is the reason that Martin Luther and the other Lutheran reformers kept this feast day.

Psalm 98
Isaiah 45:21-25
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
St. John 12:20-33

'God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ,
and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.' (Colossians 1:19-20)

Merciful and everlasting God, you did not spare Your only Son but delivered Him up for us all that He might bear our sins on the cross. Grant that our hearts may be so fixed with steadfast faith in Him that we may not fear the power of any adversaries; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Alleluia. Alleluia. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia. (Galatians 6:14a)