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Community of the Cross
he who comes in the name of the Lord!" on Palm Sunday to their "Crucify him! Gives us Barabas!" just five days later, we see an incredible spectrum of human emotion and divine action-all focused on the cross and the empty tomb. Today's WORSHIP QUOTE is a short meditation on the centrality of the cross in the authentic Christian community. COMMUNITY OF THE CROSS The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is the Lamb once slain, now glorified. So the community of the cross is a community of celebration, a eucharistic community, ceaselessly offering to God through Christ the sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving. The Christian life is an unending festival. And the festival we keep, now that our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us, is a joyful celebration of his sacrifice, together with a spiritual feasting upon it. In this celebratory feast we are all participants. But what is it that we share in? Not in the offering of Christ's sacrifice, nor even in the movement of it, but only in the benefits he achieved by it. For this costly sacrifice, and for the precious blessings it has won for us, we shall never cease, even in eternity, to honour and adore the Lamb. - John R. W. Stott, in THE CROSS OF CHRIST, Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity, 1986, p. 273. For other WORSHIP QUOTES for Holy Week, see: < < < < < < Have a great week. May it be a truly holy week for you and your worshiping community. Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.edu |