Reader Question: The Sign of the Cross

Pastor Dave,
[During Advent] you've been saying we can dip our fingers in the baptismal font and make the sign of the cross before communion if we want.  I've often wondered whether or when we're supposed to cross ourselves.  Do we do it every time you make the sign up front?

The confusion is understandable, especially if you grew up in a different tradition (usually Roman Catholic) where the rituals surrounding the sign of the cross are formalized and everybody does it at the same time.

The easiest answer to your question is, "You can, but you don't have to."  Making the sign of the cross can be an important reminder to yourself and everyone around you what we're doing here.  Personally when I do it--which I often do when I enter a church with a prominent and full baptismal font in the entryway--it feels a little bit like getting a hug from Jesus.  I'm reminded that he's there, touching me, covering me, protecting me.

On the other hand making the sign is not a law or requirement.  There's no difference to your salvation if you don't.  We're not going to kick you out of church either.  The problem with saying you have to do something is that the meaning soon becomes diluted in favor of the rote repetition of the act.  Consider, for instance, if we said you had to kiss your spouse every morning...HAD to, or you'd get divorced.  How meaningful and passionate would those kisses become?  After a few times you'd probably see perfunctory pecks on the cheek at best.  Frankly that's the impression I get many times in churches that require these things.  People dip their fingers in the water without pausing, genuflect instinctively without reflection.  The signs are there but it's just a peck.  Much better, I think, to have the occasional (or even more than occasional if you choose) passionate kiss with meaning and spirit than a constant stream of cold, but mandated, smooches.

That's not to say that everything in your faith life revolves around how you feel about it.  Some things should be done automatically whether you feel enthusiastic about them that day or not.  Among those are probably helping the poor and your neighbors, supporting your loved ones, and coming to church.  Those things all run deeper than just a moment or a feeling...in fact often the proper feeling comes through doing them rather than anticipation.  But the sign of the cross is just that...a sign.  It's meant to point to something in a given moment.  If the feeling/relationship/deeper meaning isn't there, the sign is no good.  In that case it's not wrong or particularly damaging to omit it.  That omission usually isn't intentional, you just forget or aren't used to it.  That's fine.  It just indicates that it's not that important to you.  We have plenty of other things to hold onto.  Real faith isn't about a single outer sign anyway, but about a life lived with God inside and out.

Some strains of Lutherans, on the other hand, have seized on our theological differences with the Catholics as an opportunity to put down the sign of the cross or to argue it shouldn't be done.  This is as wrong as the other.  The cross is our inheritance through Jesus Christ...the closest tangible contact on this earth between us and God.  Yes, the Catholics have special holy water while we claim the strength of the water used in our services comes not from any inherent quality, but through the Word of God alone.  Yes, most Catholics see those service responses as a kind of Law (grace-filled though it may be for them) while we would decry such a thing. But those differences shouldn't rob us or them of our ability to acknowledge Christ and the power of his cross. It's not required to make the sign at the font or in response to the pastor's sign but it's a very good thing to do!  Doing it the Catholic way is perfectly right for Catholics.  It would be wrong for Lutherans to do it that exact way.  But that doesn't mean it would be wrong for Lutherans to do it any way.  That last kind of thinking isn't faith as much as prejudice.  It would be better for all of us to be absolutely required to make that sign every service than to live by contempt of fellow children of God.

Ideally, I suppose, you'd have everybody responding willingly and joyfully by making the sign of the cross over themselves every time I did it in front of the congregation and every time they approached a full baptismal font.  (Ideally, of course, the baptismal font should always be full too!)  They'd realize that it's just a sign and not a law and imbue that moment with special meaning.  In practice that's way too much for people to think about most days and frankly we'd rather have your attention on the Gospel, the Sacraments, and your neighbors.  We could start a tradition where everybody did it at all the right times but then you'd be doing it as a tradition/requirement and probably just doing it because we told you to, which kind of takes away the point.  Therefore it's best to leave it as it is...imperfect though that may be.  Go ahead and make the sign with gusto in God's Spirit when you wish or when you remember.  If you don't there's no need to fret.  The sign I make up front and the remembrance it gives is sufficient for all and the baptismal waters still flow over us no matter where we stand on the issue of dipping.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)