The Cross – the Tree of Life
A Thought
The tree is my everlasting salvation. It is my food, a shared banquet. Its roots and the spread of its branches are my own roots and extension… Its shade I take for my resting place; in my flight from oppressive heat it is the source of refreshing dew for me… Food for my hunger and wellspring for my thirst, it is also covering for my nakedness, with the spirit of life as its leaves… Fearful of God, I find in it a place of safety; when unsteady a source of stability. In the face of a struggle, I look to it as a prize; in victory my trophy.
It is Jacob’s ladder, the passage of angels, at whose summit the Lord is affixed. This tree, the plant of immortality, rears from earth to reach as high as heaven, fixing the Lord between heaven and earth. It is the foundation and stabilizer of the universe, undergirding the world that we inhabit. It is the binding force of the world… It is riveted into a unity by the invisible bonds of the Spirit, so that its connection with God can never be severed. Brushing heaven with its uppermost branches, it remains fixed in the earth, and between the two points, its huge hands completely enfold the stirring of the air. A single whole, it penetrates all things and all places.
by Hippolytus (c.170-236)
A Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation.
Give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.
Music
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (arr. Gilbert Martin)
Festival Choir – Dr. Weston Noble, Conductor – Frederick Swann, Organist – The Mark Thallander Foundation Festival (Cantus Laudendi – Canticles of Praise) – Lake Avenue Church, Pasadena, California USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOLUnoQdmQ