Recently, I was visiting a congregation that offers an extraordinary deaf ministry. The director introduced me to some of the deaf young people, and then he took me to see an Eagle Scout project that was nearing completion. A young man from the church had made an exquisite full-size communion table, beautifully crafted and finely finished. On the front of the communion table there was a symbol engraved with a cross background. On the cross, where you might expect to see the body of Christ in a Catholic Church or a Cross and Flame logo in a United Methodist Church, there was a carving of a hand showing the sign language expression for “I love you.”
How do you translate the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection? How do you translate the meaning of the cross? Translators express the mind, heart, and will of one person to another across boundaries. I cannot think of a better translation than the one found in the engraving on the communion table: “I love you.” That’s what Jesus came to tell us. That’s what was on the heart and mind of God in sending him. That’s the story we continue to translate and re-translate in every generation through scripture, worship, service, sacrament, and teaching. Through the cross, God says, “I love you.”
-- U.M. Bishop Robert Schnase, excerpted from his Five Practices blog
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