Ask the Pastor: Crucifixes in Church. Christians, Jews, Muslims and Abraham. The Meaning of Life.
by the Rev. Walter Snyder
Religion Columnist

Q: Why is the Crucified Christ not shown or displayed on the cross in the Lutheran Church?

A: Actually, in many Lutheran Churches it is. However, from the beginning of the Reformation to
the present, there's been discussion and sometimes violent arguing as to the appropriateness of this
display. Luther and the reformers who worked with him were not out to remove crucifixes or other
religious statuary and art from the churches. This was done more by others. Much of the
disagreement stemmed different understandings of how the admonition against graven images was to
be interpreted. The commandments were given as part of God's Covenant with Israel. The New
Testament made by Christ contains no such prohibitions. Perhaps God allowed the change because
no longer was he spirit only, but in his Son now had a specific, human form and substance.

Another reason for the change is tied up with an unfortunate tendency to automatically discard
anything perceived as "too Catholic." Since the Roman Church uses crucifixes, many Lutherans,
following along with the knee-jerk anti-Catholicism of American Protestantism, began discarding
them or not building them into their newer churches. You can see that many older Lutheran
churches in the U.S. still have crucifixes while many that were built in the past fifty years do not.
However, this trend seems to be changing and the crucifix is again becoming more a part of Lutheran
liturgical architecture and art.

Q: Why do Christians, Jews and Muslims all know Abraham?

A: All claim Abraham as a physical or a spiritual father. Muslims claim descent of the promise and
the prophecies through Abraham's son Ishmael, who was born of Sarah's servant Hagar. Israel was
descended from Abraham and Sarah's son Isaac, whose son Jacob was called Israel. Non-Jews who
converted are also counted as his children. Christians also honor Abraham as a father, since they are
also his descendants according to Abraham's greatest Son, Jesus. Paul picked up on some of this
thought in his epistles, such as his allegory of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians.

Q: I am looking for information on Christianity and its viewpoints on the meaning of life.

A: All life has meaning according to the Christian Church because all life is created by and flows
from God. Life was the first gift to man, wherein God himself breathed into the lump of clay he had
formed and Adam became a living soul.

Sin, however, has twisted life---both human and animal---into a mockery of what God intended.
Sickness, suffering, and death were not intended to be part of our existence but are the result of
Adam's fall into sin.

All life has the purpose of living and glorifying its creator. The animal kingdom does this merely
by being, but humanity is also called to believe in and worship its Creator; in fact, our highest
purpose is to be God's and to be as he intends us to be. Man was created as friend and companion
of God and as servant, called to tend the garden into which our first parents were placed and to
extend the order and structure of that garden into the rest of the earth. Sadly, this has all been lost or
distorted. Self-love, self-worship, and self-service replace love for God and fellow-man, worship of
God, and service to God through serving each other. The strongest object of our affections has
become ourselves and our possessions rather than our God. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit,
flowing from Christ's redemptive work of living a perfect life of obedience to his Father and service to
mankind, is to restore true purpose to our lives. He works to make us content in whatever life we are
called to lead, giving us a sense of Christian Vocation (that is, we worship and serve God by serving
our fellow man in those things that we are and do, as husband or wife, parent or child, employer or
employee, student, retiree, or in any other situation).

Ultimately, our purpose is to receive the fullness of the new life we already have through Baptism
and faith in Christ Jesus in the resurrection and eternal life with God. At that time, we will finally be
able to live the lives our first parents were created to live. Our meaning will again be involved in a
proper relationship with our Creator, one of openness and love without end.

To Ask the Pastor, please write Ask the Pastor, PO Box 12, Emma, MO, 65327 or send email
to askthepastor@aol.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Walter Snyder is the pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Emma, Missouri and coauthor of the
book "What Do Lutherans Believe."

Ask the Pastor is copyright (c) 2000 by Walter P. Snyder. It may be reproduced  in totality, including this disclaimer, by anyone, provided
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