The night before Ash Wednesday, I had a dream. I usually don’t remember my dreams, but this time I did. I was teaching a theology class on making the sign of the cross at the imposition of ashes on the forehead. I then explained to (I assume) my mostly Baptist students that it was the same sign pastors and priests make on babies as they are baptized. Just then my alarm went off, and my lecture was cut short.
Now awake, I pondered the dream. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the sign of the cross is bestowed upon the foreheads of the faithful at confirmation. And on every Sunday, after the gospel is read, worshippers make the sign of the cross on the head, lips and hearts as a reminder to follow the gospel with one’s whole self. Several traditions that anoint with oil also trace the sign of the cross on the forehead.
As I reflected on my dream in a social media post, one person suggested that to make the sign of the cross in the Roman Catholic tradition serves as a prayer to the Trinity. With the mention of ashes, another person asked if I had heard “Beautiful Things” by the Christian alternative rock group Gungor. The song includes these lyrics: “You make beautiful things / You make beautiful things out of the dust. . . You make beautiful things out of us.”
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“What would it look like for Baptists to recover and reclaim the old tradition of making the sign of the cross?”
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Perhaps Lent, the season of introspection and penance, is the perfect time – even for us Baptists – to begin making the sign of the cross.
Source: Kate Hanch - "A case for making the sign of the cross — even for us Baptists (and other Protestants)", Baptist News Global, Opinion, March 15, 2019
https://baptistnews.com/article/a-case-for-making-the-sign-of-the-cross-even-for-us-baptists-and-other-protestants/
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