“The Sunday morning liturgy assumes the constancy of the cross in the Christian’s life. The liturgy is addressed to cross-bearers. We do not come to church to do our own thing, anymore than we go to the emergency room in the hospital to do our own thing. We go to both places wounded, in need of help that only comes from another. We go to both places for healing, where our opinion and preference is of no consequence; only that of the healer matters…

“…It is to the Christian, who is made aware of the cross by events in his life and by preaching and teaching, that Jesus promises rest and refreshment in the pronouncement of absolution, in the readings for the day, and in the sermon. And it is in response to these that the cross-bearer sings exultantly his thanks and praise to God in the rest of the liturgy and in so many of the hymns. So effective is the consolation to the cross-bearers that we join with one another in the confident expression of the faith worked by the Word to cheer and encourage one another: I (we) believe! we confidently declare  on the basis of comfort and strength received in Word and sacrament.”

- Prof. Em. Daniel Deutschlander, The Theology of the Cross: Reflection on His Cross and Ours, pgs. 4 & 5.