Spiritual Practices, exercises
​for the mind, heart, and soul.​

Theology Factoid: Icthus
The cross wasn’t commonly used until the 300s when crucifixion was banned by Constantine. The most popular symbol before was the icthus, or fish. (The ‘ch’ is hard, ick-thus.) Considering Jesus’s miracles concerning fish and his promise to make the disciples “fishers of men,” using the fish makes a lot of sense! But the icthus is also a Greek acronym! Ichthus in Greek is spelled: ΙΧΘΥΣ which can be expanded into Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ or, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” Cool!

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Spiritual Care Practice of the Month
Caring for your spiritual wellbeing is often the last thing on our list, but it is important! I would like to challenge you to find a way to engage regularly and want offer up some possibilities.
 
Symbolic Drawing
 
I feel like I was a bit of a downer on symbols in my main article, but I also think they are great tools. They can help us to focus better on God and/or teachings, they can remind us of the values that shape who we, and/or point us to what we aspire to be. For instance: the Church of the Brethren Logo is composed of three parts, a Cross, a Circle, and a Wave.
 
The Cross stands for Jesus: his life, death, and resurrection, our faith and hope in him, and our call to take up his way.
 
The Circle stands for the community of believers, both local and global: like a hug, wedding band, or council table. We know that it takes many voices and many hands to live the Christian life and that we are responsible to work together for the Kingdom.
 
The Wave is water: reminders of our baptism and the call to baptist others and wash feet.
 
You can also frame them as representative of the Trinity, the Circle being the Creation of the Father that we are a part of, the Cross representing the redemption found in the Son, and the Wave standing for how the Holy Spirit moves and motivates our lives.
 
What about you? Contemplate about the values you are aspire to and try to combine the three to five most important into a personal logo.

I made one as an example with 4 elements:

1. An Ichthus: for my faith and a reminder to keep moving forward in it
2. A Diamond: for my love of nature and community and to seek to finding and expanding both (Camp Blue Diamond)
3. A Circle: for my family, how they help make me whole, and to hold them close
4. An Eye: to keep learning, to see the world as is and imagine what it can become

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Blog: From the Pastor's Desk

City of Akron flag 2008

City of Akron Flag 1965

​From the Pastor’s Desk,
Flying the Flag or Living the Way
 
The rules state: 1) Keep It Simple, 2) Use Meaningful Symbolism, 3) Use 2 to 3 Basic Colors, 4) No Lettering or Seals, 5) Be Distinctive or Be Related.

According to the rules of vexillology enthusiast Roman Mars, the Akron’s flag isn’t great. It's basically a seal, has too many letters on it, and no child can easily draw it (mainly because of the lettering). I actually love the 1965 flag, just get rid of the words.
 
Why am I talking about flags? Because they are important to us!  Flags hanging prominently from homes, tell us about the residents’ politics, heritage, and social groups. Flags are treated with care, with special rules about proper flying, folding, and disposing. To mistreat a flag is to invite others’ anger. They are the quintessential symbolic object, serving no other purpose than to state an opinion and point to the values for which they stand.
 
There are many objects in our world that are purely symbolic, many more that also serve practical purposes. Perhaps the most ubiquitous symbol today is the cross. We see them everywhere! Combined with other common Christian symbols, their absence in a home speaks louder than their presence. So, why did our Anabaptist ancestors avoid the usage of symbols, even the cross?
 
Visit a traditional Brethren meeting house and you’ll notice there is no cross, pictures, or high communion table (altar). Just wooden pews surroundings a single long wooden table and a stove for cooking and heating. Of course it is also symbolic, an open rejection of the ornate, worldly styles of other sanctuaries.  Jesus spends a lot of time reminding us about the dangers of becoming sidetracked in this world. He chided the rich for their trust in material, the Pharisees and Sadducees who held the Law above all else, and his disciples for believing in a nation conquering messiah. They had lost their way, instead of worshipping and trusting in God, they put their faith in wealth, religion, and power. They created idols. We don’t use the word idolatry a lot today, but we are as guilty of putting our faith in worldly things as the ancients.
 
Our Anabaptist forerunners not only saw the ornate, symbolic decor of churches as counter to the simple life of Jesus’s Way, but as idolatry, or as a gateway into the sin. Though today our worship spaces aren’t as simple, we still tend to be plainer than our neighbors. My musings on symbolism began because this is Lent and we are approaching the cross, our most common symbol. It points us towards Jesus, towards the Kingdom. But the forerunners remind us that it is still just two pieces of wood and its purpose is only to point to the Messiah who conquered it. We need to be careful to not get lost in worldly things and put symbolic actions above compassionate ones. That our eyes should always be focused beyond to Jesus. So as we journey towards the Easter, let’s not worry about signaling our faith the Christ through symbols and symbolic actions. Instead, let’s show His Way through our meaningful actions and relationships. Jesus calls us to move forward with complete faith in God, living as members of the Kingdom of Heaven in a world that hasn’t called caught up yet. Perhaps, by living the way we are called more purely, we can get the world a little closer yet.
 
Sources:   Kohlstedt, Kurt. “Vexillology Revisited: Fixing the Worst Civic Flag Designs in America.” 99 Percent Invisible. Feb. , 2016. https://99percentinvisible.org/article/vexillology-revisited-fixing-worst-civic-flag-designs-america/
 
Wyatt, Rick. “Akron, OH.” Flags of the World. July 27, 2018. https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-oh-ak.html

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