The Way

There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.
-Thich Nhat Hanh

Before we got the possibly-malicious nickname “Christian” (Acts suggests this was in the city of Antioch), Jesus people were known as believers, sisters and brothers, or followers of “the way.” This last phrase is another bit of early church information we get from Acts. Though the term is never wholly defined, it does offer a wonderful invitation to complete the sentence as a way to explain or at least describe the shape and content of the lives we enjoy and share because of our baptism into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

We belong to the way of Jesus. It’s a way he taught and a way he lived. I believe Easter was and continues to be God’s vindication of Jesus’ way–what my friend Dan Erlander calls Yahweh’s unambiguous and surprising YES! to everything Jesus did and was and is. Easter is the vindication of Jesus’ way of redeeming the universe from its despairing distance from God. 

Easter is also this same God’s opening of that way to each of us, no matter what we call ourselves or what nicknames or categories others try to stick on us.

We belong to a way of being in the world, a way of relationship and connection, a way of reconciliation and forgiveness, a way of humility and loving service, a way of taking the part and enjoying the company and care of people whom the world around us tends to dismiss or despise. We belong to a way of courageous and compassionate love.  

I will sing of loyalty and of justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing. I will study the way that is blameless. When shall I attain it? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house
-Psalm 101