The Way

The church has turned green! And it’s not just about ecology, although thinking about our environment is an important part of it. We have entered “Ordinary Time” or the season after Pentecost in the church year. The Uniting Church’s lectionary card describes it this way:

A period of time that varies in length depending on whether Easter is early or late. In this period, the church recalls its faith in the Holy Trinity. It seeks to relate its faith as a people of God to Christ’s mission in the world. It commences with Trinity Sunday and concludes with the feast of Christ the King.

The season after Pentecost is all about discipleship. Discipleship is about following the way of Christ. At the first session of the Living the Questions series on Wednesday, we were reminded that that is how the early followers of Jesus referred to the journey that they were on: the Way. They drew the imagery from the strong thread of journeying stories in their Jewish religious traditions, and phrasing such as that used in Deuteronomy:

You must therefore be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left. You must follow exactly the path that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess. (Deuteronomy 5:32-33 NRSV)

In Acts, “the Way” is used to refer to the path that the followers of Jesus continued to journey after his death and resurrection:

Neither can they prove to you the charge that they now bring against me. But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets. I have a hope in God—a hope that they themselves also accept—that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. (Acts 24:13-15 NRSV)

During this season after Pentecost, we explore life in “the Way”.