Acts 9: The Way

So Saul, who had presided over the stoning of Stephen, "went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem" (9:1-2). Of course, it would be on the road to Damascus that Saul would have his famous conversion experience, but at the moment I'm more interested in the phrase used to describe the early church: the Way.

For Christianity -- or, the church -- is not just a belief system, or an institution, or a moral code, or a conversion experience; it's not just a heritage, or a set of rituals, or having Jesus in your heart; it's not just a book, or a building, or a big group of people. It comprises all these things, of course, but ultimately it is the Way -- a way of seeing, a way of living that ought to shape every facet of your existence.

It means devoting yourself to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers; it means loving the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself; it means feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned; it means taking up your cross daily and following Christ.

It means answering the call of the Lord, even if, like Ananias, you're asked to minister to one who's been dragging Christians out of their houses and "breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord" (9:1).

(Image: Pietro de Cortona, "Ananias restoring the sight of Saint Paul," 1631)