The Way - St Luke's Episcopal Church

St Luke's

EPISCOPAL CHURCH

The Way

Sunday Worship: 9:30 AM

205 Front Street, Seaford DE | 302 629-7979

The Way of Love...

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The Episcopal Branch

...of the Jesus Movement

The word "Christians" for the community of believers in Jesus did not come along for several generations. The men and women who were part of the early movement of the Church were Jews, but the gift of the Holy Spirit brought the Good News of Jesus to the people of towns and villages. People were healed, transformed, reconciled by Grace to a loving God who called them to keep reaching the people of communities with His love, and way of service. "The world will know you are my disciples by the love you show," John 13:35. The Torah had been the singular way in which the people were to live in order to flourish. So think about how radical it was when Jesus stated himself to be the way, the truth and the life. Early followers then came to understand Jesus to be the same or more important than the function of the Torah, God's self-revelation to humanity.

What is this Jesus Movement language all about?

Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry uses this phrase to describe the mission of God's People. A movement is a group of people that is working together to advance their shared beliefs and philosophy, and if we are the Jesus Movement we are working to advance the kingdom of God's love. We are group of disciples of Jesus seeking to love God and to love our neighbors.

Bishop Curry explains that we are not about being an institution, but that we are the living Body of Christ. In the issue of the Yale Divinity School Magazine, Issue Title "New Voyages: ChurchToday and Tomorrow, 2015", he says that "the movement serves life, that there is no life serving the institutions, we serve Jesus". We are to be a community of people committed to living the way of Jesus in a way that is liberating, loving and life-giving.

When the Presiding Bishop is asked about how to turn institutions, around he says, "There are no institutional quick fixes or gimmicks that will turn a church around. Bible and prayer - then you deal with the institutions. Then you can transform institutions into servants of the Jesus Movement." Being people of the Word and Prayer leads us into God's mission. Institutions were created to serve people, not people to serve the institutions.

SO, We are the Jesus Movement!

We are called to enter into God's work in our community, and to proclaim the good news of God. I will close with the Presiding Bishop's words:

"Now is our time to go. To go into the world to share the good news of God and Jesus Christ. To go into the world and help to be agents and instruments of God's reconciliation. To go into the world, let the world know that there is a God who loves us, a God who will not let us go, and that love can set us all free."

"This is the Jesus Movement, and we are The Episcopal Church, the Episcopal branch of Jesus' movement in the world."

Amen!
The Rev. Marianne Ell

Did you know that the early movement of the Church
was called "The Way"?