Rediscovering the well-worn Way - Jonathan Parker

Rediscovering the well-worn Way

Quarantine has brought a newfound clarity and beauty to being part of Christ’s global church for our family. On Sunday mornings, we eat pancakes, read scripture, and take Eucharist with our two older kids, as our one-year-old cheers along from his highchair. It’s never perfect, but it’s one of the most beautiful rhythms of our week.

For years, my generation has been accused of leaving the church or walking away from the faith, but it’s quite the opposite. We’re not walking away, but towards something better, richer and fuller.

This isn’t deconstruction. It’s rediscovery. We’ve been tired and exhausted and defeated from the devastating cycle striving and shame creates. And worse, we’ve seen the long-term effects a lifetime of trying to maintain faith out of sheer will and human ingenuity has had on generations before us.

They don’t seem particularly joyful, hopeful or loving—marks of those that have encountered the living Christ. In fact, they seem burnt out and ready to pass onto the next life—as if the Kingdom of Christ only exists after death.

How can we embrace a theology that claims all of humanity was worth Christ dying for, but isn’t worth us caring for?

And so, we’ve begun our trek towards a greater hope, not blindly, but following the well-worn road of countless other saints that believed Christ came to usher in a new Kingdom—here and now.

We’re journeying along hand-in-hand-in-hand with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in relationship, trusting that we are loved greater than we could ever fathom.

We’re asking—not demanding—that our children join us in each step as we learn to live by faith and not sight. This isn’t brand new territory as we’ve learned by digging deeper into the treasure trove offered to us by St. John, St. Athanasius and many others.

We’re seeing the Word Made Flesh with fresh eyes and clearer hearts and trusting that the Good Shepherd will never leave us or abandon us.

We’re letting our hearts savor the rest that comes from taking on a yoke that’s easy and light.

We’re coming to see that relationship trumps retaliation. Every. Single. Time.

We’re embracing the dying words of our Savior—said in unison with the Father and Spirit—that we are completely forgiven through His finished, self-giving death on the cross.

We’re reading and re-reading Jesus’ sermons and are convinced He meant every word and that taking up our cross and following Him means not only helping the poor and the sick and the needy, but knowing their names, just as He does.

We’re trusting that the Ascended Son of God embraces and empathizes with all human experience and so we can cast our cares and anxieties on Him.

We’re not afraid because we’re retracing the steps of Jesus, who hasn’t left us wandering alone, but offers His hand and His heart to guide us along the way.

We’re believing that we can entrust our whole hearts and the whole of humanity to the Three that hold all things together.

For so long, many of us believed God felt nothing but anger, resentment and rage towards us and that if we escaped His great wrath, it would be only because He killed His Son instead.

We never stopped to question this equation, we just followed until ...

Until we had children of our own and peering into those eyes, knew deep down that there was nothing that could separate them from our love. And if that was true of human parents, how much higher and deeper and loving are the ways of the Three who brought all of humanity into being?

So have we rejected the faith or walked away from the church? Perhaps the modern telling of it, but for our part, we’re actually pushing in closer to sit at the Master’s feet to listen and learn and love. 

Mostly, we’ve decided we—and our children—deserve a life filled with wonder and awe in the presence of a God greater than we ever dared to dream