The first Christians were not called Christians. They were called people of the way. I wonder if we might not be better off if that name had stuck.  No prospect of the frozen chosen with a name like that.

What do I like about the name? It presumes movement, growth and transformation. We hear  about it as our Presiding Bishop talks about our church as the Episcopal branch of the Jesus  movement. We're part of a movement, folks. We don't stay put. Pope Francis preached a  sermon in which he said that there was no such thing as a stationary Christian, that a Christian  is meant to walk or move. That movement is actually part of our healthy identity. We see it in  our liturgy as the gospel, the story of Jesus is moved to the center of the people, and as we are  moved to come forward to say yes to the bread and wine.

Jesus himself said: "I am the way."

So which way do we go? That is in many ways the question of Holy Week. The prayer crafted for  the Monday in Holy Week, asks that we may find that the way of the cross is the way of life and  peace.   Paradox alert.  Think with me as we engage this Holy Week about what the way of the  cross looks like, and how it could possibly also be the way of life and peace.

The way of the cross includes the journey that went from that raucous Palm Sunday procession,  with Jesus' high approval ratings helping him make his way through Jerusalem streets. As we  read Sunday, that festive parade soon becomes a crowd pressing for prosecution and execution.   On Maundy Thursday, Jesus makes his way from the head of the table to kneel at the feet of  disciples. Jesus washes those feet.  A big move. Jesus makes his way to the garden where he  prays for deliverance from what is to come. In a lesson for me about my prayers, Jesus finds that  his prayer is not answered in the way he might have wanted. He makes his way to the hard  wood of the cross, where he hangs between heaven and earth, stretching out arms of love to  draw us all into his saving embrace. Do you see how the whole week involves movement, from  life to death to life?