After going to a packed out 4:30 service at Liberty UMC, beautiful in every way, I came back to midtown and went to the 7 at Jacob's Well. This is the communion table after we received---we had not had communion there since before Advent as a way of making a place for absence so that this night we might be filled. And we were. Moravian stars on the table, of course, make me remember Mr. Wesley and the Moravians on board that ship to America--and the answer their leader gave Wesley when he asked why they had not been afraid during the terrible storm at sea the night before. Their women and children, along with the men, calmly sang psalms, Wesley had noticed. The leader of the Moravians said, "they were not afraid---they were not afraid to die." Tonight, the birth of Love incarnate seems a strange time in some ways to remind us of this, but because of that birth, we do not have to be afraid to die---to change, to put to an end to relationships which do not lead us to the Way, the Truth, The Life; to not be afraid of trying something new for Christ, even if we risk failure; to die to our old selves ruled by the tyranny of what has always been, in order to become that which we might be.
Even fear flees this night! Alleluia!
1 comment:
My daughter and a friend visited Old Salem, NC the Morvaian old town last Monday.
So as gifts we have a M. Star with the candle in the middle with the red for Jesus' blood at the bottom.
We also have the bees wax candles they make and some of the giner cookies.
It was so exciting for her to be able to visit and take the tours and learn so much more about all they did.
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