In All Things, Love

I stumbled across the Moravian Church during a Sunday School lesson which looked at the connection between the Wesleys and Moravian missionaries. Since I love to go off course, instead of focusing on the Wesleys as was the focus of the lesson, I decided to find out more about the Moravians. The Moravian Church is a reformed tradition started in the 14th century when there was a call to return the churches in the Moravia and Bohemia region (Czech) to simpler acts of early Christianity. One of their communities that settled in Germany in the 18th century experienced a transformation, where they “learned to love one another.” They attributed the transformation to a visit by the Holy Spirit, similar to the visitation in Acts. A few unique achievements attributed to the Moravian church during this time or renewal are:

• Setting up a watch of continuous prayer which ran uninterrupted, 24 hours a day, for 100 years.
• The origination of the Daily Watchwords – started as an attempt to keep the fire of Christian zeal burning by sharing a daily text with each member in the community. Now it is an ecumenical devotional reaching 1.5 million daily.
• The formation of many hundreds of small renewal groups operating within the existing churches of Europe, known as "diaspora societies". These groups did not intend to convert people to the Moravian Church but to awaken the hearts of believers and make them better members of the churches to which they already belonged through encouraged personal prayer and worship, bible study, confession of sins and mutual accountability

One of the things that first caught my eye as I was researching this community is their motto: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love." The Canadians expands on the motto on their website:

• In Essentials, Unity: The reality of God’s love offered in Christ is what our life of faith is all about. Our faith in Christ and our commitments to live as his followers are what really matter. Christ is the ground and source of our unity.
• In Non-Essentials, Liberty: Tolerance is too easy; acceptance is our real challenge.
• In All Things, Love: Love affirms our unity rather than our divisions. Love has the power to make of our differences no difference. We believe we all have much more in common than we will ever have in difference. Love not only brings us together in God’s family but keeps us together as a community of faith

I have been receiving the watchword through daily e-mails for almost a year. Each week there is a common theme, and then two scriptures and a prayer are sent daily to re-enforce that theme. I preferred their prayer for the start of the school year much more than my own, so the prayer for the congregation will not be my own today, but will come from the prayers of the Moravian church.

My prayer for the congregation?

God of wisdom and understanding, many of us are gearing up for school -wondering, anticipating, and curious. Thank you for the gift of learning as we develop our intelligence and compassion. Thank you for those who are foolish enough to teach, strong enough to ask questions, humble enough to learn, angry enough to want to bring change, focused enough to care effectively, and wise enough to pray. Amen.