Sunday at my churches we will deviate from the Lectionary to observe a new year covenant service on the order of John Wesley’s covenant service. Wesley first celebrated a covenant service for Methodists in 1755, and repeated it often thereafter. They were most often conducted at the new year.
According to The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992), the heart of the service is focused in the Covenant Prayer which requires persons to commit themselves to God.
Here is the main part of the prayer:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee, or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
To mark the occasion, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn to be sung at Covenant services. Consider the deep words of Come, Let Us Use the Grace Divine:
Come, let us use the grace divine, and all with one accord,
In a perpetual covenant join ourselves to Christ the Lord;
Give up ourselves, through Jesus’ power, His Name to glorify;
And promise, in this sacred hour, for God to live and die.
The covenant we this moment make be ever kept in mind;
We will no more our God forsake, or cast these words behind.
We never will throw off the fear of God Who hears our vow;
And if Thou art well pleased to hear, come down and meet us now.
Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, let all our hearts receive,
Present with Thy celestial host the peaceful answer give;
To each covenant the blood apply which takes our sins away,
And register our names on high and keep us to that day!
Our Western culture does not fully understand covenant. Covenant requires deep commitment and invokes a promise so binding that one would rather die than break that promise. Covenant is in some ways a death to self, preferring the covenant partner over one’s self and ensuring that covenant commitments are kept regardless of personal cost or inconvenience.
Christian discipleship is that kind of covenant. Just as Jesus called 12 young men from their chosen professions to follow him into life-changing discipleship, so he calls us away from the cares of this life to take up a cross to follow him.
Unfortunately, American Christianity more often teaches a religion of self-pampering. Jesus did it all for me, God is there waiting to answer my prayers for personal convenience and parking places and blessings of every kind. Too often we live reckless lives, and when we get ourselves into trouble we go to God to get him to bail us out.
Covenant means I set my own interests aside, and remember that it is not about me, but about what God wants to do in and through me.
According to The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992), the heart of the service is focused in the Covenant Prayer which requires persons to commit themselves to God.
Here is the main part of the prayer:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee, or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
To mark the occasion, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn to be sung at Covenant services. Consider the deep words of Come, Let Us Use the Grace Divine:
Come, let us use the grace divine, and all with one accord,
In a perpetual covenant join ourselves to Christ the Lord;
Give up ourselves, through Jesus’ power, His Name to glorify;
And promise, in this sacred hour, for God to live and die.
The covenant we this moment make be ever kept in mind;
We will no more our God forsake, or cast these words behind.
We never will throw off the fear of God Who hears our vow;
And if Thou art well pleased to hear, come down and meet us now.
Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, let all our hearts receive,
Present with Thy celestial host the peaceful answer give;
To each covenant the blood apply which takes our sins away,
And register our names on high and keep us to that day!
Our Western culture does not fully understand covenant. Covenant requires deep commitment and invokes a promise so binding that one would rather die than break that promise. Covenant is in some ways a death to self, preferring the covenant partner over one’s self and ensuring that covenant commitments are kept regardless of personal cost or inconvenience.
Christian discipleship is that kind of covenant. Just as Jesus called 12 young men from their chosen professions to follow him into life-changing discipleship, so he calls us away from the cares of this life to take up a cross to follow him.
Unfortunately, American Christianity more often teaches a religion of self-pampering. Jesus did it all for me, God is there waiting to answer my prayers for personal convenience and parking places and blessings of every kind. Too often we live reckless lives, and when we get ourselves into trouble we go to God to get him to bail us out.
Covenant means I set my own interests aside, and remember that it is not about me, but about what God wants to do in and through me.
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