Tag Archives: Charles Wesley

START THE NEW YEAR in 2023 WITH COVENANT RENEWAL

Posted on by
Reply
Blue Current, watercolor by Craig Gallaway, copyright 2008. Clear water flowing over exposed rock, reflecting the blue light of the sky, reminds me of the waters of baptism. And those waters represent, for those who put their lives in his hands, the cleansing and transforming power of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection at work in their lives by the presence of his Spirit. A fitting image for the renewal of our covenant with our Maker and Redeemer.

Here is a shortened version of John Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service which he began using with the Methodist people in England in 1755. It was especially used at the beginning of the New Year to give the people an opportunity to think seriously about their calling to embrace whole heartedly the life of faith. This version leaves out two longer sections of the original service (Thanksgiving, Confession) which are needed in order to experience the full depth and breadth of the service. I have shortened these in the interest of making the central prayer more accessible (in violet type face below). You can find various versions of the service online. The best ones stick close to Wesley’s original.   

If you have access to a United Methodist Hymnal, No. 606 is the hymn that Charles Wesley wrote especially for this service, Come Let Us Use the Grace Divine.   

Leader: Let us pray. Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily magnify Thy Holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34 . . . . The renewal of the covenant.

John 15: 1-8 . . . . . . . . . . The vine and the branches.

Leader: What does it mean to renew our covenant with God?

Dear friends, the Christian life, to which we are called, is a life in Christ, redeemed by Him from sin, and through Him, consecrated to God. Upon this life we have entered, having been first admitted by faith into the new Covenant of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator, and which He sealed with His own blood, that it might stand forever.   

On one side the Covenant is God’s promise that He will fulfill in and through us all that He has promised in Jesus Christ, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. That His promise still stands we are sure, for we have known His goodness and proved His grace in our lives day by day.

On the other side we stand pledged to live no more unto ourselves, but to Him who loved us and gave himself for us and has called us to serve Him, that the purpose of His coming might be fulfilled.

From time to time we renew our vows of consecration, especially when we gather at the table of the Lord; but on this day we meet expressly, as generations of our fathers and mothers have met, that we may joyfully renew and solemnly reaffirm the Covenant that binds us to God.

Let us then, remembering the mercies of God, and the hope of His calling, examine ourselves by the light of His Spirit, that we may see wherein we have failed or fallen short in faith and practice, and, considering all that this Covenant means, may give ourselves anew to God.

(This is where the longer sections on Thanksgiving and Confession occur in the original service.) 

The Covenant

Scripture Reading: Romans 12: 1-2 

Leader (with the people now standing):

And now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us bind ourselves with willing bonds to our Covenant God, and take the yoke of Christ upon us. This taking of His yoke upon us means that we are heartily content that He should appoint us our place and work, and that He alone is our reward.

Christ, our King, has many services to be done; some are easy, others are difficult; some bring honor, others bring reproach; some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves, in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves. Yet the power to do all these things is assuredly given us in Christ, who strengthens us.

Therefore, let us make the Covenant with God our own. Let us engage our heart to the Lord, and resolve in the strength of His Spirit never to go back. As we kneel again together, let us make the Covenant with God our own.

Leader: O Lord God, you have called us through Christ to be partakers of the new Covenant in Him. We take upon ourselves with joy the yoke of obedience, and engage ourselves, for the love of Thee, to seek and do Your perfect will. We are no longer our own, but Yours.

Leader and People together:

I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low for You; 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 Your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine, and I am Yours. So be it. And the Covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Closing (All stand)

Leader: Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Leader: Let us give thanks to our Lord God.

People: It is fitting and right that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God.

Leader and People together:

Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify Your glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts; heaven and earth are full of your glory. Glory be to Thee, O Lord most high. Amen. 

CHRISTMAS SUNDAY 2022: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus and The Road of New Creation

Posted on by
1
All Creation Is Waiting,” watercolor by Craig Gallaway, copyright 2004. The child is born; but that does not mean his work is done, or his mission complete. “The whole creation waits in eager expectation,” says Paul in Romans 8, for the great day of the Lord which will be, even then, only the end of the beginning. Is that Joseph in the background, bringing a donkey that he and Mary and the baby will need for their flight to Egypt? Even so we find ourselves still on this road of New Creation with our Lord.

It is Christmas Day 2022. We celebrate the anniversary of our Lord’s birth and incarnation. The Son of God has come into the world and, in his own human body, lived an entirely faithful human life. He was faithful even in the face of death; therefore, he has defeated sin, death, and the fallen powers that had disordered and misshapen human life before. And now he is risen and reigning and providing his Spirit to bring his faithful life, death, and resurrection into our lives as well; to deliver us also from all of the fallen powers that continue to try to get their grips into us and the world at large.

Week by week through Advent we have tried to remember some of the essential parts of our lives where his coming has made, and is making, a huge difference in how and why we live as we do in him. For he is still in the process of restoring these and other parts of our lives as we make our way with him toward the day of our own resurrection, the day of judgment, the wedding banquet of the Lamb, and the fulfillment of the New Creation already begun in him and in us.  And so we can sing with Charles Wesley’s refrain, “Come thou long expected Jesus . . . born thy people to deliver”:

Deliver us from our “normal” fears and anxieties, as your grace and promise delivered Mary on the eve of your own human birth.

Deliver us from our worries about our status and career, our future security and prestige, as your servant Paul taught us with regard to our gifts, and as your own example showed us with regard to being a servant like you.

Deliver us from the temptation to use ethnic groups or other divisive factions to gain social or political power and to grasp at security and control of others as you and Paul refused to do.

Deliver us from the idolatry of self-absorbed eros and other fanatical appetites or passions, so we may live in the freedom of agape, kindness, gentleness, and self-control in human families and in the kind of community that you are restoring.

Saint Nicholas Praying for the Recovery of His Tradition, detail of the Spirit, watercolor by Craig Gallaway, Copyright 2005. From the time of Jesus’s baptism, the dove has been a reminder of the role of the Spirit and of the Father in all that Jesus accomplishes. He does not act on his own. He promises the Spirit will come to guide, befriend, comfort, and provide counsel. And he breathes the Spirit into his disciples after his resurrection, just as God breathed into Adam in the original creation.

“For freedom, you have set us free,” your servant Paul tells us (Galatians 5:1), and this means the freedom of life in your Spirit, the freedom to grow up in all of the fruits of your Spirit, to grow up in you:

To Love (agape) – because we are not focused only on our own needs or desires.

To know Joy – because we are no longer bound by the forces to which we once yielded power and control.  

To experience Peace – because we are no longer pulled apart by rival “lords” and double-minded agendas.   

To learn Patience – because we need to master smaller things before we are put in charge of larger.

To show Kindness and Gentleness – because we have moved beyond the doubts and defenses that once held us in check. 

To practice Self-control – because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Yes, in you, we are free.

And so, our fellow Advent pilgrims, Deb and I find ourselves with you at the close of another Advent and Christmas season, at the turning of the year toward a new year with our Lord’s Spirit and help, in the midst of His ongoing recovery and healing of the created order, on this road of New Creation. He has begun what is yet to be fulfilled. We have the first fruits of a great approaching harvest (Romans 8:23), and we must encourage each other not to grow weary “for our work is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free