We are coming to the end of 2012 and facing a new
year. Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I’m not so big on resolutions. They
usually fade away by around the middle of February. If they last that long.
On the other hand, I do like the idea, of starting
the New Year renewing my commitment to my long-held beliefs and values.
Methodists have had this idea for a long time and so we have a tradition of
what is called the John Wesley Covenant Renewal Service. Sometimes it is a
special worship service held on New Year’s Eve. Today, at the end of my
message, we will simply say together John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, as a way of
re-stating our commitment to follow the way of Jesus.
As I pondered a scripture for us as we enter the New
Year, the one which was just read to us, (John 15:1-8 for those following along
on the net), was given to me. Perhaps you have heard it before. Jesus is the
vine, God is the Farmer, or the vine grower. We are the branches of the vine.
And Jesus invites us: “Make your home in me just as I do in you.”
That is such a powerful image. The second part
especially. Jesus makes his home in us. I can see him saying we should make a
home in him, but he makes a home in us. Really?
Whew! That is a lot of responsibility. To think that Jesus makes his home in
me.
But it makes sense. Think about it. Just last week,
we celebrated Jesus’ birth in a manger, in a borrowed room where the animals
were sleeping. He was more or less homeless, so I guess he needs a home. During
his ministry on earth we hear about him traveling around, staying here and
there. He never had a physical home. He lived with the people. Why wouldn’t he
make his home with us. He lives in us.
And in this statement, in says: I am the vine and
you are my branches: make your home in me.
I can’t think of a much closer relationship than this. And he says, when
we live this close, our lives we bear the fruit of God.
Our lives will show the world what God looks like. I mean, think about it: we are God trees and our lives bear God-fruit. Everyone knows that an orange tree bear
oranges. You don’t get apricots from an
apple tree. So, when we make our home
on the vine of Jesus, then our lives will bear the fruit of Jesus: compassion,
forgiveness, patience, humility, generosity, and all the rest. So today, we are invited to renew this
covenant – to make our home in Jesus.
There is
a fascinating story in the Old Testament about the people renewing the covenant.
You can find it in the book called II Kings, Chapter 22. There was a King in
Judah, named Josiah. He became King in about the year 640 BCE (before Jesus was
born). He became King when he was 8
years old. His father had been
assassinated. His grandfather had been blamed for the people turning away from
their worship of Yahweh, the one God of Israel. They had begun using the temple
for idol worship. During the 18th year of his rule, he was having
the temple renovated, and so the story goes, they rediscovered the scrolls that
were the books of the law, the books of Moses and the Torah. These would be the
first five books that we know as the Old Testament.
You see,
they had lost their Bible, and they rediscovered it. Imagine what would happen if you and your
family lost your whole history for two generations. When the king heard what was
written in the book, God’s Revelation, he ripped his robes in dismay. And then
he called for the priests. He ordered
them all: “Go and pray to God for me and for this people—for
all Judah! Find out what we must do in response to what is written in this book
that has just been found! God’s anger must be burning
furiously against us—our ancestors haven’t obeyed a thing written in this book,
followed none of the instructions directed to us.” (II Kings 22 11-13)
Then King Josiah called all the people together
and read the Holy Book to them:
23 1-3 The
king acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then
the king proceeded to The Temple of God,
bringing everyone in his train—priests and prophets and people ranging from the
famous to the unknown. Then
he read out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was
found in The Temple of God. The king stood by the pillar and
before God solemnly committed them all to the
covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow
his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into
practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people
stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous. (2 Kings 23:1-3)
Can you
imagine what a day this was? This was a
turning point in history as the people of God renewed their covenant and turned
back to God, after they had gone through a long period of separation from God.
I have two friends who participated in the marriage
covenant years ago. Marriage is a covenant, you know. It is a decision to make
a commitment between two people. It becomes a covenant when we invite God into
the mix. Some people can go down to the
Court House and get a marriage. When we
ask God to bless our promises to one another, we are also asking God to help us
when things get tough. But when we make our promises in front of God, we are
also upping the ante, aren’t we? We are saying to the other person, that our
promises are holy.
When we
make a covenant, we take it seriously.
My friends wrote a covenant agreement when they got
married. I don’t know what they put in it. It was personal; unique to their own
situation and their own personalities and values.
But this is the thing that I find fascinating:
every year on their anniversary, they revisit their covenant. They sit down
together and look at their covenant and they ask one another: how are we doing
with keeping our covenant promises? And they revise the covenant for the next
year if they need to. In that way, they hold one another accountable and stay
true to their marriage commitments. I think it is an amazing statement about
how important their marriage is to them.
We could all do this here at The Village. Every
time a couple has a wedding or a union service, you could decide to write your
own covenant and re-visit it each year. It
could be done for any number of relationships if you think about it. Parents
could write one with one another about how they are going to parent their
children, and check in each year on the birthday of the oldest child, with how
they are doing on it.
A covenant is a way to take our
relationships seriously. But it’s a
covenant because we invite God into the relationship, to bless and bind us
together.
As I mentioned earlier, John Wesley, the founder of
the Methodist Church, wrote a Covenant renewal service and a covenant prayer
for Methodists. It has traditionally been used at the beginning of a new year.
The Covenant Prayer of John Wesley reminds
us that when we make our home in Jesus, we give our lives over to him. It is a
prayer of surrender in much the same way Mary and Joseph gave themselves over
to God and God’s desire for their lives as the earthly parents of Jesus. The
prayer is filled with humility. Let’s take a look at it:
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.
As we prepare to enter the New Year Jesus invites us to make our
home in him. I invite you to pray with me this Covenant Prayer, as we recommit
ourselves to that home in Jesus.
Pray this
covenant prayer with us right now:
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.
May the blessings of the New Year be on you. And no matter how good or bad 2012 was for
you, our prayer is for a better 2013 for you and yours. If you need a place to renew your
relationship with God and your spirit, come join us at the corner of the Anthony
Wayne Trail and Conant Street. We are
here and ready to walk your journey with you.
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