I’ve enjoyed a week of vacation after Christmas and I’m grateful to church member Bryan Kane for preaching at Valley Covenant on December 28.
For the first Sunday of the year we are adopting a Methodist practice and joining in a service of renewing our covenant with the Lord and with each other as a church. This is based on a service created by John Wesley in August of 1755, which later became a frequent New Year’s Eve or Day observance in Methodist churches.
Wesley attributed part of this service to a Puritan source, but some scholars see roots also in German pietism. So it’s especially appropriate for us as a Covenant church, out of the Pietist tradition, to adopt and join in this service for the beginning of the year.
As part of our service, we will use words similar to these from a wonderful, humble prayer by Wesley:
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 wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
We’re also celebrating January 4 as Epiphany Sunday, so we remember that part of our covenant with God is to share the light of Christ with the world.
May this new year be full of renewal and blessing for you all!