Seeking faith and speaking words I never thought I'd say

As it's that time of year when Methodists join with other local churches in an Annual Covenant Service, let's explore what it's about.

First an interesting observation:
‘We observe that in some places significant numbers of members absent themselves from the Covenant Service believing it to set a higher standard for discipleship than that which permitted them to become members.'
Philip Drake

The Introduction
‘Christ has many services to be done:
some are easy, others are difficult;
some bring honour, others bring reproach;
some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests,
others are contrary to both.’

The Covenant Prayer
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.

The Covenant Service is acknowledged to be one of the jewels in the Methodist liturgical crown. The enthronement service for the present Archbishop of Canterbury used it at a solemn moment of the liturgy. It was adapted from earlier traditions and introduced into Methodist worship by John Wesley as a means of regularly reaffirming our commitment as disciples and followers of Jesus. Yet it is now felt by many to be too difficult and too intense.

It's clear that this affirmation is a serious one that embraces the whole of our life, in all its parts. Most people find it quite tough to say, and really mean it. In our culture we tend to prize our ability to make decisions and choose our own path in life. It can feel very hard to give that up. But this prayer is like a love poem. It is about surrendering to God in love and joy.

The service, which is full of the assurance of God’s love for us, in whose power alone we are able to undertake such promises, includes a profound meditation on how we can discern what is being asked of us. It is clear that the ‘many services’ Christ may ask of us could involve social reproach or financial hardship. But there is a beautiful balance, which suggests the possibility that our calling will include undertaking activities that we enjoy and that will bring us prosperity and honour. It is impossible to rule out hardship. It is about genuinely offering ourselves – ‘no longer our own but yours’. It is the giving up of our own powerbase and right to choose which is so hard.

People have resisted the phrase ‘put me to suffering’, as if God deliberately willed us to experience pain. However, the word simply means the opposite of ‘doing’; it is the state of waiting or passivity, of ‘being done to’ in some way, and parallels the next phrase, being ‘employed’ or ‘laid aside’. The desire for control, power and choice is a very strongly encouraged stance in our society, and it is not surprising that we resist truly offering God our willingness to let both activity and passivity be ‘for you’. However, to believe that God cannot be served except in active ‘doing’ will lead us to marginalise those whose calling is now to lay things down, or who do indeed have to endure suffering in the modern sense. The revised version of the prayer clarifies the point by referring to ‘all that I do, and in all that I may endure.’ *

The Covenant Prayer (revised)
I am no longer my own but yours.
Your will, not mine, be done in all things,

wherever you may place me,

in all that I do, and in all that I may endure;

when there is work for me and when there is none;

when I am troubled and when I am at peace.

Your will be donewhen I am valued and when I am disregarded;

when I find fulfilment and when it is lacking;

when I have all things, and when I have nothing.

I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you,as and where you choose.
Glorious and blessèd God,Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

you are mine and I am yours.

May it be so for ever.

Title of this blog is ‘Seeking faith and speaking words I never thought I'd say’...

Song lyrics from Prince of Egypt featuring the original version of 'When you believe'..... Leon Jackson's recent number one.

Try this link:

http://www.thelyricarchive.com/lyrics/whenyoubelieve.shtml

* edited version of extract from Methodist Conference Report 'Time to Talk of God'