The Cost of Discipleship 17: Wesley: The Covenant Service.

 Over time, John Wesley added ‘meeting places’, buildings so called rather than ‘churches’ since Wesley did not intend to create another denomination but rather chose to remain a priest in the Anglican Church, aka the Church of England. Some of his societies had been meeting for decades, and some of them needed renewal themselves. 

 Around 1760, Wesley began to experiment with a Covenant Renewal service for his followers. By 1780, he had settled on a form that would remind the participants of who they were, especially in their faithfulness to the covenant they had with God. Then, the service would inform them again about God’s great grace that led to the offer of salvation for those who would accept it. 

 Wesley was pretty clear that, while Christ died for all, not all people accept what he did nor do they agree to become Jesus’ disciple. This is an early part of the service:

Christ will be the Savior of none but his servants.

He is the source of all salvation to those who obey.

Christ will have no servants except by consent.                                                           

Christ will not accept anything except full consent to all that he requires.                                  Christ will be all in all, or he will be nothing.                                                               

The leader of the service asks worshippers to recommit themselves to God and he or she gives them words to do so. This brings one’s commitment out in the open. It is one thing to make a commitment quietly in one’s mind, quite another to voice your commitment in the midst of a gathering of Christian disciples.

 Moses carried out a covenant renewal ceremony just before he handed over the care of the Israelites to Joshua (Deuteronomy 29: 1–30: 20). 

 David wrote a psalm with forgiveness and renewal as its theme (Psalm 51). In his midlife crisis, David said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit.” These words express the commitment to renewal. 

Josiah was elevated to the throne as the King of Judah when he was eight years old. His father had not humbled himself before the Lord, but instead he did evil. He was so much trouble that his courtiers assassinated him. When Josiah was 16, he “began to seek the God of his ancestor David.” As he grew in his relationship with God, he began to remove the idols that his grandfather and his father had set up in the land. Then he began a program to repair the temple, the house of the Lord. While the remodeling work was going on, the priest Hilkiah found “the book of the law of the LORD.”  

 The secretary then read the book to King Josiah; and Josiah was shocked at how far they had fallen from the LORD. He tore his clothes as a sign of his dismay. Then he sent to the prophetess Hulda for a word from the LORD. She reported that God said, “because your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the LORD” (II Chronicles 34: 8-28).

 Then King Josiah assembled all the elders of Judah and had the Book of the Law read to them. The people renewed their commitment to God’s covenant with them. God honored that and did not bring the disaster that he prophesied, at least, not in Josiah’s time. The next kings, Johoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah did not renew the covenant. Each had a reign of only a few months or years, and then the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. They marched the recalcitrants away to captivity in Babylon, and it was over.  

  Wesley saw that renewal was needed, and that it must be a regular celebration. The people must be encouraged to take this ritual to heart. The depth of the commitment is seen in Wesley’s covenant 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 by 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 gracious 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.

 Try praying that slowly and thoughtfully for a week.