Brothers and Sisters

After the star, the dim day.

After the gifts, the empty hands.

And now we take our secret way

Back to far lands.

After the cave, the bleak plain.

After the joy, the weary ride.

But journey we, three new-made men,

Side by side.

Came we by old paths by the sands.

Go we by new ones this new day,

Homewards to rule our lives and lands

By another way.

This poem, written by an unknown author and quoted in Celtic Daily Light by Ray Simpson, feels already to be about another time of year. Surely, Christmas with its stories of a baby in a manger, of angels and shepherds and wise men is over for another year. And yet, as I write this on the Tuesday before you read it, we are only six days after Epiphany. Christmas comes and goes so quickly and though we remind ourselves to keep Christmas every day in our hearts, even in a normal year, that is hard to do, and this year is hardly a normal one.

And yet we are called, by the story of wise men, travelling towards an unknown ending, to step out into the new year in faith and in hope. More than that, because we are not those first travellers, we know the ending of the story, we know what they found and who he grew to be. We are truly called to journey joyfully, new-made and side by side as we prepare to make our Covenant together and to remind ourselves once more of our calling to serve God and his promise that we will be his people.

Not all of you will be able to join me in our Zoom Covenant Service and the Covenant Prayer is printed below so that you may speak it with us at around 11 am on Sunday.

Methodist 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 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.

* Note that in this prayer the word “suffering” is used in the sense of “patiently enduring” - the opposite of “doing”. We are not inviting God to inflict pain on us.

And may the Covenant we now speak on earth by ratified in Heaven.

God bless

Vicci