Covenant of Love

This Sunday for our morning service we joined our friends at Marlborough Road Methodist Church for their annual Covenant service. It was lovely to be back in a place where we had been so warmly welcomed when St Peter’s Church building was out of use.  During this service, which is held in January every year, we were invited to renew our commitment to God and respond to his love and grace. The new year seems a good time to do this – a very special new years resolution.

The service liturgy and readings told us of God’s covenant with his people through the law revealed to Moses, and of God’s faithfulness in the centuries that followed. We also heard of the new covenant through which Jesus gave himself for all so that through grace we might enter into relationship with God. He gave himself in flesh and blood and died for us, as we commemorate in the sharing of bread and wine.

Our individual response and what it means to be committed to God and his purposes for us in this coming year may mean very different things for each of us. But we are not just individuals, we are a community of faith within and across churches. In his talk, Daniel reminded us that we are changed not just by our relationship with God but also our relationships with others. As a community we are transformed by the presence of others and we also each have the potential to transform our communities by our presence.

Let us make this covenant of God our own.

Let us give ourselves to him,

trusting in his promises and relying on his grace.

Eternal God,

in your faithful and enduring love

you call us to share in your gracious covenant in Jesus Christ.

In obedience we hear and accept your commands;

in love we seek to do your perfect will;

with joy we offer ourselves anew to you.

We are no longer our own but yours.

Used with permission. Prayer from Covenant Service Liturgy © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church in Britain.