New Year’s Devotion: The Wesley Covenant Prayer
A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition
(UMH #607)
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 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.
Throughout my ministry, I’ve used this prayer on the first Sunday in January to reorient myself with my responsibilities as a disciple of Jesus Christ in the Wesleyan revival movement. Perhaps you’ve also used it for your own personal or public devotions? A few years ago, the words took on new life as I read them with a fresh set of eyes. I started to think more deeply about how my personal actions impact my public witness and the relationships I have with others.
I had no idea how this prayer would open doors of self-discovery that have dramatically impacted the trajectory of my adult life. These words motivated me to better understand other cultures, peoples and ways of living, both within my own tradition and outside it. Learning more about the experiences of others, I’ve realized that, as a white male, certain advantages have been given to me that were not given to others, some of whom I consider close friends – women, men, persons of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.
I haven’t always had language for it, but what I’ve realized is that my life has been filled with implicit and explicit biases from a culture that often lifted me up at the expense of others. In fact, those biases, most of which I wasn’t even aware, were created to protect and give power to people like me. Such attitudes perpetuate things like racism, sexism and homophobia and have allowed me to ignore the harm being done to others. Understanding this was the catalyst for one of my own conversion experiences in Jesus Christ.
One of the resources that helped change my perspective and gave me language to better understand my experiences was the book Three Simple Rules by Bishop Rueben Job. I also reflected on the rules of life for Christian community and spiritual practices lived out by monastic saints like Augustine, Benedict, Francis, Catherine, Clare along with early Methodist communities of Bands and United Societies. In the early Methodist revival, accountability and honest soul searching were vehicles for self-discovery that impacted public witness.
While in seminary at Candler School of Theology, at Emory University, I became acquainted with these small group accountability practices. Practices that I had never had in my United Methodist experience to that point. The accountability experiences impacted my personal devotion in the Wesleyan Way of scripture, tradition, reason and experience and my public witness manifested in social holiness.
Having gone to seminary in Atlanta, I was well acquainted with the work of Dr. Martin Luther King. In his speech following the Montgomery Bus Boycott, MLK said that ‘the arc of history bends toward justice’. He later used this phrase in a speech on the steps of the Alabama State Capital in 1965, paraphrasing an earlier speech delivered in 1850 by the abolitionist the Rev. Theodore Parker:
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can define it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
The news over the last few days has included Jews being stabbed during a Hanukkah celebration, Christian worshippers gunned down at a suburban Texas church and a Michigan judge being denied Eucharist in her home church of over 50 years because she is a gay woman. These people, and many more who didn’t make headlines, were targets of hate and intolerance, an epidemic that I believe will only be remedied through personal and corporate conversion.
My own conversion experience has been a journey, that, enhanced by foundational Wesleyan teachings, has helped me understand the importance of making cultural competency a critical component of my own rule of life. Our inward awareness will totally transform our public witness. As I again look at the Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition alongside Bishop Job’s familiar words, I am reminded that the arc of history does bend toward justice. Our inward transformation must lead to change that ends implicit and explicit attitudes perpetuating systems of violence and injustice. Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. Happy New Year!