Joel Osteen believes that every person is destined by God to reach their highest potential.  He calls his worship arena, for former Compaq basketball arena, a place where “people…become champions in life.”  Bishop T. D. Jakes has a link on his website to a page called “building wealth.”  As it turns out, the actual content of some of these offerings is pretty good, and it helps people live responsible lives.  As self-help goes, Mr. Osteen and Mr. Jakes are skilled and knowledgeable.  Joyce Meyer wants you to know that God wants to give you the life you’ve always wanted; And their churches, their books, their speaking engagements – all wildly popular.

So…we’re going to talk about John Wesley!

Somehow, I can’t imagine Mr.  Wesley – Anglican clergyman and founder of the Methodist renewal movement which is our faith heritage – subscribing to their ideas with much enthusiasm.

Mr.  Wesley had the strange idea that God neither willed nor required that one be wealthy, prosperous, and successful or a champion of any kind to be useful to Christ’s work in the world.

Nor did he believe that the point of engaging one’s self in a relationship with Christ or in the practices of the faith would necessarily lead to, or even should lead to success, wealth or prosperity.

His little prayer makes that quite clear.

Mr.  Wesley had the idea that our faith should be the primary influence in our lives; that the practices of our faith should have priority above all other interests and concerns – including our own success.

Oh, my.  Whose New Year’s Resolution is to accomplish less and have less?  Anybody?

Actually, the prayer does not imply that we should seek to achieve less, or seek to acquire less per se.  It merely asserts that when following the way of Christ becomes the thing we desire more than accomplishment of every other thing, we may find our lives following a path we ourselves would not have chosen – except that we chose Christ.

Mr.  Wesley clearly believed in free will – noting in this covenant service that Christ will have no servants except for willing ones.

There is no better time than the turn of the year to quiet ourselves, think carefully about our lives, and decide what will get our attention and the resources of our lives in the year ahead.

Wesley’s covenant prayers – with their archaic language and their radical propositions – nevertheless offer us the opportunity to renew our lives as we begin a New Year.  These are the assumptions I find in the language of this liturgy.

1. That our free will gives us a clear choice
2. That Christ is the choice we are called to make
3. That the rewards to ourselves and to the world are spectacularly more meaningful if we choose Christ
4. That Choosing Christ may result in the emptying of many other things from our lives in order to fill them with meaning.
5. We need the periodic practice of confession
6. We need the power of grace to shape us at the very core of our being

On this Epiphany Sunday, even as we are invited by Wesley to choose Christ, we encounter a gospels story about choice.  There are two kings.  One is Herod, the other a child who will come to be called by the gospel writer “the King of the Jews.”  There is a trio of travelers who are faced with a choice.  On the one hand, there is the King who consolidates his power through violence, and who will even, as the story goes, order the slaughter of children, to protect his power.  King Herod represents the age old, tragically misguided, and still wildly popular belief that security can be achieved through coercive power and the exercise of violence.

Today, we are watching as the land into which Jesus was born struggles still with leaders and systems that seek security through violence.  Today, this very day, in Gaza, the land and the people cry out for peace and security.  Today, this very day in Jerusalem, the land and the people cry out for peace and security.  Today, this very day … the world longs for wise ones who will follow the wise travelers; who will worship the one who is Messiah; and then turn away from Herod, and go home by another way.

Today, not only governments and systems, but individuals are faced with a choice.  Which king do you worship?

Mr.  Wesley believed that the transformation of the world was possible only when individual hearts and minds were given to worship of Christ – and obedience to the path of loving service to others.  And he was peculiarly insistent that we ought to be single minded about that priority.

There is no question that every one of us could become a better person than we currently are.  We might struggle to admit that…but it’s always true.  And John Wesley believed that… but he did not believe in self improvement.  He believed in self discipline and grace.

John Wesley had the strange idea that God’s grace flowed into our lives when we practiced, religiously, the practices of our religion.  He called it “attending upon the ordinances of God.”  And he found in these practices an entry for the Holy Spirit to do the cleansing work that shapes us at the core of our being.

I need to tell you that I have not always been at peace with the prayer at the beginning of this service.  I don’t fear poverty.  I fear being given nothing to do.  I fear being set aside by God.  Accepting that God might set me aside in favor of another to do particular work for Christ was not easy for me.  I used to be silent during that part of the prayer.  I could not embrace the possibility that the circumstances that most fulfilled God’s purposes and desire might at any time require that I be set aside from the work I believe I’ve been given to do.

And then, it happened.  Much of what I am most passionate about in ministry and have spent most of my ministry education learning to do was not given to me to do when I came here to North Broadway.  Work that I am able to do, and sometimes even to do well, but don’t find particularly satisfying consumed much of my time and energy over the last 2 ½ years.  About six months ago, when that reality was really wearing on my spirit, I revisited this prayer.  I found such grace in it.

The work that I was doing was work that was necessary to the life of the church.  And it was what God had given me to do, for a season, at least.  I was renewed, in the sense that my deepest desire, if not my personal preferences, were being fulfilled.  I saw that I was being useful to Christ, and faithful to the work that had been given to me to do.

You don’t have to be in professional ministry to have the experience of finding meaning and purpose in your life serving Christ.  I do not believe, nor did Wesley really assert, that there is a specific, pre-ordained role for each of us in life, and that we are lost unless we find it and pursue it.  I believe that where life takes us, moment to moment, there is always the potential to do God’s will; that a series of circumstances and decisions come together graciously to give us a sense of purpose and meaning.  I believe that daily we must give ourselves to Christ.  Not once.  Not once a year.  Daily.

This covenant invites us to partake of the means of grace habitually.  Daily prayer and devotion.  Daily confession and forgiveness.  Regular interaction with Christian community.  Worship.  Communion.  Reflection and assessment of our lives.

The church’s role is to provide the resources to assist us all in fulfilling our covenant.  We don’t have a book store, and a satellite broadcast, and a preacher who does Larry King Live once in a while.  But right here, in this place, North Broadway United Methodist Church, we remain well equipped to help people become their best selves.  Here you can partake of all the means of grace in which Mr.  Wesley found the power to transform lives, and through which a good bit of the world has been transformed.

We maintain weekly public worship to which all are welcome.  We maintain regular practice of the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  We have introduced and equipped people with Bishop Job’s book to assist us with daily practices of doing no harm, doing good and staying in love with God.  We provide weekly community gathering for learning and fellowship on Wednesdays.  We are going, in the weeks ahead, to explore spiritual gifts and the ministry of all Christians that is given through baptism.  Everyone can find meaningful opportunities to serve Christ here.

Wesley’s strange idea was that you had to partake of the grace of God in order to be nourished by the grace of God.  Put simply, you have to eat in order to be fed.  The covenant gives us an opportunity to promise that when grace appears – as it always does – we will partake of it.

The table is prepared.  Will you come – pray the prayers, offer your life, and receive the grace?