The ancient Hebrew people, like all ancient cultures, were agricultural.  Their lives revolved around the planting and harvesting of crops. All of the Jewish religious celebrations that we see today can be traced back to some connection with an agricultural cycle. It’s interesting that the Jewish New Year is not in January. The Jewish New Year is celebrated in the fall.  People had worked hard; they had harvested their crops.  They had time to sit and reflect. The cycle of the year begins with putting away the harvest, storing it, and preparing for the New Year. The Hebrews had no grocery stores, and whether or not the crop had done well, they had to be frugal to have sufficient grain to last until the next harvest. Therefore they set their major feasts, Yom Kippur, the Jewish New Year, and the Feast of Booths, in the fall. The celebration of the Passover occurs in the spring, the beginning of that cycle, as they begin to grow things once again. The ancient Hebrews set other events in cycles also. For example, there was the Year of Jubilee once a generation or every fifty years.  During the year of Jubilee all debts owed by people were forgiven. This was a major justice issue. No debt should be carried from one generation to the next.  Those who had more resources could show grace and mercy to those who had less.  It would be an interesting concept for us to apply in the modern world.

Another custom was practiced.  Once every seven years at the beginning of the New Year, the children of Israel gathered and the entire Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy— was read over a period of three days. The congregation stood in respect as the Torah was read. I’m sure there was excitement as those wonderful stories of creation, of Abraham and Sarah and the drama of the Exodus were read. But I can guarantee you by the time they reached Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and those technically detailed laws, it was an act of self-discipline. But every seven years it was important to imbed on their hearts and to know what it means to be God’s people.  Some of those laws were important beyond belief.  Some of those laws were harsh beyond imagination and would never fit the sensibilities of a spiritual person today.  For example, one of the laws said that a bald man could not enter the temple.  How could we follow that law today?

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, was a great ecumenist. He borrowed richly from the broad spectrum of Christendom and people from that broad spectrum claim him in many interesting ways. Puritans are found on both sides of Wesley’s family.  This seems ironic when you realize he was a high church Anglican. All of those influences came into his life. Today we are surprised to learn that neither John Wesley nor the Puritans thought much of Christmas.   When we understand the background of that society, we understand why celebrating Christmas was so controversial. The generations in England that preceded John Wesley were fraught with religious battles.   Whoever was in charge welded power over anyone who was different.  They killed, seized property and banished dissenters until they lost power and the next group took control. By the time of Wesley’s birth, Christmas had lost any sense of spirituality. It was an opportunity for a small minority of the landed people to display their wealth, to throw extravagant parties, and to give extravagant gifts to themselves while the vast majority of England lived in destitute poverty and hunger. It was a hedonistic feast that represented very little of what the Prince of Peace had come to bring to this world. Wesley and Puritans were much more comfortable with the New Year’s holiday. It gave them an opportunity to tie themselves to that sense of covenant we see in Deuteronomy. Wesley borrowed the covenant service we are going to use today from the Puritans and modified in his own way.  You will be happy to know that I have further modified it.  In its original form it was about three hours long.

I want to talk a little bit about New Year’s resolutions before we begin the Covenant Service.  I know they have got some bad press in the last few years, but I don’t think resolutions are such a bad thing. Last year I made a resolution to lose weight and I did. And then I gained it back. And I’ve resolved to lose weight again this year.  It’s OK.  We are imperfect human beings.  Let me tell you where I think we go wrong with resolutions.   They are like the one I made.  We focus on something important to ourselves, a fairly narcissistic practice. Lose weight, get a new car, get a job that pays $300,000— those kinds of things. Wesley and the Puritans understood that this covenant that they made with God at the beginning of every New Year gave them an opportunity to seek that which God wanted to do in their lives in the coming year. See the difference? It’s not about what I want for me; it’s what God is calling me to do.

How do we tie this in with Christmas? God came in this world a peasant child. This is an incredible mystery. God gave wholly of himself.  We are told that God gave of Himself in order that the world might be redeemed. Could it possibly be that if we are the followers of this Christ child that the real question for all of us is “What is God calling us to do to bring God’s redemptive love to that world?”

Did you know that John Wesley refused to let the Methodist’s wear buttons? Buttons were a symbol of extravagance. Wesley believed that money should be used to feed people instead of wasting it on extravagant luxuries. How many buttons do I have on? I don’t know. The point I want to make is that a man, who collected more money in his lifetime than King George, died a pauper because he knew that God had called him to gather resources and invest them in the world so that God’s love may be known. Before we start the Covenant Service I’m going to ask for some silent prayer. I want you to reflect and listen to God’s calling you to do in this New Year that God’s world may be redeemed.