A man who had four sons wanted his sons to learn not to judge too quickly. So the man sent each of those sons on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was quite a distance away. The first son went to the pear tree in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, the man called his sons together to describe what they had seen. The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said “No, it was covered with green buds and full of promise.” The third son disagreed. He said “It was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing…” he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them. He said the tree was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

Now as we’re about to complete 2006 and enter the new year of 2007, we can reflect on that story for our own lives. If we’ve had a really difficult or challenging year—the winter of our life--we can see there’s hope that things may be better in the future. If we’ve had a pretty good year, we can be thankful because we know not all years, not all seasons, are that way.

If we had given up when it was winter, we would have missed the promise of the spring, the beauty of the summer, the fulfillment of the fall.

So this may be a nice little illustration, but how does this story fit into our church year and our church life? We at Prescott United Methodist Church are a community of faith. We consider ourselves Christians--disciples of Jesus Christ. We have a mission statement we are attempting to live out in this community and this world—to become disciples of Jesus Christ, and to fulfill the gospel in our church, community and world.

We look at our scripture readings for guidance. There were two of them today. The first, Deuteronomy—Deuteronomy, where faith and law come together as divinely sanctioned instruction on how to live. In our reading today, Moses has given the people a guide for their existence as a community. It’s an agreement, a covenant, as to how the people should live under their God. It’s a kind of surrogate for Moses himself, seen as God’s will for the ongoing life of Israel, the covenant people.

As Noah had done first, many years earlier, and then Abraham after him, Moses was now called by God to lead God’s people in a covenant relationship with their God. The people had received the message of the law, and were instructed to read it regularly and publicly, to listen to God’s word and obey it. That’s a message that carries through for us today.

Our other reading was from Paul’s instruction to the fledgling church at Colossae. That instruction refers to the new covenant of new life in Jesus Christ. It was Paul’s message for the church to focus on that which was most important at a time when he saw the church surrounded by various forces that could pull the church away from its Christ-centered focus. The message was one of tremendous importance for the church then and for the church of today. “Above all, clothe yourself in love and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, and give thanks.” Paul’s message is the great message of how to live as a covenant people. It’s a message that essentially describes the kingdom of heaven, yet it is for the people on earth, as we live out our lives. It’s a message that’s reminiscent of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Law and faith, together again, in a new covenant.

John Wesley, the forefather of our theological tradition, believed in the reaffirmation of the covenant so completely that he developed a Covenant Renewal Service, and he would do that service wherever he visited the Methodist Societies around the country. The service that we will use today—the insert that is in your bulletin-- enables everyone to participate fully and it updates language. Most significantly, however, the liturgy beginning with the Invitation is taken directly from Wesley’s service of 1780.

For Wesley, what it meant to be a mature disciple of Christ was the joining of believers in a covenant "to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul." He urged his Methodist followers to renew, "at every point, our covenant, that the Lord should be our God."

On August 11, 1755, Wesley’s daily journal entry reflected his response to a covenant service he had conducted: "I mentioned to the congregation another means of increasing serious religion, which had been frequently practiced by our forefathers, namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul.

“I explained this for several mornings and on Friday many of us kept a fast to the Lord, beseeching him to give us wisdom and strength, to make a promise unto the Lord our God and keep it.

“On Monday, August 11, I explained once more the nature of such an engagement, and the manner of doing it acceptably to God.

“At six in the evening we met for that purpose. After I had recited the tenor of the covenant proposed, all those who desired to give testimony of their entrance into this covenant stood up, to the number of about 1,800 persons.

“Such a night I scarce ever saw before. Surely the fruit of it shall remain forever."

The fruit of that covenant, friends, is in the instruction of Paul to the church at Colossae: “Above all, clothe yourself in love and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Give thanks for all that you have and teach this to each other.

There’s a modern-day example of this fruit in the person of Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder, singer and musician, blind from infancy, grew to love music and began to play the piano by the time he was seven. By the age of nine, he had added drums and harmonica to his talents. Later he joined a church choir, and the seeds of gospel music were planted. Stevie recently returned from a 10-year hiatus, perhaps a winter in his life. Now he is motivated by a special message, his purpose for writing and singing.

Stevie says, in responding to the lack of respect he senses coming “from people in their relationships,” (quote) “Of all the needs that we have right now, more than anything, we need a time for love." Each track on his new album touches on love in one of its forms, "from physical to unrequited to family affection to the way people treat strangers on the street."

It’s in an interview with free-lance writer Jane Jimenez, that he drives his point home to his audience. "We need to have more respect for each other."

Friends, that’s the message to the Colossians and that’s today’s covenant message for all of us. It’s the new life in Christ that, with God’s grace, we must wear.

Christian researcher George Barna has outlined what he considers his most significant findings for 2006. Among these is his assessment that, although large majorities of the public claim to be "deeply spiritual" and say that their religious faith is "very important" in their life, only 15 percent of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as their top priority.

In contrast, however, to this apparent spiritual decline, Barna also found that there is a group he calls "Christian Revolutionaries" who are growing in number. He says they are the type who show a great interest in things such as personal Bible study and spiritual mentoring.

Why not call these people the Covenant People, those who bring the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven? Friends, these are people, by God’s grace, we can all become, in the new year.

Let us pray:

Lord of our lives, As we now go through our Covenant Renewal Service, we reflect on all these words of John Wesley that had their origin so long ago, and, as we read them, let us confess our sins and our inadequacies, knowing that they are also words for today. Change our hearts, oh Lord, and forgive us for the ways in which we have fallen short of all we can become in you. Mold us; make us, to become the people of your kingdom, that we may love ever more fully, on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Click here to read, print, and pray, the Wesley Covenant Service.

Sermon delived by Rev. Carol Mumford on December 31, 2006.