Epiphany 1/Baptism of the Lord/Covenant Sunday 11/01/2026
OPENING SENTENCE OF SCRIPTURE –
The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace (Psalm 29)
HYMN-
GREETING
Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
COLLECT FOR PURITY
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
SUMMARY OF THE LAW
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this:
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”
The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
God is love and we are God’s children. There is no room for fear in love. We love because God loved us first.
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.
SILENCE
God our Father,
we confess to you
and to our fellow members in the Body of Christ
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
and in what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry.
Forgive us our sins,
and deliver us from the power of evil,
for the sake of your Son who died for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
ABSOLUTION
God, who is both power and love,
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.
GLORIA
sung by Dougie Byers
COLLECT
Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant that we, being born again,
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end..
PROCLAIMING & RECEIVING GOD’S WORD
Readings by Amie Byers
A reading from the law- Deuteronomy 29, 10-15
10 “You stand assembled today, all of you, before the Lord your God—the leaders of your tribes,] your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, 11 your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water— 1
2 to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, sworn by an oath, which the Lord your God is making with you today, 13 in order that he may establish you today as his people and that he may be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 I am making this covenant, sworn by an oath, not only with you 15 who stand here with us today before the Lord our God but also with those who are not here with us today.
For the wisdom that guides us
we praise you O God.
A reading from the prophets: Jeremiah 31, 31-34
31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
For the word that inspires us
we praise you O God
A reading from the Epistles: Romans 12, 1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
SILENCE
GRADUAL HYMN
GOSPEL READING-
Mark 14, 22-25,
read by Rev Chris Wren
Hear the Holy Gospel of Christ according to St Mark, chapter 14, beginning at verse 22
Glory to Christ our Saviour
22 While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the[f] covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord.
SERMON
Our service today follows the order for the Methodist Covenant Service. St John’s, as I guess many of you sharing in this service will already know, is in partnership ecumenically with the Methodist Church. So, whilst the majority of our worship follows the patterns and orders of the Scottish Episcopal Church, we do regularly draw from our shared experience of partnership with Methodism. And one of those opportunities comes, usually, at the beginning of each New Year as we share in this annual renewal of our covenant relationship with God in this Covenant Service.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
The Covenant service has its origins in the earliest days of Methodism and was initiated by John Wesley himself. It has been said – and with good reason – that this act of worship, shared on one occasion only in each year, is one of the great gifts of Methodism to the Church Universal.
Covenant, of course, is one of the ways in which the Bible speaks of God’s relationship with us and His creation, a relationship which should be two-way – God with us, us with God. God is ever faithful, always loving, always caring. It is we, both individually and as a world, who fall short, who constantly need to be reminded of our need of God; reminded that it is only in relationship with God that we become truly human beings; that we have the possibility of becoming the people, the world, that God has created, and intends, us to be. God has no need of an annual Covenant service – He keeps His side of the bargain. It is we who need to renew our personal and collective commitment to our covenant relationship with God.
At the heart of the service is the Covenant Prayer, which the whole congregation joins together in saying, and which you, who share with us in this service online, also join with us in saying. [Prayer reproduced here after the Sermon, as it will be said in church, in place of the Creed] For, whilst the prayer begins: “I am no longer my own but yours…” and is, and is meant to be, a very personal and individual prayer – each of us again saying that this is who I am in relationship with God – it is not a prayer to be prayed alone, for Covenant is about community. The passage we have read from Deuteronomy tells of the formation of the nation, the binding together of a disparate group of tribes and peoples who have come through the experience of the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. It is through commitment to the covenant relationship with the God who has brought them through that saving experience of the Exodus that they are bound together and the nation is formed.
The prophet Jeremiah, as we have read, offers the promise of a new covenant, again with the nation – the “house of Israel”, but this time, because of past failure, “I will write it on their hearts” [Jer 31 v 33]. It now becomes a covenant which will be both individual and collective. It is the promise of this new covenant that we believe is fulfilled in God’s gift of Himself in Jesus, His Son; a new covenant relationship made possible, once and for all time, by His life, death and resurrection; a new covenant sealed in His blood. “This is my blood of the covenant” says Jesus at the Last Supper with His disciples. [Mark 14 v 24] Here is God’s love for you and me and all His creation made real in Jesus. And with it comes the invitation to again commit ourselves to relationship with Him through Christ.
The danger – and particularly, perhaps, because we share in this Covenant Service at the beginning of each New Year – is that we view all this as some kind of glorified New Year’s resolution, more observed in the breaking than the keeping! The challenge for each one of us is to recognise that we are loved and accepted as we are and only truly discover who we can be, who we are meant to be, as we live in relationship with the living God whom we meet in Jesus.
May the living God bless us, each one, as we journey on through this coming year with Him, our companion and friend. Amen.
The Covenant Prayer:
Therefore, 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.
I am no longer my own but yours.
your will, not mine, be done in all things,
wherever you may place me,
in all that I do and in all that I may endure;
where there is work for me and when there is none;
when I am troubled and when I am at peace.
Your will be done when I am valued
and when I am disregarded;
when I find fulfillment and when it is lacking;
when I have all things, and when I have nothing.
I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you,
as and where you choose.
Glorious and blessed God
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are mine and I am yours.
May it be so for ever.
Let this covenant now made on earth
be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.
SILENCE
As we have entered this covenant not for ourselves alone
but as God’s servants and witnesses,
let us pray for the Church and the world…
PRAYERS
Loving God, hear us as we pray for your holy catholic Church:
make us all one, that the world might believe.
Inspire and lead all who govern and hold authority
in the nations of the world:
establish justice and peace among all people.
Have compassion on all who suffer from any sickness,
grief or trouble:
deliver them from their distress.
We praise you for all your saints
who have entered eternal glory
bring us all to share in your heavenly kingdom.
Let us now pray specifically for our own needs and for those of others…
For those closest to us: family, friends, colleague, neighbours.
The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
For our church here at St John’s; and for churches and faith communities in Dumfries and beyond:
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
For our governments, Scottish and UK; for civic leaders, those charged with caring for others, and who exercise power:
The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
www.bing.com (Creative Commons)
For those in our own communities who are sick, or in need of any kind,
The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
And for ourselves; our own needs and wants, giving thanks for Jesus’ words that it is our Father’s great pleasure to give his flock the Kingdom.
The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
Lord our God,
you have helped us by your grace to make these prayers,
and you have promised through Jesus Christ our Lord
that when two or three agree in his name
you will grant what they ask.
Answer now your servants’ prayers according to their needs;
in this world that we may truly know you,
and in the world to come
graciously give us eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.Amen
Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Do not bring us
to the time of trial
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
BLESSING
Christ the Son of God gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.
HYMN –
DISMISSAL
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen
