The prayer which is at the heart of the covenant is one which expresses our deep commitment to God. In its traditional form, it includes a phrase ‘put me to suffering’ which has been a subject of conversation for many years now. For some it is an important phrase which comes to us from Wesley and expresses something of the totality of Christian commitment that we make in the covenant service.
In its original 18th century meaning it was more passive, perhaps carrying more of the sense of ‘put me to enduring’ as opposed to ‘put me to doing’ which it is paired with. This is the sense of ‘suffer’ that we find in the King James Bible’s version of Matthew 19:14 ‘suffer the little children to come unto me’ but which would today be translated in a form such as ‘let the little children come to me’ (NRSV).
The 1975 Methodist Service Book (which only included the 18th century text) included this note about it:
The traditional words, ‘Put me to doing, put me to suffering’, do not mean that we ask God to make us suffer, but that we desire, by God’s help, actively to do or patiently to accept whatever is God’s will for us (page D1).
In 1999 the Methodist Worship Book introduced an alternative version which seeks to express similar sentiments in a different way. The corresponding phrase becomes ‘in all that I do and in all that I may endure.’ Neil Dixon, who was one of key architects of the 1999 book, published a commentary on it entitled Wonder, Love and Praise and he notes:
The introduction and prayer, as set out in 15B, are almost identical to the words which appeared in the equivalent place in The Methodist Service Book. These are the words that most life-long Methodists have always associated with the Covenant Service. But these words have not been without their critics. In particular, the words ‘Put me to doing, put me to suffering’ have caused concern and it has often been remarked that any words which need a footnote to explain them (as in 1975) should not appear in a liturgical text at all. On the other hand, the familiar words were precious to many people (page 119).
He goes on to talk about the process of producing the new version of the Covenant Prayer and wonders which in time will become more used. Around the Methodist Church, different choices are made about which version of the prayer to use. All our official publications of the Covenant Service include both versions.
How we respond to suffering and how we speak of it theologically has become more and more important as our awareness has grown of the experience of survivors of abuse. The report The Theology of Safeguarding includes reflection on the place of suffering in theology and Session 3 of the associated study guide God Welcomes All continues these themes. When the traditional text is used in worship, it may often be appropriate to address some of these problematic theologies of suffering (which might be read into ‘put me to suffering’) in the sermon or in other ways. In other situations, it may be more pastorally appropriate to use the newer version.
The full text of the Covenant Service is available online and includes both the traditional and newer version of the covenant prayer.