I was asked to think about the Queen and Trinity Sunday
for my service this week. It got me thinking about three prayers and three
attitudes that our monarch might show.
I found this prayer for Trinity Sunday:
O God our mystery, you bring us to life, call us to
freedom, and move between us with love. May so we participate in the dance of
your Trinity, that our lives may resonate with you, now and for ever.
Our God is big, a mystery. Our Queen sees her reign as
vocation, as response to God, who is always there for her. She is a Christian,
but she embraces other faiths and promotes tolerance and understanding in
community. The Queen puts God at the heart of the nation’s life, reminding us
not just once a year on Christmas Day, but in what she does, that he matters
and he can help us.
I bought a book which came out 10 years ago for the
Golden Jubilee in 2002. I remember it was hot on Jubilee Weekend 10 years ago.
I did a wedding on the Saturday and hadn’t drunk enough, and I fainted at the
couple’s reception in the Masonic Hall afterwards which was a big of a talking
point! The book is about the spiritual dimension of monarchy and it reminds us
that lots of the times the Royal Family are visible and have their highest
public profile are religious in character – the Remembrance Service at the
Cenotaph, the Christmas broadcast and church service at Sandringham, the Royal
Maundy service, the Garter service at Windsor, royal weddings and funerals and
services of national thanksgiving. The writer says, “Television and newspaper
coverage of these and other events reinforces the image of a churchgoing Queen
who leads her country in the worship of God.” God is central.
Then a second prayer, which is about the Queen:
“Dear Father, thank you for our Queen Elizabeth and her
wise ruling over the United Kingdom for the past 60 years. Thank you for Her
Majesty’s shared faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask Lord for a continued
blessing of this nation through her Majesty. Amen.”
What sort of reign over us do we have in this Queen? She
is accessible, perhaps the most well known face in the world. I’ve been reading
some books about the 1950’s and the Coronation in particular. At the beginning
of 1953, fewer than two million homes in this country had a television set. In
the build up to the Coronation, 526,000 sets were sold, and 3,000 tickets for a
large screen showing at the Festival Hall went in under an hour. 20 million
people watched the service, 40 per cent of the population, and another 12
million on the wireless. It was the start of the television age. She was the
first monarch really to be in our homes, there for us, stability, a force for
good, our Queen.
So, what sort of leadership is Christian monarchy or any
sort of leader? We must look to Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, who
came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
Jesus saw leadership not as dominance, as dictatorship,
as bending subjects or citizens to the will of the leader, but as service,
bearing the burden, paying the price. His followers thought he had come to
bring freedom from the imperial Roman yoke. His kingship would change things,
but not in the way people thought.
Our Queen on her 21st birthday said her whole
life, whether long or short would be devoted to service.
She cares for her people, she works hard, she lives her
Christian faith daily, she knows Jesus makes a difference. She shares her faith
as we must share ours. If Jesus matters, we must show he does. This got me
thinking about the Maundy service. During that service, where alms are given to
the people, corresponding with the monarch’s age, ever since Henry IV, the
monarch personally washed the feet of the poor, up until the reign of James II.
After that the monarch wasn’t involved at all even giving money until George V
in 1932. But the almoner who is there and his helpers while not foot washing,
wear linen aprons as a reminder of the way of Jesus in this act of service.
Then thirdly this prayer which I have loved since it was
used at last year’s Methodist Conference:
“May God grant us the strength to seek justice, the
wisdom to care for all God’s creation, and the courage to proclaim the Gospel.”
How does God inspire us to go out and make a difference
in the world?
He is the power within us through his Spirit, enabling
us to have courage to proclaim the Gospel, to seek justice, to care. In
history, kings and queens have been judged by whether they ruled with
righteousness, and righteousness is literally having a right relationship with
God. We are in a Jubilee year. We learn from the book of Leviticus that the
ram’s horn trumpet was to be blown as a proclamation of liberty throughout the
land. During this year, all debts were cancelled, lands were restored to their
original owners and family members were restored to one another. Jesus
announced such an agenda in the synagogue in Nazareth, freedom for the
prisoner, recovery of sight for the blind, setting free for the oppressed,
proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favour – the year of Jubilee. We need
such a Jubilee today.
Returning to our Queen, people say when they meet her or
see her in the street, they feel special. That is the Christian calling for us,
the Spirit of God enables us to make a difference. People need to feel they are
somebody, and God’s Spirit comes into the world to enable.
I love Jean Vanier who worked with people who have
disabilities. He said, “Can we reasonably have a dream of a world where people,
whatever their race, religion, culture, abilities or disabilities, can find a
place and reveal their gifts?” That’s the sort of Kingdom, spiritual Kingdom we
all work towards. That’s the sort of country Queen Elizabeth II I believe tries
to govern. We need to be pointed to the Spirit, enabling us to make a
difference.
What will thinking about our Queen this weekend,
thinking about our God in three persons, thinking about the world and its need
for redemption and reconciliation and Jubilee do to us?
The Jubilee principle is that all people matter, all people deserve to live, all people can be free, all people can experience the year of the Lord’s favour. What does the Spirit do, the third person of the Godhead? It helps us see God’s future, it helps us perceive and judge people we meet, situations in the world, not simply on our own terms, but in the light of God’s new world, a world where all are included and no one is an object but a somebody.
A God who is there everywhere – a Queen who worships.
A God who is close in Jesus – a Queen who serves.
A God who inspires and is in the world – a Queen who
cares.
