The nation has been in mourning this week as we face the reality of the death of the Queen (for surely she will always be The Queen for most of us). In common with churches around the land, we held a civic service. It was hard to know what to say when so much has been said and so much is known. we all, as I said, know the story. This sermon attempts to look at her faith which was so important to her. the truth is, of course, she wrote much of it for me, as you will see…
Thursday 8th September 2022 was a day we knew was coming. We knew it was coming because the Queen, quite simply, was in her 90s. We knew it was approaching when we saw her look suddenly older last Christmas, but what a year that had been for her as she said goodbye to her husband of 73 years. We knew she was gradually fading as she stepped back from duties and the younger members of the family took over. We rejoiced with her earlier this year at her platinum jubilee but the fact she could not attend every event hinted that the day was nearer. And we saw her frailty just 5 days ago as she met an outgoing and incoming Prime Minister, her last formal duty as monarch.
We knew it was coming but we didn’t quite believe it would. We thought we had more time. The London Bridge protocols were in place, and have worked in a way the British are proud of. We’d read, those of who had to, the bits that we needed and were prepared.
But still it’s hard to take in. She’d always been here, for most of us for all of our life, and had overseen 70 years of change more rapid than the world has ever known, and with more changes for the monarchy and the commonwealth (or Empire as it was) than anyone foresaw. You know the story, each one of you. The girl who was never meant to be Queen, but who took on that mantle like no one else has ever done and barely put a foot wrong in that role for 7 decades. A constant, increasingly wise with time, presence at the heart of our nation, every Tuesday afternoon with the PM, 3pm every Christmas Day after the turkey, in war time and peace, and a calming reassuring voice in the midst of the pandemic as she spoke to the nation. You know the story, and each one of you will have a favourite page of that story, a footnote no one else has read, a picture you recall, a script you know by heart.
An important chapter of that story began on the then Princess Elizabeth’s 21st birthday, in Cape Town, where she pledged, in words from that era that have become familiar again to us this week, that her whole life whether it be short or long shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.
It must have been a daunting prospect, even to one born into royalty. She was under no illusions of the cost it would mean in terms of personal liberty and choice, of the burden of office, and of the stress she had already seen it place upon her father.
And there are allusions to that challenge in the rest of the speech. The young woman spoke of needing others to join with her in the task – undoubtedly true – but also of a sense of history and calling, and of a quiet, understated faith.
Despite being Queen, with all the status and privilege that came with that there remained. it seems to me, a great humility about the Queen, an acknowledgement of a call upon her life, a duty to be undertaken, and above all a sense that this was beyond her own resources.
When she reached her silver jubilee in 1977, she reflected back on that speech declaring: “Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it.”
And as the years passed she began to speak, gently still – for this is England -, but with more certainty, of her reliance on God in everything, and of the example of service she saw in Jesus that she tried to follow. In 2017 she said
Jesus Christ lived obscurely most of his life and never travelled far. He was maligned and rejected by many, though he had done no wrong. And yet, billions of people now follow his teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them because Christ’s example helps me see the value of doing small things with great love.
One could argue, of course that being Queen and all it entailed was hardly doing small things with great love. But so often in the stories we have heard on the television this week, it has been the small gestures that people remember. The appearance of Kate Middleton’s home made chutney on the table at supper the first Christmas she visited, how she managed to put people at their ease even, as Theresa May did, when they dropped the cheese on the grass. Or, to balance out the politics here – inviting Harriet Harman to tea when she was sacked to say thank you when no one else did. Less well known subjects have countless other stories of private, small ways in which she helped alongside the great state banquets and meetings with other Important People.
Aware of her own limitations and humanity, she spoke of faith at the centre of everything she did Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace … is an inspiration and an anchor in my life. A role model of reconciliation and forgiveness, he stretched out his hands in love, acceptance and healing. Christ’s example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people, of whatever faith or none. (Christmas 2014)
Her example of faith through the years has been a great encouragement and perhaps even relief to those of us in the Church of England. There is after all, I suppose, no great guarantee that the constitutional head of our established church would have a personally held faith like this.
But in an increasingly multi cultural and multi faith world, that attitude of love and service to everyone because everyone matters is both an example we can follow from her late Majesty, and a reflection of the life of Christ himself who loved without limits and without prejudice even when it cost everything.
As we face significant challenges as a nation and a world, as war wages on our continent again, as people fear for their livelihoods and even in this town as Foodbank use increases again it can become all too easy to fracture as a society, to create walls instead of bridges, to hunker down and look out for ourselves. Perhaps we would do well to listen again to the words of our servant Queen in 2015. Words which seem appropriate still
It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’… Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ’s unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another.
May she rest in peace and rise in glory
Photograph (c) Press Association used with permission
Musings of a Maverick Priest 