SERMON 175 – ALL SAINTS
CHURCH, WINTERSLOW
– SUNDAY 11TH
SEPTEMBER 2022
REFLECTION UPON THE
LIFE OF HER LATE MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II
Like
so many of you here this morning, I am not old enough to remember another
monarch reigning in this country. I was
born a couple of months after the Coronation in 1953 not far from Sandringham,
in Norfolk, close by where my maternal grandparents lived – indeed my
grandfather delivered milk on the estate.
My mother was baptised in Wolferton Parish Church next to the railway
station for the Sandringham Estate from which the body of the Queen’s father
was taken by train to London to lie in state when he died in 1952 and it was
quite common to see members of Royalty in and around the local villages. My
mother until mobility problems arose would go annually to the Sandringham
Flower Show and mingle with the Royals. Apparently when I was literally a babe
in arms the late Queen came across on one such occasion and smiled at my mother
and me. Now all that is a distant memory
but the legacy of Her Late Majesty as a Great Queen and Christian Leader will
continue for all eternity.
I
therefore choose to rejoice today in the sure and certain hope of resurrection,
joining with the ancient praise of all God’s people in the famous words of Job
19:
I know that my Redeemer lives,
and he will stand upon the earth at last.
And after my body has decayed,
yet in my body I will see God!
I will see him for myself.
Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
I am overwhelmed at the thought!
Job 19:25-27 (NLT)
Pause and pray
On
Christmas Day 1952 the new, 26 year-old monarch of the United Kingdom and 14
other Commonwealth nations, spoke for the first time to the world in what was
to become her annual Christmas broadcast:
'Pray for me,’ she asked, ‘that God may give
me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and
that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.’
It
was a prayer God answered. Elizabeth would make a series of solemn promises six
months later at her coronation, which she kept faithfully for the next seventy
years. The newly crowned Queen promised three things: to govern appropriately,
to maintain justice, and to profess the gospel of Christ. All this she surely
did until her final breath.
Also,
at her coronation the Queen was presented with a Bible as these extraordinary
words rang out in Westminster Abbey, and around the world:
‘We present you with this book, the most
valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom, this is the royal law,
these are the lively oracles of God.’
She
was wearing a priceless golden crown adorned with 2,901 precious stones, she
was sitting upon a throne in a thousand year old vaulted abbey, and yet God’s
Word was recognized as ‘the most valuable thing this world affords’. Thousands
of years earlier the Psalmist put it like this :
Oh, how I love your law!
It is my meditation all day
long.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is always with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your decrees are my
meditation.
Psalm 119:
97-99
In
her Christmas broadcast of 2000, the Queen reflected on the millennium year
with complete candour about the importance of her own personal faith:
‘For me the teachings of Christ and my own
personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead
my life.’
Almost
twenty-two years after that speech, more than seventy since Elizabeth became
Queen, we witness contemporary leaders failing and falling all around us at an
unprecedented rate. Notions of duty, of promise-keeping, and of accountability
to God can seem antiquated and even naive. But at such a time, Queen
Elizabeth’s lifelong example of consistency in private faith and integrity in
public service is both startling and inspiring.
Following
on from his mother’s own plea for prayer in 1952 we now pray that her
successor, King Charles III, will continue to uphold her strong sense of duty
and purpose and especially uphold the Faith which meant so much to his dear
mother. In his accession speech
yesterday he indicated that he will do just this and we, as a Christian
Community in this country, must do all we can to support him in this important
promise by the way we too act towards and pray for all his subjects,
irrespective of race, creed or colour, just in the same way Jesus himself did
so during his years of ministry on this Earth.
All that remains to be said at this time, therefore, is
GOD
SAVE THE KING!
Amen MFB/ 175/10092022
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