Harvest Thanksgivings - not just for food

Here's my article for October:

Harvest is a time for thanksgiving - across the country churches and schools will gather for services which focus on being thankful for the world, and especially for the food we eat, those who produce it and also God who is ultimately responsible for it. It is quite right to give thanks to God for the gift of creation and all the ways he blesses us through the natural world. But it's not just the created world that we need to remember to be thankful for, we also need to be thankful for each other.

During the worst months of the pandemic we got used to being thankful for the NHS and other 'key workers' but this year our thankfulness has mainly been focused on one person: Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Earlier in the year we joyfully celebrated her Platinum Jubilee and there were many books, speeches, articles, videos and programmes talking about 'Our Faithful Queen' and giving thanks for her 70 year reign. In our Jubilee celebration service we thanked God “for the example of loving and faithful service which she has shown among us” and prayed that he would help us to “follow her example of dedication and to commit our lives to you and to one another.” We also observed that she herself “follows the example set for her, reminding us that 'God sent his only Son “to serve, not to be served”. He restored love and service to the centre of our lives in the person of Jesus Christ.' ” Then, last month, we recalled with thanksgiving her life of dedication and service as we mourned her death.

An important part of many funerals is the eulogy where the life of the deceased is recalled, and there is often a time of reflection where all those present can silently recall their own memories. I usually introduce this time of reflection by suggesting that the congregation thank God for the person who has died and also thank God for the way that God has blessed us through that person. As we mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth, so much was said about the effect that she had, not only on those who met her, but also on the course of world events. An unlike a lot of her predecessors and some world leaders today, she did this not through revolutions, battles and invasions but often with a simple gesture: a handshake, a nod of the head, a laugh.

The simple gestures we make may not have historic, world-changing effects, but they can change the lives of those around us, even in ways we cannot see. The song “Thank You” by Ray Boltz imagines a scene in heaven where someone is shown the effect their life has. Some of the lyrics are: “One by one they came, far as the eyes could see. Each life somehow touched by your generosity. Little things that you had done, sacrifices made, unnoticed on the earth, in heaven now proclaimed.” It's sometimes said that it's a shame we don't hear our eulogies before we die, so perhaps this harvest time we could say thank you to someone who's touched our lives.

Commemoration Service Sermon

Here is the sermon I preached at the parish Commemoration Services marking the death of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

If you've spent any time over the past couple of days watching the news on T.V. or online, or reading the newspapers , or listening to it on the radio, or even looking at social media – you'll have been bombarded with information about the late Queen's life and reign, and stories people tell about meeting her. And of course we have heard a lot of it already this year as we celebrated that historic milestone, the Platinum Jubilee of her reign just a few short months ago. I don't have anything original to add to that huge volume of information, anecdote and commentary (and you can still read my article on the Platinum Jubilee on my blog – please do like, subscribe and share! [you can also read my article on the occasion of her 90th birthday]) - I don't have anything original to say, but I'll keep in line with the tradition of 24hr news coverage, of which someone said “It's full of people with nothing to say, but who insist on saying it!”

As I've been listening over the past few days, two things have struck me: one about her life and one about her death. So firstly about her life. We have a tendency not to want to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Queen Elizabeth II there seems to be very little to speak ill of her about. Even those who don't agree with the institution of the monarchy, have expressed their admiration and respect for the person of Queen Elizabeth. It seems that everyone that has met her has spoken fondly of their memories, and even those who haven't met her describe her in glowing terms. Words like 'dutiful', 'fun', 'selfless', 'tireless' and 'warm' are often used; and people describe how nervous they'd been to meet her, but how she made them feel relaxed and at ease. Others say how she put the 'Great' into Great Britain, or the 'United' into the United Kingdom. The new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, called her “the rock on which modern Britain was built.”

One aspect that occasionally, but not often, gets mentioned is the deep, profound and living faith that the late Queen had. She was able to be the rock on which modern Britain was built precisely because she built her own life on that of the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ. She would often in her Christmas speeches say how her life was shaped by the example of Jesus and how she was sustained by her relationship with him. She was a faithful Queen – not just faithful in her duty to her people throughout the world but full of faith in the God who called her to her rôle. And that faith shone through her. Gavin Ashenden who was one of her chaplains said “The reason you like her is because you can smell God in her” and that seems to be true whether you met her or not.

He went on to say that her character, all those qualities people mention over and over again, are what Christians call the 'fruit of the Spirit' - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – when someone is full of God's Holy Spirit, this is what they are like.

So her life was a reflection and the consequence of her faith in Jesus. But what about her death?

You've probably seen various pictures or heard poems describing her death. They usually involve either Prince Philip coming to get her, or Paddington Bear leading her to heaven. I'm not sure what the theological significance of Paddington Bear is, but the idea that those who believe and trust in Jesus in this life will be resurrected and join with all those faithful followers of Jesus from throughout the ages in eternal life, is a deep rooted and biblical idea. But as we heard in our reading from John's gospel (John 14:1-6,27), it is Jesus himself that will come to get us so that we will be where he is. And the picture in that reading is of a house with many rooms – something that Queen Elizabeth was very familiar with! And it would not be inaccurate to describe this house as a palace, because it is the house of the King of kings, but in this palace there are no protocols to be followed, there is no ranking, there are no barriers or police cordons between the people and the King. As our first reading (Revelation 21:1-7) tells us God will dwell with us and he will be so close to us that he will be able to wipe away every tear from our eyes.

As a faithful follower of Jesus, this was Queen Elizabeth's confident hope and expectation, that at her death, her King and Saviour Jesus would come to her and take her to live with him forever. And ever so gently she would encourage us who are left to build our lives on the Rock that is Jesus, to turn to him in repentance and faith, that we too might live in that eternal palace, and meet her there, but most 
importantly to meet our Saviour, the Almighty and Eternal King, Jesus.



Here's the link to the service itself:

and here's the Order of Service:

God save the Queen!

Here is my article for June:

https://www.theplatinumjubilee.com/gift/

We are living at a momentous time in our history – celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of the Queen, and I think I'm on fairly safe ground to say that there won't be many of us who will be alive to celebrate another 75th Anniversary of a monarch's reign! I think I'm also on fairly safe ground to say that there will be quite a few occasions this month when we will sing the National Anthem.

Our National Anthem is less a triumphalistic declaration of the superiority of our nation over others, and more a prayer for the monarch. On a surface level this prayer is for the long life of the monarch, asking God to protect the monarch from their enemies. Though, as Eddie Izzard declared after noting her huge houses, surrounded by barbed wire and people with guns: “That's one saved queen!”  However, on a deeper level it is a prayer for the spiritual salvation of the monarch, echoing a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer that the monarch may always be led by God's will and walk in his way.

To focus our prayers on one person rather than the nation as a whole seems to be a bit odd for a National Anthem but there is a good reason. In the BCP Holy Communion service we ask God to “so rule the heart of thy chosen servant Elizabeth, our Queen and Governor, that she (knowing whose minister she is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory: and that we and all her subjects (duly considering whose authority she hath) may faithfully serve, honour, and humbly obey her, in thee, and for thee, according to thy blessed Word and ordinance.” This means that if the monarch is obeying God and we obey them we will be obeying God too. This connection was more obvious in the days when the monarch was directly involved in the writing of laws, but we can still see echoes of it today.

The celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee are rightly focused on the Queen and her personal dedication to her rôle. In this she provides an example of selfless service to be copied by anyone in leadership, but particularly community leaders at every level. But it is impossible to separate the Queen's sense of duty from her personal faith. In her Christmas message before her coronation she asked the country to “Pray for me … 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” and on her Ruby Jubilee, she thanked all those who had prayed for her saying those prayers “sustained me through all these years.” She consistently points to “the example of Jesus of Nazareth who, often in circumstances of great adversity, managed to live an outgoing, unselfish and sacrificial life” (2008), and reminding us that “God sent his only Son 'to serve, not to be served'. He restored love and service to the centre of our lives in the person of Jesus Christ” (2012).

So God save the Queen, and God save us through faith in the same Jesus Christ that she believes in and follows.