If you might join us for one of our services on 11th September 2022 (9:30am Bodle Street; 11am Warbleton; 6:30pm Dallington) please look away now!
First
Reading: Judges 8v22-end (p251)
Second
Reading: Matthew 20:20-28 (p988); 22:34-40 (p991)
* * *
Outline / PowerPoint slide:
HER
MAJESTY THE QUEEN, GIDEON, JESUS & US
Judges
8v22-end (p251)
Matthew
20:20-28 (p988); 22:34-40 (p991)
·
Humble service?
·
The King of Kings
·
A king after God’s own heart
* * *
Those of you who are regulars will know that
we’ve been having a sermon series in the Old Testament book of Judges.
I actually chose today’s readings before we
knew Her Majesty was ill, but because of their themes of kingship, the death of
a great leader, service and love, I’ve stuck with them.
* * *
In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
So much has rightly been said in tribute to
her late majesty Queen Elizabeth.
Let us do better than the people of Gideon’s
day and honour all the good that she has done for us, our nation, the
Commonwealth and the world.
One of the most important themes of the last
few days has been the Queen’s long lifetime of faithful service.
You have probably heard again the broadcast
which Princess Elizabeth made on her twenty-first birthday,
on 21st April 1947, from South Africa, in which she dedicated her life to the
service of the Commonwealth.
Looking back to the victory in the war, she
quoted the words of Rupert Brooke:
"Now God be thanked
who has matched us with this hour".
She urged everyone to “go
forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart” –
words which we do well to heed today.
The Princess said: “To
accomplish that we must give nothing less than the whole of ourselves.”
She continued: “There is a
motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors - a noble motto, "I
serve" – the motto of the Prince of Wales.
She said: “Those words
were an inspiration to many bygone heirs to the Throne when they made their
knightly dedication as they came to manhood.
I cannot do quite as they
did”, she said, but, using modern technology:
“I can make my solemn act of dedication with a
whole Empire listening.
I should like to make that dedication now.
It is very simple.
I declare before you all that my whole life
whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of
our great imperial family to which we all belong.
But I shall not have strength to carry out
this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do:
I know that your support will be unfailingly
given.
God help me to make good my vow, and God bless
all of you who are willing to share in it.”
Her Majesty the Queen,
notwithstanding her most exalted position, understood humble service perhaps as
well as anyone.
On the
occasion of her Silver Jubilee, in 1977, speaking at a lunch in the Guild Hall,
her majesty reflected on her vow which she had made all those years earlier:
“My Lord Mayor, when I was
twenty-one I pledged my life to the service of our people and I asked for God's
help to make good that vow.
Although that vow was made
in my salad days, when I was green in judgement, I do not regret nor retract
one word of it.”
In fact, we are all made for the service of
God and our neighbour.
We will all fail in many ways, but there is no
higher, no better, no happier life.
Life is actually about giving, not getting.
The more we give of ourselves to God and to
others, the richer we shall be.
We gain when we give.
Selfishness, ironically, rots the self.
We turn today in repentance and faith from all
the times we know we have failed to love God and our neighbour.
And we turn to Christ, who alone perfectly
kept the Royal Law of Love.
A dedication to service like her late
Majesty’s is something which all of from the greatest to the least can seek to
embrace, in our own ways, however falteringly, by God’s good grace.
Today we can give thanks that her majesty has
fulfilled her vow with such exceptional faithfulness.
Surely Jesus has said to her, “Well done, my
good and faithful servant… come and share your master’s happiness.”
And King Charles has renewed that vow.
We pledge our loyalty and the support of our prayers
to him in his great task.
It is hard for us, who have known no other
monarch, to understand how revolutionary this concept of a monarch who humbly
serves is.
In the ancient world, kings were to be served.
The people lived for the king, not the king
for the people.
We can see in Gideon a rejection of kingship –
at least in word, in theory – a kind of apparent humility.
He says he doesn’t want to be king, but he is
happy to take some of the benefits of kingship.
Even as he repudiates the role, he’ll take the
gold.
Is this really humility, or does he in fact
want the rewards of office without their responsibilities?
We might almost accuse him of the abdication
which is such a horror to the modern British royal family.
Gideon, then, might almost be seen as the
opposite of Her Majesty the Queen who often had to keep her own counsel but
demonstrated her service not only in word but in deed.
Gideon’s words might seem good, but his
actions tell another tale.
There is actually a stream of polemic in the
Bible against kingship, to which the Gideons of this world might appeal.
The Bible knows that kings so often become
tyrants who wish to be served rather than to serve.
In the Bible the king will tax you, and make
you fight his wars, and like Gideon he may have a great many wives, which can
hardly end well.
In contrast, then, we have been so unusually blessed in Her Majesty.
She was indeed the Servant Queen, and as she
often said, she surely learnt this from the teaching and example of the Lord
Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom
for many.
Jesus Christ has revolutionised kingship, even
as he recreated the whole of Western Civilisation and beyond.
A God who gives and gives and gives.
Who even gives us himself, his life, who dies
for us to save us from the mess we've made and the judgement we deserve.
Another reason why the Bible is nervous about
human kingship is not only its tendency to exploitation and tyranny but because
in the Bible, God, of course, is King.
Gideon said to the people, you don’t want or
need me as your king: “The LORD will rule over you.”
Jesus is the King of Kings.
His empire is boundless.
He claims the allegiance of all people everywhere
and bids them come under his reign of love.
No merely human king can ever rival him.
In the Gospels, Jesus is crucified as king of
the Jews and some of the leaders reject his rule saying, “We have no king but Caesar!”
But there is a strong tradition in the Bible that ought to have taught them to say “we have no true and ultimate king except God” – of course he is the only real king.
Human kings are to rule in obedience to the
King of Kings.
We are warned in Scripture not to put our
trust in princes for even the best of men are only men at best.
It is by the grace of God that Charles is
king.
As yesterday’s Proclamation put it, it is “by
God” that “kings and queens do reign”.
We and they can forget that.
Our reading reminds us of our marvellously
inventive appetite for idolatry.
Loving God means obeying his word, worshipping
him in his way.
Even our supposed religion and spirituality, our
pious words and intentions can be a snare to us, even if we are great ones who
have been mightily used by God.
We so easily take things that seem good or even
things that really are good things and make them god things.
Again, her Majesty knew all this.
She often spoke of her allegiance to Jesus
Christ as Lord and Saviour, as her anchor and guide.
As we’ve been reminded, her majesty’s love
first of all of God, was symbolically represented in the coronation service.
Before anyone gave their allegiance to her,
she walked past the throne and knelt alone at the high altar in silent prayer,
bowing before God the King.
At the name of Jesus, every knee must bow –
even the knees of queens and kings.
And her Majesty would apparently get down on
her knees every day and pray.
If we are to serve others as her Majesty did,
we too need to ask for God’s mercy and help.
The conclusion of the book of Judges shows us
the need for a king.
In those days there was no king in the land and
everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
But ultimately we need not even a Queen
Elizabeth or a King Charles but a perfect King after God’s own heart:
King Jesus - the only one in whom we can confidently
put our ultimate trust.
Jesus, crucified and risen, rules and reigns
forever, never to die again.
We rightly vow our allegiance to king and
country, but as the hymns put it:
There is a higher throne than all this world
has known.
There's another country
I've heard of long ago
Most dear to them that love her
Most great to them that know
We may not count her armies,
We may not see her King.
Her fortress is a faithful heart.
…
Soul by soul and silently
Her shining bounds increase.
And her ways are ways of gentleness
And all her paths are peace.
Let us give thanks today for Her Late Majesty the
Queen.
And pray for King Charles and ourselves that we
might always bow the knee to the King of Kings and live lives of humble and
grateful service in response to all Jesus has graciously done for us.
And so to God the Father, God the Son and God the
Holy Spirit be all honour and power and glory, now and for ever, Amen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment