God Save the Queen!

This past weekend British subjects and American citizens were treated to a whirlpool of the ancient and the modern side by side. I confess to enjoying every bit of what I saw and watched. Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, preached his central theme: love can transform the world. He spoke with “enthusiasm and conviction,” things often not found in the high formal style of the Church of England.

Of course, Harry and Meghan were the apparent center of things around which all the joy and happiness of two young persons in love generate. The music was ethereal and the palette of color and ceremony of musicians, courtiers, cavalry, and royal guardsmen was almost sensually overwhelming. The beauty of St. George’s is truly that of another world and space; exactly as it was designed to denote.

However, a careful study of all the tradition and ceremony leads one down another path to a more sedate centrality; The Queen. Well into her nineties, she holds within her person the knowledge and history of basically three different centuries. The monarchy was still deeply shaped by 19th Century attitudes when she was born, and she lived to see the changes that adaptation to the 20th and 21st Centuries would bring. She is the world’s oldest living head of state. Under her reign the British Empire was put into the page books of history. Elizabeth II, has seen despots, dictators, kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers come and go. She never offers advice to her Prime Ministers unless they ask for it, but a long chain of them will immediately tell an inquirer that failing to take her advice is generally a bad move.

The Queen is not political but she is regal. She has almost no constitutional powers left, but her influence is vast. She takes her Anglican Christianity very seriously and has relied on it to guide her through some very dark times in the life of her realm and family. Elizabeth II, is in every way a power without powers. Ironic but true, and that may well be the reason why the monarchy survives in Britain.

Suppose for a moment, that like the Queen, we had only our integrity and our God to sustain us. I wonder how we would all fare? Elizabeth II, has managed to generate not just respect for her role as monarch, but genuine affection among the British people. Jesus is pretty plain when he tells his disciples that the way to lead persons into the Kingdom of God, is to love them into that place. Bishop Curry was correct when he said that Jesus started a revolution of love that, if Christians lived out, would make this old world new again and bring light into darkness.

Individuals, nations, families, and the world, need a figure that beckons us into newness of life and being; a way far above the grimy nastiness of the world, which we are to be in, but not of. So why not serve the King of Glory, whose kingdom is forever, and who invites us in, not as subjects, but as brothers and sisters?

See you in church on Sunday,