Today we celebrate the Queens Jubilee. Queen Elizabeth II is the first British Monarch to celebrate over 70 years of service and so even though we’d usually celebrate Pentecost today (or the birthday of the church if you like) today we’ll give thanks to God for the Queen and her service to over many years to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth.
All over the UK and beyond there will be street parties today (I say on Wednesday while I write this and pray that the weather holds) ? I don’t know how many of you remember back in the day – the Silver Jubilee in 1977 – maybe you’ve still got your cups or tea towels from then at home! Well, there’s a real buzz this year that I pray will bring us together as a community, just like we had back in the 70’s and I’m sure you’ll agree with me that we all need a celebration right now!
On Tuesday the 2nd of June 1953 at Westminster Abbey the service for the Queens coronation was held. I’ve had a chance to view the service which is held on the parliament.uk website and she really did sign up for some heavy duties and she was 27 years of age when she took up those responsibilities.
Just to put that into some context I took out my diary from when I was 27 and this is one of the entries: went to the Paradise Factory in Manchester with the girls. It was a foam party, so I danced all night, got a bit drunk and Zelda nearly lost her wedding ring in the foam, but a bouncer found it by crawling through the foam on the floor! Great night!
As you can see, I wasn’t the most responsible of people at that age!
On her coronation, Queen Elizabeth had to swear to the following among other oaths:
Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the Peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon, and of your Possessions and other Territories to any of them belonging or pertaining, according to their respective laws and customs?
Queen: I solemnly promise so to do.
Archbishop: Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?
Queen: I will.
Archbishop: Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel?
Queen: The things which I have here before promised, I will perform, and keep. So, help me God.
Wow there’s no way I could have done all that – then or now! ? and yet Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor has fulfilled those promises for over 70 years. Through times of joy and times of war, pain and suffering she has ensured God’s people have been governed. And she has done so while at times she must have wanted just to relax and maybe catch up with a few episodes of coronation street or as we’ve seen recently, she may have wanted to grieve the loss of her beloved Philip with her family around her.
In our Bible reading from Luke today (which was read out at the Coronation) we find Jesus answering a question about greatness and he says ‘Who is greater? He that sits at the table, or he that serves?’
For most of us, we would suggest that great leaders should be those who can fearlessly lead or those who can command from on high! But what Christ is saying here is quite the opposite. He is saying to lead successfully, to be great means being humble.
I guarantee you won’t find many business courses that suggest humility being the key to success!
But Jesus is saying that those who serve others in love and mercy. Who treat others with respect and not with absolute power or agenda? Those are the greatest among us.
Today we don’t only celebrate the Queens Jubilee. We also celebrate the birth of the Church, because it’s Pentecost!! Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit descended on all his disciples which enabled them to go out into the communities and continue the work that Jesus had started.
St Peter was so much like many of us here today. He was always putting his foot in his mouth. He was rash and hasty and could be quite irritable. Yet, Christ chose him to lead his Church. Why? Because he was also gentle but firm and capable of great loyalty and love. Peter was a humble man and I say this virtually every week but the reason we are here today is because Peter and the other disciples spread the good news of love and mercy throughout the world. They did that, not only in word but also in action.
A quote from Queen Elizabeth II says this:
“At the heart of our faith stand not a preoccupation with our own welfare and comfort but the concepts of service and of sacrifice as shown in the life and teachings of the one who made himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant.”
Royalty, Parliament, the leaders of our churches and the leaders of our communities’ care for those in their charge. Some may well think by being a leader that they are above and everyone else is below; but those who lead in humility understand people’s pain, they understand suffering and they realise that a little love and healing goes a long way.
Today we give thanks to all who lead and especially to Queen Elizabeth II who has given her life for the service of others. And just as Elizabeth gave her promise to serve back in 1953, we as Christians today continue to be led by the Holy Spirit who guides us in love, justice and peace. Amen.
