It is easy to feel a bit lost
We have lost our Queen, who – for those for whom she has been Queen - is the only monarch who we have known. She has given us a sense of stability in a constantly changing world, and of course a remarkable example of faith in God in both the and difficult times. We are usually allowed to play out our own dramas and crises within the privacy of our own families. She was never given the luxury of doing that.
And she has been an example of self sacrificial love and service, of dedication, commitment and duty. She has hardly put a foot wrong. At the age of 90 she was still working a 40 hour week. And she has done it for 70 years. The fact that she was appointing a new Prime Minister last Tuesday is quite remarkable.
Some of you here, I know, have met her, have been introduced to her – when she came here to St Andrew’s.
That is one up on me. Alison and myself never met her, although we can say that we were sitting this far from her at a function in Bury St Edmunds, and we were also invited to the event when she was present at the Yusupov palace in St Petersburg before she traveled to Moscow. On that occasion we did shake hands with Prince Philip. She was greeting the people on the other side of the room.
One of the people who interviewed me yesterday, asked me yesterday what I thought her legacy would be:
At the time I could not answer.
How can we talk of the legacy of someone who has always been there?
It is like talking about the legacy of a mountain.
And of course we will never know her true legacy; only God sees that.
But there is the legacy of a currently strong and popular Royal family.
There is the legacy of the fruit of the countless private meetings she had with rulers and politicians from all countries, and the wisdom shared and advice given and the example shown. But we will never know about that.
There is the Commonwealth which was very dear to her: currently 56 independent countries, often held together only by a loyalty to her. And at her death she was still head of 15 countries, including Jamaica, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. They can say, ‘She was our Queen’.
But I suspect that her greatest and most direct legacy to us all (apart from serial ‘The Crown’), irrespective of where we come from, will be the example of service and duty that she has shown us, along with respect for each person – whoever they were.
In 2020, in the middle of the COVID epidemic, she spoke of how, ‘Good Samaritans [the story of the Good Samaritan was one that she often remembered] have emerged across society showing care and respect for all, regardless of gender, race or background, reminding us that each one of us is special and equal in the eyes of God.’
And she has given us an example of a Christian life.
She was head of the Church, Governor of the Church of England, and she took that role very seriously. She had a deep passion for the Church, and a great awareness of what was happening in the Church. I had the privilege of spending some time with the person who was her ‘vicar’, and visited her home church on the Windsor Estate.
But it is possible to be a Church person and to miss out on what the Christian faith is all about.
She did not.
Jeremy Paxman, a UK broadcaster, said of her, that her religious beliefs are ‘quietly held, authentic and well-known’. She would speak of Jesus Christ every year in her Christmas message; some of those messages would put my Christmas sermons to shame – and she said them in 10 minutes!
She spoke of her own faith. In 2002, the year that her mother and sister died, she said,
“I know just how much I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God … I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel.”
And in her Christmas message in 2011 she said,
“… in the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:
‘O Holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us we pray
Cast out our sin
And enter in
Be born in us today’
It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.”
Her death is difficult.
Yes, a new era is dawning, and there is much reason for hope, but at the moment it seems as if one of the anchors of the past has been taken away from us. I’m aware that her death will bring back to us the pain of the deaths of those who we loved and who have now gone.
Many in the crowds greeting Prince, now King Charles, were weeping for him for the loss of his mother. But they were also weeping for themselves.
And someone said to me, ‘At the moment it seems that all the people who I admire are dying’.
The death of Queen Elizabeth again brings us face to face with death. We see and experience the pain that death brings, the way that it strips us of all who give us meaning and identity, all who we depend on and delight in; it shakes the most unshakeable pillars; and it can leave us feeling abandoned and lost.
And so, for just a few moments, I want to look at the Gospel reading from Luke 15 set for today. It is the story of the shepherd who searched for the lost sheep, of the woman who searched for the lost coin, and of the God who searches for lost men and women, girls and boys – and who delights when he finds them.
Yes, the story is told by Jesus because people were murmuring (great word), criticising him for welcoming ‘tax collectors and sinners’, the sort of people they would never want in their church/synagogue. And Jesus wanted to tell them that God so loves all people – especially those who know that they are lost – and that there is nobody who God would not reach out. He tells them that he is like a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, like the woman searching for the lost coin.
In his love, he sacrifices himself, he searches high and low in order to find such people. And when he finds them, if they allow him, he lifts them up, carries them home on his shoulder and has a party.
Perhaps today some of us are feeling lost, and a little bit hopeless.
It may be that we are despised by others, who see no good in us – or that, even by our own standards, we have failed and we see no future.
It may be prompted by the death of the Queen
It may be the current situation
And we feel empty and lost.
But the gospel reading today is the story of the God who loves you, and who searches for you. It is the story of how he puts you on his shoulders and takes you home. He delights in you. There is one lovely illustration in Isaiah which describes God like a mother, holding her baby in her arms, and singing over them.
It is this loving, saving, rescuing God who Queen Elizabeth served:
In 2011, in her Christmas Message she said,
“Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves—from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person—neither a philosopher nor a general (important though they are)—but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.”