Sermons Author: The Rt. Rev. Michael Turnbull

In Celebration of HMQ Elizabeth II

June 25, 2016

Homily for Choral Evensong

 

I went up the Hancock Tower today and saw the beautiful splendour of this amazing city. It was then that I realised how you are able to seduce the very best of our English priests to serve here. It’s thanks to your Dean that I am here and it’s thanks to you for your typically warm American welcome.

57 years ago – 26^th June 1959 – President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II opened the St Lawrence Seaway and a few days later visited Chicago. She was the first British monarch to visit Chicago and was presented with a 6 volume edition of the life of Abraham Lincoln. Here she saw herself on colour TV for first time and had a tooth filled by a Chicago dentist

After a day ending after midnight and she said,“This is a day I will never forget.”

The Anglican Bishop then was Frank Burrill, a great civil rights campaigner and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. It was Bishop Burrill who designated this church as the Cathedral of the Diocese of Chicago. By happy coincidence I had lunch with his son last Saturday in London and he sends his greetings on behalf of his father. Since then there have been 11 Presidents but we celebrate today the 90^th birthday of the same Queen.

In the British constitution the Prime Minister holds democratic power but we never want PMs to be presidents – two recent PMs had a presidential style and it was not welcome. Both your president and the Queen are Heads of State but there the likeness ends there for the Queen has no political power. In fact her role is full of anomalies: Head of Judiciary but never sat in Court; Head of Church but never preached a sermon; Head of the armed forces but never shot a gun in anger; Head of a democratic country but no one has ever voted for her. Nor has she voted for anyone else. She is wealthy but lives her life as a servant; belongs to a free country but her career was chosen for her. Although she is 90 she still works a 40 hour day.

One of things the Queen is not constrained about is her Christian faith. In one of her Christmas broadcasts 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 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”

That must come in part from the Jewish/Christian tradition which sets out the pattern of servant monarchy from the time of Saul and David and Solomon. In our first reading this evening we heard of the passing on of authority from one King to the next but under the supremacy of God. Much of what was fulfilled when Solomon became King—godly promising, consecration by oil, homage by the people is reflected in modern coronation service.

She takes an oath to ‘Maintain the laws of God’.She is anointed with oil as ‘Zadok the priest anointed Solomon’as a sign of the calling and sacrifices she would respond to. She is invested with robes, given an orb or golden globe surmounted by a cross, given a ring as a sign of her marriage to the nation, crowned with the prayer‘that you may obtain the crown of an everlasting Kingdom by the gift of Him whose Kingdom endures for ever’, given sceptres with a cross and dove ‘as signs of mercy of God and the power of the Holy Spirit’.And then she isenthronedas a sign of her earthly role under the one who is enthroned in heaven. And all this is in the context of a service ofHoly Communion

So it is clear that from the beginning of her reign faith is at the centre of her perception of her role. And at the centre of what the country expects of her. It is faith written on wide canvas. Though she is explicit about her discipleship of Jesus Christ, she carries his love into a respect for all people of faith.

Let me quote her again:

“The church’s role is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. It certainly provides an identity for its own many adherents. But also, gently and assuredly, the Church of England has created an environment for other faith communities and indeed people of no faith to live freely. Woven in the fabric of our country, the Church has helped to build a better society – more and more in active cooperation for the common good with those of other faiths.” (2012)

It is therefore possible for a non-political monarch to exert a huge influence on the kind of society we are creating. Of course no King or Queen gets everything right. Not all monarchs have the kind of wisdom and faith that The Queen has. But their role—prescribed through history and an ever evolving attention to human development and changes in the world—remains at its core a spiritual one. It is exercised in public gestures of recognition and gratitude towards those who contribute to the wellbeing of the nation. It is exercised in symbolic ceremonieswhich highlight times of jubilation or devastation and give opportunities for corporate celebration or community sorrow.

Monarchy then is the living sign ofUNITY, STABILITY and CONTINUITYwhen all around seems to be uncertain and perilous. This very weekend Britain finds itself with a dangerous political vacuum when the unity, stability and continuity which The Queen represents are essential and nobody else is providing them. For all or most part of our lives we have been fortunate to see these ideals worked out through the personality, faith and purpose of a remarkable human being.

To see her walking up the steps of St Paul’s without help or getting soaked on a boat during her jubilee or taking a genuine interest in anything from space flight to the needs of refugee children – we have to be reminded that she is 90 years old. Around the world, parties like ours today are celebrating and wishing Her Majesty a happy birthday and more to come. Earlier this month saw a street party in The Mall in London for 10,000 people representing 600 charities of which The Queen is President.

In our home town we had a street party which gathered together neighbours from all sections of society, representing young and old, the professional and the artisan. Our chief commonality was our loyalty to the Queen and all that she represents. I cannot think of another occasion which would bring us all out to party together.

But we do it here in church in the knowledge that she believes all her achievements are accomplished under the grace of the God she worships and the Saviour she follows. As we heard in our second reading we pray that the spiritual powers of wisdom and vision may long remain with her. May she be at peace with herself as she boldly fulfils her vocation and humbly recognises the One who is enthroned at the right hand of God in the heavenly places.

At the age of 13, Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, asked what she would say to the nation when he had to speak at the outbreak of war. She had found a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins which she handed to him. The King quoted it to the nation

“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.
And he replied,
Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light
And safer than a known way.”

As Queen Elizabeth II enters her tenth decade we pray that her hand will remain in the hand of God.  2016 is proving pivotal for both our nations. We pray that we may be given a light to tread safely into the unknown and personally to put our hand into the hand of God.