Readings:
Amos 8:4-7
Psalm 113
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

Collect:
Merciful God,
your Son came to save us and bore our sins on the cross:
May we trust in your mercy and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness that is ours
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Reflection - The Queen and Us

The whole nation went into a state of shock on 8 September 2022, when the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was announced after being on the throne for 70 years. The reign is the longest in the history of Britain and the second longest reign of any monarch in the world. Since the passage of the Queen, there has been endless conversations about the impact of her reign not only in the life of this nation, but also in the entire world. The conversation about the Queen has been wide ranging, including her devotion to the service of this nation and the commonwealth, her charitable works, and her interest in sports, especially horse racing. While I cannot offer anything about the late Queen from a personal perspective, I can offer what I gleaned from her life based on some of her speeches and what we can learn from her death. 

The first thing we can learn from the Queen is her bold declarations about her faith in God. The analysis of her annual Christmas broadcast showed that while the Queen for most time spoke only in passing about her faith in the early years of her reign, her messages in the last twenty years have taken on a different tone, with the Queen explaining her own personal faith as – “the anchor in my life”, as she described it in 2014. 

Here are few highlights from recent years.

“2000: To many of us our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.

2002: 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.

2014: For me, the life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, whose birth we celebrate today, is an inspiration and an anchor in my life. A role model of reconciliation and forgiveness, he stretched out his hands in love, acceptance, and healing. Christ’s example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people, of whatever faith or none.

2017: Jesus Christ lived obscurely most of his life and never travelled far. He was maligned and rejected by many, though he had done no wrong. And yet, billions of people now follow his teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them because Christ’s example helps me see the value of doing small things with great love.”

I believe the above should challenge each of us about being bold to declare our faith in God using whatever platforms we have been offered just as the Queen did in her lifetime.

Secondly,

the death of the Queen should remind us of our own mortality. Psalm 103:15 states “As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more”. These verses remind us that as human beings, we are here today but gone tomorrow; hence, the question we should ask ourselves is how are we spending our time here on earth? Are we investing more of our time, energy and resources on things that we won’t take with us when we leave this world or are we investing in things that builds up our relationship and our walk with God? 

Thirdly,

the passage of the Queen is a reminder of the hope that we have in Christ. There are key verses of the bible that expresses hope in the face of death, verses which the Queen will have known in her lifetime. One of those verses is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him”. As Christians, our belief is that death is not the end of our existence, but this belief does not mean that Christians are somehow immune from or unaffected by the pain of grief and loss when a close friend or relative dies. But it means that we have a hope in something eternal that goes beyond life and death as we know it. And that hope sustains us in such difficult times.

For some people death might be a worrying, even frightening prospect. But Christians anticipate this meeting, confident that it will be a good experience. This is not because of anything we have done to earn God’s favour because we know that would be impossible; rather, our certainty is based on our relationship with God. We can therefore look forward in confidence knowing that beyond death, lies an endless life with God. 

The same hope is expressed (in a lesser way) with declaration, The Queen is dead…long live the King! in the understanding that there is continuity for the nation even after the Queen has passed away. Our prayer is that God will bless our new King Charles III with wisdom, good health and righteousness as he devotes the rest of his life to service of our nation and the commonwealth.

Long live the King.

Adedayo Adebiyi