Readings:
Amos 6: 1a,
4-7 Psalm 146
1 Timothy 6: 6-19
Luke 16: 19-end

Collect:
Lord God,
defend your Church from all false teaching
and give to your people knowledge of your truth,
that we may enjoy eternal like in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Reflection

I’m sure many of us will have seen some or all of the TV coverage of the late Queen’s funeral this week, and we will all have been touched by different moments. For me, one of the most moving moments was in St George’s Chapel, when the sceptre, orb and crown – those great symbols of power – were removed from the Queen’s coffin, and placed on the altar. It seemed to me to be a very poignant reminder that everything – all power and authority, all that we have and all that we are – comes from God, and is ultimately returned to God. 

The Queen exemplified that truth in the way she so often spoke about her faith as the bedrock of her life. Underpinning everything she did was her faith in God as the one in whom all things are held in love. For all of us who seek to follow Jesus, we have in common that underpinning faith in God’s steadfast and all-encompassing love, however humble or however grand our own paths through life may be. 

In the Book of Common Prayer liturgy we have prayed for all the years of her long reign that God “may so rule the heart of thy chosen servant Elizabeth our Queen and Governor that she, knowing whose authority she hath, may above all things seek thy honour and glory”. And now, of course, we will pray the same for “Charles, our King and Governor”. But it is a prayer which, in our own way, we might want to pray for ourselves and for one another too: that we may remember that all that we have and all that we are and all that we do comes from God, and may seek always to work and live for God’s glory. 

Our reading from 1 Timothy this week picks up this same theme, urging us to set aside concerns for earthly riches and glory, and instead to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.” (1 Timothy 6.11) As we see around us the inequalities which exist in society, and look ahead to a winter in which many will be faced with material poverty, it is as well to remember that these treasures of the heart, these life-changing ways of being and living, are gifts of God’s grace, freely given to all. And it is part of our calling as followers of Jesus to use them to reshape the world in which we live to more closely resemble God’s kingdom of justice and peace. 

Just as, in the final moments of her funeral those symbols of the Queen’s power and wealth were offered up to God, so we too are called to offer all that we have and all that we are to God from whom all things come. One of the prayers which we sometimes use as we offer our money, time and talents to God’s service, is “all things come to you, and of your own to we give you” (an echo of 1 Chronicles 29.14). The late Queen, I think, knew the truth of that, and I pray that we may all come to know it more deeply too. 

Ruth Harley