Amos (8:4-7), 1 Timothy. (2:1-8), John. (14:1-6)
And I promise you that in those final moments, you will be brought into his embrace, his infinite love and his mercy.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please sit.
I think all of us have responded to the death of Her Majesty in different ways, and it stirred up all sorts of different emotions. We’ve been open all week, from nine in the morning until seven at night, and there’s been a table here in church at the side there with a photograph, a portrait of Her Majesty, a condolence book, some flowers and a stand, candles for people to stop and pray.
We’ve had over 500 people through this week. Over 500 people have signed the condolence book. We’ve used more candles than, technically speaking, our budget allows. But it’s been amazing having conversations with people and their individual response to Her Majesty. So many people have found themselves in tears here in church when they didn’t expect to be.
They just expected to come and sign the condolence book, but found themselves crying in this place.
And people have been asking, why am I crying? Why am I grieving for this person who I never met, I never knew, who did nothing for me day to day?
There are lots of psychologically sound answers to that. And you’ll have all seen that in the news where people have been attempting to explain why there has been this outpouring of grief, why there has been this complex response to Her Majesty’s death. But the more people I’ve spoken to here in Hayes this week, the more people that I have conversations with about this; the reason for the grief is that Her Majesty somehow stood for something quite special that we don’t see very much in the world anymore. She was a person who gave up herself to serve others, even though she had more opportunity than most to not do that.
In our first reading in Amos, “listen to this you who trample on the needy and try to suppress the poor people of your country”. Kings and Queens, those in authority over us in any way have more opportunity than most to hurt us, to laud it over us, to not act in service, but to act in their own best interests. As we get into our second reading in Timothy it feels like the best that we can hope for is to pray, especially for kings, and I’m sure he includes queens in that, but to pray that they basically leave us alone.
So scripture essentially asks us to pray that we are quietly and Godly governed, that we are left alone, that kings and queens can get on with their own thing and they leave us alone. But Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth didn’t do that. She saw her life as a deacon of the church, as somebody who was called to offer her life in service, not just to the people of this world now, but to all Christian peoples through all times. And she did that through service. She was a servant of the Lord.
As I said last week, the best Christmas sermon you’ll ever hear was at 3pm on Sunday afternoon on Christmas Day from Her Majesty. But also in her praying for people, that was her greater service, was her prayer for people. Her lived out Christian faith.
Her Majesty didn’t just leave us alone, but actively prayed for our well being. And through that prayer and through that faith poured out good works. And that’s the way it works. Her Christian faith poured out into the world in lots of wonderful ways. And the thing is, of course, we don’t see that in public life.
We don’t see that from our politicians.
I don’t know about you, but I often find myself praying that the politicians just get on with what they want to do and leave me alone.
But the Queen never did that.
And so we’ve lost somebody who demonstrated a way of living a servant life when they had every opportunity not to do so. And we’ve lost that symbol of goodness in our lives.
So I found myself this week watching the Lying in State, being… It’s strangely compelling viewing, isn’t it? Have you been watching it? Do you find yourself turning it on and just thinking, well, have a quick look and then 45 minutes, you’re still sat there watching it. It’s mesmerising seeing how people are reacting to being in that place.
And throughout all of the interactions with people I’ve had in church this week. And through watching the live broadcast of the Lying in State and watching people cross themselves as they came to that coffin. The words that have screamed out to me were the words that the Archbishop of Canterbury read from Scripture as Her Majesty was brought into Westminster Hall,
“Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
That piece of Scripture is so common in funeral liturgies. And to hear it as Her Majesty was brought into Westminster Hall, and to also hear it as a coffin is brought into the chapel at Breakspere crematorium, kings and queens and you and me alike, the same Scripture calls to us, “do not let your hearts be troubled”.
Our grief in its many complex forms is comforted by Jesus in this Gospel. “In my Father’s house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”
For every single Christian who is grieving the loss of Her Majesty, we know where she is going.
We know that Jesus is reaching for her hand in the same way he reaches for all of us when we die and takes us to His Father. We categorically know it. There is no if, and but. Or maybe this is what happens because Jesus told us so. He takes us by the hand when we die and takes us to His Father.
And in that moment we fall to our knees and face his merciful judgement.
And that word mercy is so important.
God throughout Scripture has responded to the petitions of people when faced with sin, when faced with people who’ve done things wrong. Jesus Himself, when faced with people who had died and he saw the hurt and pain in their hearts and written large on their faces, brought those people back to life. God’s mercy is written large across Scripture. And so when you do die and Jesus reaches for you and takes you to His Father and you find yourself in that final moment, you know, you face it in his mercy, the mercy that we see throughout Scripture.
And that is why we pray for the souls of the departed. We are praying that in that moment, God’s mercy will wipe away our wrongdoing, will wipe away any doubts, will wipe away all hurt and pain of this earthly life, and God will embrace his child and bring them home into heaven.
That prayer is so important because that’s what we see happen through Scripture. God responds to our call, he responds to our pleading for mercy, he responds to our pain and he does it in love.
Now, for the last 500 years, we’ve got caught up in this stupid Protestant Vs Catholic thing of you should pray for the dead or you shouldn’t pray for the dead. Well, all of that is irrelevant.
What matters is that when you are praying for somebody, you are praying into that moment, that moment when that person stands before God.
And why wouldn’t you? One last great act of love on your part for the person who has died.
I was thinking of my grandmother and she died when I was in my first year of curity in Hereford. In those days, I was very caught up with theology. And this is Protestant, this is Catholic, here are the rules and here aren’t the rules.
But when the Scripture was read at her funeral, I could see her there before God in those final moments. And I simply wanted to assault heaven with every prayer and ounce of love that I had for her in my body and say, God take her home.
And God doesn’t work in our time. Those prayers are not only important when we die, but across all time. And so I continue to pray for my grandmother, I light a candle for her regularly, I continue to pray for all of my family and all of my friends who have found themselves in that moment.
So yes, I am not surprised that we find ourselves reacting to the death of Her Majesty in interesting and varied ways, that it has stirred up in us feelings that we didn’t really understand, that we had.
But I say to you as Jesus said to us, “do not let your hearts be troubled for you believe in God”.
And I promise you that in those final moments, you will be brought into his embrace, his infinite love and his mercy. And I encourage you all to pray for those who have died, that they do receive that merciful judgement.
Amen.