Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II - The Servant Queen and the King She Serves

Homily – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

I can scarcely think of anyone who has gone through as much as our late Queen, Queen Elizabeth II. Of course, any 96-year-old has seen many, many changes throughout his or her life, but Queen Elizabeth saw and experienced many challenges and issues that none of us will ever face.

As befitting anyone her age, the general societal changes were huge:

-changes in family life and the workplace

-changes in the church of which she was Supreme Ruler

-the rise of the internet and the social media in its various forms

-the dawn of the information age

-the pandemic, and the disruption and the changes it wrought;

-tensions with refugee settlement and immigration;

-increasing nationalism and national isolation;

-and, of course, the looming spectre of climate change and global warming

And then there were the massive, seismic, earth-shattering changes that took place on a more personal level:

The abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, in 1936 thrust her father, George VI, totally unexpectedly, into becoming king in his stead and herself into being the heir to the throne. Remember, this was the king who was featured in the movie, “The King’s Speech’, a basically shy person, long belittled and put down, who suffered from a serious speech impediment.

Then the death of her father, after only 16 years, created another sea change in her life. At the tender age of 25 years she was now the queen.

Then, within mere minutes of her coronation in 1953 there was an even more unsettling crisis, one that was very personal, one that pitted family against faith and duty against desire. It was the possibility of a marriage between her own sister, Margaret, and a highly decorated member of the household staff, Peter Townsend, who, unfortunately for all, just happened to be divorced. She was torn between her love of her sister and her sympathy towards both of them, and her duties as sovereign and head of the church. Not the easiest thing for a person of such little experience as herself to deal with.

But, if she thought that this issue required the wisdom of Solomon and an incredible strength of character, there was much more to come:

The assassination of Lord Mountbatten by an IRA bomb in 1979 brought the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the looming spectre of terrorism very close to her, all the more so, seeing as Mountbatten was her husband’s uncle and godfather to her son Charles.

Then there was the disastrous fire in 1992 in her beloved Windsor Castle and the divorces of three of her four children that same year;

Then there was the death of Princess Diana in August 1997 and all the personal criticism that came her way concerning her response to that tragedy, as she tried to juggle her care and concern for her grandchildren with what the general public expected of her;

The death of her mother and sister within weeks of each other in 2002 was quite a blow, and, most lately the death of her soulmate & rock of support, Prince Philip.

And what is more, she needed to carve out her own place as a woman in a world that had hitherto been dominated by men.

And, of course, there were all those crises that were the affairs of state. And oh, what national and world crises would mark, indeed, mar, her long reign as Queen Elizabeth II: The abdication crisis, of course, which threatened the very future of the Monarchy; The Depression, the rise of Hitler and World War II The dissolution of the British Empire, the formation of the Commonwealth, and the handing over of Hong Kong, the last vestige of the once mighty British Empire The 1956 Suez Canal crisis, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Troubles in Ireland, and of course, 9-11 and the rise of world terrorism.

When it came to matters of state business, she had to steer a very rigid and unwavering course as a constitutional monarch in order to be strictly neutral with respect to political affairs, regardless of whether she agreed with the present government and its policies or not, or with its current leadership.

It has often been stated that, as queen in a constitutional monarchy, she had only three rights: to be consulted, to encourage certain courses of action, and to warn against other courses of action. Here Elizabeth was most dutiful and diligent in reading and digesting her daily Red Box of official papers, such that she was one of the best-informed persons on the planet, and well, she needed to be, for those weekly, closed door, private meetings she had with whatever prime minister was in place.

We will never know just what took place in those weekly meetings between her and the prime minister discussing official business, but I’m sure they were quite lively, and fruitful. One of her past prime ministers, however, did say that ‘there was nothing that he couldn’t say to her; that was the kind of open and frank conversation they had.

Anyway, after having shared this private conversation, the decision and all further discussion was taken out of her hands and put back into the hands of the elected officials.

And oh, what a breadth, what a wide swath, of world affairs and history, she has known and been part of. And what an array of world leaders she has known. She has known 15 British Prime Ministers (including Winston Churchill) during her long reign and 14 American presidents (including Franklin D. Roosevelt, JFK, Dwight Eisenhauer, Harry Truman), and many other world leaders as well, including Charles de Gaulle, Indira Gandhi, Ida Amin, Mao Zedong, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwane Nkrumah, and so many more.

I have read that the sovereign has only four official duties, that is, as required by law:

To open each new session of Parliament

To grant Royal Assent to legislation

To approve Orders & Proclamations through the Privy Council

To call a party leader to form the government when that leader commands a majority in the House of Commons.

But what unofficial duties she has or carries out is enough to stagger the imagination—and stagger a horse. For a person supposedly, by some accounts, that has no real job, she habitually worked more than forty hours a week. In fact, when it came to the famous Red Box of official state business she only took two holidays a year, Christmas and Easter, even to the point of having these boxes couriered to her while she was away at Balmoral or elsewhere. In addition to this:

-she hosted more than fifty thousand people a year, in dinners, receptions, garden parties, luncheons, banquets and teas, and that represents just the events at Buckingham Palace

-with other public events and state occasions, she easily met more than one hundred thousand people a year;

-and for a basically shy person, often speaking, and continually being in the public eye;

-and not only that, she was tireless in her efforts on behalf of the hundreds of charities, non-profits and worthwhile causes for which she was patron;

But what isn’t exactly known, nor widely publicized, is her behind-the- scenes, low key, quiet diplomacy and the effects it had--not in any official capacity, mind you, but effective all the same. Brian Mulroney, our former Prime Minister, for instance, let it slip what a tremendous role she had in ending apartheid in South Africa, and I have read that she had a great influence in preventing Ghana from going over to the Soviet Union and in arranging a peaceful resolution of the tensions over white rule in Rhodesia. For a person that apparently had no official power this is quite incredible. But, even apart from these things, many have commented on how Elizabeth was their rock, their source of stability amidst a changing and uncertain world. Elizabeth was there, and unchanging, even if the world was in a turmoil and in constant change and flux.

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Now, what isn’t always appreciated is how she managed to weather all these storms, how she managed to keep steadfast and focused and true to her calling through all of this. Concerning this, there was no secret, at least no secret as far as Elizabeth was concerned. It was her faith in God that sustained her entire reign as Queen.

I would suggest that there are three things that God provided for her or did for her:

a) Firstly, He was her anchor amidst all the changes and changing times. God, for her, was immovable and solid and could be counted upon, no matter what else transpired. Just considering all the changes and challenges that I have just mentioned, gives just a small indication of why this faith in God was so important to her, and so vital.

b) Secondly, God was her rock of defence and her safety. We rarely got a glimpse of how very stalwart and resolute she was, even in the face of very real danger—just consider the three known assassination attempts in 1981 or the Buckingham Palace nighttime visit by an obviously distraught and unbalanced Michael Fagan in 1982. To wake up to the sight of a bleeding stranger in your bedroom must have been unsettling to say the least. But Elizabeth the Queen took all of this in stride, often without comment and without missing a beat. In a sense she was a bit of a fatalist, as she was sure that God was with her, and was on her side, and so was confident that nothing could happen without God’s knowing and God’s planning.

c) And thirdly, God, Jesus Christ, was her example to follow and imitate. She chose to imitate Him in His care and love and sympathy for all people, regardless of background, and regardless of their faith expression, or lack thereof. Furthermore, she considered herself, as Queen, to be especially chosen by God, and anointed by His Spirit, in order to do His work and fulfill His wishes. To her, it was a sacred trust, one that she would never shirk or neglect through the course of her long life. Truly, she saw herself as a servant of God, and certainly as a servant towards her people no matter who they were. After all, Jesus had come for the entire world, not just a particular section of it. Indeed, even before she ascended to the Throne, this idea of servant leadership was already uppermost in her mind, already firmly established. In a radio broadcast from Cape Town, South Africa, on her 21st birthday, she made this pledge to the Commonwealth:

“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

And it was one that she embraced, not with any sense of compulsion, but willingly, gladly. As Queen Esther of old was reminded, Elizabeth felt that she was brought into this situation for such a time as this, and thus, had a duty to perform and a responsibility to carry out. A wonderful book, published back in 2016, described her well in its title, “The Servant Queen and the King She Serves”. Indeed, that is how she saw herself.

And, so Elizabeth, because of her devotion to God, was particularly keen on the Scriptures and was quite conversant in them, and was, in fact, patron of several Bible societies. Often her speeches and letters were salted with references to the Bible. Likewise, dear to her was daily prayer, and worship as well.

And so, in all this she can, and should be, an inspiration and example for all of us. Yes, in her servanthood and devotion to the wider good, but also her reliance upon Almighty God and her desire to serve Him in everything she did.