Easter 5: and the coronation!

 Coronation Day and John 14:1-14

 

I hope at least some of you watched the coronation yesterday. I have to admit.. I loved it – I had looked at the liturgy of the order of service in advance, but even so there were moments that took my breath away, and others that moved me to tears.

 

There had been quite a lot of fuss over the last week, leading up to the coronation, about the oath of the people. “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God”. And then the later response

 “God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May The King live for ever”. 

 

For anyone who was struggling to work out whether it is right for Reformed Christians like us to pray for an earthly king, these might have felt like problematic words – and to pray that anyone ‘lives forever’ might seem strange.

 

 

And yet, as I looked at the gospel reading for today I heard, in the words we were invited to say, an echo of the word of Jesus “I am the way, the truth and the life.

Jesus says I am the way – and so we pray ‘God save King Charles’ and lead him in the way.

Jesus says I am the truth – and so we pray ‘Long live King Charles’ and may he continue to speak the truth.

Jesus says I am the life – and so we pray ‘May the King live for ever’ – not in this world, but in life eternal.

 

The whole of the service of coronation was just that – a Christian act of worship.

I loved the fact that the first words spoken to King Charles in the Abbey, by a beautiful boy chorister, were:

‘Your Majesty, as children of the Kingdom of God we welcome you
in the name of the King of Kings.’ 

And the response we heard from King Charles was: “In his name, and after his example, I come not to be served
but to serve”. 

 

Throughout the service we could not forget that this was an act of worship –  we were involved in praying for the King and asking God to give the King the gifts he will need to reign – many times the congregation had to respond “God save King Charles”. 

 

I was also very moved by “The King’s prayer” – after the oaths:  God of compassion and mercy
whose Son was sent not to be served but to serve,
give grace that I may find in thy service perfect freedom
and in that freedom knowledge of thy truth.
Grant that I may be a blessing to all thy children, of every faith and conviction, that together we may discover the ways of gentleness
and be led into the paths of peace.
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 

 

And the key moment of anointing, behind those amazing embroidered screens,  was symbolic of the Holy Spirit blessing and strengthening the King for his service of the people.

If your skin didn’t tingle with goose-pimples when the choir burst into Handel’s “Zadok the Priest”.. you should see your GP.

 

This was a coronation – the first I have seen in my lifetime – but it was also a profound act of worship. I hope that for King Charles the coronation day was one in which he felt that God was with him, and that through following Jesus Christ, his King, through the power of the Spirit he will be enabled to fulfil his duties as monarch.

 

So how do we move from that huge spectacle to this, rather more humble, act of worship?

 

The words of Jesus which we have just heard from John’s gospel in our worship are words which could speak to our new King and Queen – and also speak to us all.

We are probably very used to hearing some of these words from John’s gospel as words of comfort at a funeral service – just as we heard them at Denzil Jeremy’s funeral just two weeks ago.

 

Jesus promises us a place in “his father’s house” – a house with many dwelling places – and then further promises that he will prepare a place for us.

These are wonderful words, words of promise that at the last we will be with Jesus in the beauty of heaven. They are words spoken by Jesus to his followers just before his arrest and torture and death, and we look back seeing how Jesus wanted to guide and reassure his disciples through the shocking events which were to come over the next few days.

But these are words which we read and hear knowing that the Jesus who is about to suffer when he says these words is also the Jesus who is raised from death by the power of God the Father, the Jesus who also promises (at the end of Matthew’s gospel, after the resurrection) “I will be with you always”.

In other words, Jesus is not just promising peace at the last, that he will meet us on heaven – he is promising that he is with us on every step of our journey through life, through death and after death. That is why Jesus says “I am the way the truth and the life”.

Not ‘follow me and I will show you the way, the truth and the life’ – I am the way,  the truth and the life.

 

Walking with Jesus is walking the way God the Father intends for all human life – he is the way. 

Following Jesus means accepting that he is the human being who uniquely shows us what God is like “if you have seen me you have seen the Father” - he is the truth.

Jesus is with us whatever happens to us in this world and he keeps our souls safe into the next – he is the life.

 

These words of Jesus are not only meant to comfort us when we face the end of life – they are meant to guide us through all that we do in this life: keeping us following Jesus who is the way the truth and the life.

 

I don’t suppose any of us will ever face the awesome responsibility of beginning to reign a country – and yet some days our more simple journeys will bring challenge enough. This might be staying faithful and hopeful as we walk through a time of illness or infirmity; continuing to proclaim that this earth is God’s creation in a world increasingly turning to greed and destruction; or holding onto the promise of life in all its fulness despite grief and sadness.

 

To King Charles and to all of us Jesus speaks words of promise and words of wisdom – “I am the way, the truth and the life”.

 

And at the heart of this service today, as was celebrated at the Coronation service, is the Eucharist or communion. 

This is an act that can be as simple as the breaking of bread and sharing of wine, or as lavish as at the coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey. 

 

The meaning of both is the same – the true king is Jesus Christ and we are all his servants, and welcome guests at his table. 

He promises that he will guide us, feed us and keep us – to God’s praise and glory. Amen.