Day Twenty-Seven - The Ring, Please!

         Now the beautiful sapphire and ruby ring is placed upon the Queen’s finger.  It weighs an astounding 84 and ½ carats.  Rubies form a glittering cross over the enormous sapphires, and fourteen diamonds encircle the stones.

         This is the Wedding Ring of England, worn on the ring finger of the right hand.

         We hold out our hands . . . what signet do we see there?  The Prodigal Son was adorned with the Father’s ring; the naked castoff was washed and clothed and given the jewels of honor to wear.  (Luke 15:22, Ezekial 16)

         “Receive the ring of Kingly dignity, and the seal of Catholic faith.”  This is the band of faith in Jesus Christ, and it signifies " 'till death do us part' " in her relationship with her people.

         Does it sparkle, the ring upon your finger?  Does it gleam with promise?  Does it betoken love and eternal fellowship?

         Famously, during the Coronation Service for Elizabeth’s Great Great Grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Ring was forced onto the wrong finger causing Her Majesty excruciating pain during the rest of the ceremony.  Here is a pithy and poignant reminder for all of us: despite the hundreds of admonitions written in Scripture for our encouragement, written to inspire our love, our devotion, our service, and our very high place in Christ Jesus our Lord, many do walk away from the Betrothal.  Never will He force it upon our finger.  Nearly all of us at times want the crown without the ring. 

         He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?  (Micah 6:8)

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness . . . Eph. 4:1,2

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1,2)

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

These are “Kingly dignity” passages, the call to a majestic vocation, but may we, with deepest respect and reverence, bow before the King Who gives a ring and takes us as His own in love.

The Coronation Ring

Wikipedia

Day Twenty-Six - "Take the World, but Give Me Jesus"

         “Receive this Orb, set under the Cross, and remember that the whole world is subject to the Power and Empire of Christ our Redeemer.”

         With these words, the golden Orb, one of the most valuable pieces of the Regalia, was presented to Elizabeth, from the Altar of God.  Outside, in the Coronation Coach, a special bracket had been fixed that she might carry it all the way from the Abbey on the return to Buckingham Palace, in full view of all the crowds that had filled every inch of space along the route, as many as twenty deep.

         Constitutional Monarchy is an unusual thing.  The Queen must summon Parliament, but the notes she reads there are not her own and must be read word for word.

         Money and passports and stamps are issued in her name; ambassadors conduct their transactions on behalf of Her Majesty, but Parliament tells them how to proceed, what to do.  It is said that if ever a Monarch were condemned to death, he or she would have to sign his own death warrant.

         Certainly, Elizabeth did not receive the Orb as did many of her early predecessors, not with that kind of power, nor that kind of danger.  The spectators that would cheer to see it knew that it meant blessing and protection to them, not taxation and servitude. 

The world has turned over.  People are vested with personal responsibility for self-government, and in many countries, government is subject to the people.  Yet, in a mysterious way, Kings and Queens of today remind us that when God begins to bless a nation and chooses to lift a leader into prominence, royal or spiritual . . . royal and spiritual! . . . He knows where they live; He remembers what He has begun.

         Shall we consider today what alterations we might have to make if we were to become responsible “under God?”  If it were our duty to lead a nation, if it were our responsibility to shepherd a people, if we were King David’s rightful heirs or sons of the Levites . . . or Windsor children in line for the throne . . . what advice would we give ourselves?

Would we be sure we knew and understood what God says about leading and serving?  How would we make sure?  Would we be very watchful that our everyday guidance came from God so that we would not make tragic, national mistakes?  How would we make certain it were so?  Would we lead and reign in peace wisdom?  Would we determine that our high and exalted position would make and not break us?  How could we be sure? 

         It would be hard to miss the point . . . we do reign, all of us, over something.  Some reign over a home, some over a classroom, over an office, over our own children, over a military platoon or brigade, over a bus or a business; everyone reigns somewhere.  At the very least, we reign over our own souls, or we are meant so to do. 

Oh, that we would take as much care over these urban and suburban and interior monarchies as Elizabeth swore to take over her peoples!  We have the privilege of safeguarding and prospering their souls and ours as we pray, wherever faith and hope have given us a spiritual dominion.   We hold the Orb of compassion, whenever we cannot bear to see depression, divorce, disease, despair, deception and death reigning in the lives of others.  Many of us hold someone’s “world” in our hands.

Toward that exalted end, the Word of God reminds us from Genesis to Revelation that all God bequeaths to us, He will perform; He will bring wonderful success … we are His workmanship, with great responsibilities over which we must reign.  (Ephesians 2:10)

         Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that (Joseph) did to prosper in his hand.(Genesis 39:3)

         And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.  (2 Corinthians 9:8)

(Title quote attributed to Fanny Crosby, blind hymn-writer)

Day Twenty-Five - Not Yet Crowned

  The Queen, Her Majesty Elizabeth II, is robed in splendor.  Still bare-headed before God, not yet “Inthroned,” she has been endued with royal majesty and Anointed for the gifts and graces of sovereignty that come only from the Spirit of God.  St. Edward’s Chair has been her seat, as it has been for sovereigns before her for hundreds of years.  Beneath it lay the Stone of Scone (the “Stone of Destiny,”) Scottish Coronation Stone, captured but returned to the Scots, with the proviso that it be on hand for the Coronation of every British monarch.  More than the non-British can understand, this day has not been Elizabeth’s alone; it has belonged, it has been sacred, to her and to her people together.

As perhaps “they” have not always understood the roots and the effect of American liberty, “we” have also not always comprehended why the British would wish to have a King or Queen to stand for them before God.  Some monarchs have done just that; others have not.  Some have been fiercely protective of their country and their subjects; others have been only fierce, and even reprobate.  It is likely that Elizabeth’s father, King only through the abdication of Edward VIII, kept Great Britain from Nazi overthrow and maintained a vital resistance until intervention prevailed at last.

Interviews with police officers, statesmen, her ladies-in-waiting, peers in attendance, choristers, and by-standers who took part in the great Coronation Day of 1953 repeat the same sentiment … if they could re-live any twenty-four hour period in their lives, it would be that day.  It was a holy occasion of calling upon God, of hoping that He would give them grace in their earthly sovereign, of being deeply grateful that Brittania remains. 

         They have different personal recollections, but so many tell how delicate and young Elizabeth looked, and yet how perfectly ready and suited for the job at hand.  They say that the standing was interminable, but the ceremony seemed brief.  They all say that the sounds, the music and the intense volume of the choirs and the rustling of her robes and the shouts of acclaim, were the most exhilarating parts of the whole.  Interviews fifty years later brought a glaze over their eyes and caused their voices to break with emotion.

         We are taking time today, just as there were a couple of moments during the ceremony when time itself seemed to stand still, to be there with her and to be here together, robed in the garments of praise and righteousness, pure with the purity of our redemption, anointed by the Spirit of God, without oaths but with the decision that God will honor and to which He responds: we will walk with God.  We will be led by, we will be filled with His Spirit.  Our lives are His, and He is our life.

         Her Majesty has out-lived a great many of those who were in attendance, and we give thanks for her long life.  Long live Queen Elizabeth!  It must be wonderful to have anthems sung, people asking wherever one goes, that God may give one a long life, full of happiness, victory, and choice gifts from His tremendous store.

         The Word of the Lord tells us that songs are sung over us, and these not by choristers but by God Himself (Zephaniah 3:17.)  Perhaps angels join in.  What does He sing; what are the lyrics of His Song?  Some of them are penned in the Song of Songs, words like  . . .

You are altogether beautiful, my darling;
    there is no flaw in you. …

 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; 
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! 
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!  (Song of Songs 4:7-10)

         Who can answer a love like this?  How humbling must that Day have been for Her Majesty!  The love and the honor her peoples give to her has always been her support and her stay … we are loved by God.  He bears us in His arms.  He is the Lifter of our Heads.  He has loved us with an everlasting love and drawn us with cords of love.  His delight is in us, His faithful ones.  Our seat is unspeakably higher than her Chair and even than her Throne … we are seated in heaven even now, with God in Christ (Colossians 3:1, 2)   We trust that her Throne was high to her because her soul was, as ours, God's own.

         We have a few more days to spend together, and we will see Elizabeth crowned and enthroned.  May God grand that before this week is past, we will see ourselves where we belong, in Christ, at the right hand of God, loved, strengthened, forgiven … and royal.

Detail from Pietro Annigoni's portrait of Her Majesty,

National Gallery

Day Twenty-Four - The Mantle

         Again the Queen stood, now to receive the Stole Royal and the Robe Royal.  Already resplendent, she was about to be gowned in the magnificent golden “Mantle,” a cloth-of-gold garment, four-square, lined with crimson satin and embroidered with silver-threaded eagles and crowns.

First, the Stole Royal was presented and put in place, just like the long and often beautifully embroidered stoles worn by priests.  There are several ideas as to the significance of this piece, ranging from the illustration of the towel with which Jesus girded Himself and washed His disciples’ feet, to the binding cloths that wrapped Him in death.  We wish we knew what this piece meant to Her Majesty, but we know it was as close to a liturgical garment as she would receive.  It was draped over her neck and very gently around her arms.

Now the Close Pall, the Pallium, the Robe Royal. 

“Receive this Imperial Robe, and the Lord your God endue you with knowledge and wisdom, with majesty and with power from on high; the Lord clothe you with the robe of righteousness, and with the garments of salvation.”

Oh, in the Name of the Lord our King, do we not see, do we not know, that these are words which belong to our tongues, to speak what Elizabeth must have felt that day, to rejoice in them continually, and just as she may do in her own spiritual clothing?  Isaiah 61:10 . . .

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

As one of the peeresses gasped audibly when the Robe was held up for Her Majesty to put on, our garments are enough to make her faint!  They are enough to make us “faint not,” but to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power!

         This was a cope, like those worn by archbishops, priests, and popes,  woven of pure cloth of gold, embroidered with roses, the Tudor symbol, and the thistles, leeks, and shamrocks of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, respectively.  At this moment, as much as at any other time in the ceremony, it was as if the Church hierarchy welcomed her among them. 

         When the Representative of God’s people in a certain place has authority and bestows it thus, the wise will take hold with faith and humility and never let go.

         We may, if we will, go today to words that have been spoken to us by God’s  Only Begotten Son, Who is in the Exact Image of God; we may seize and hold, with true faith and in the power of right humility, the truth we hear . . . and never let go

         “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”  (John 17:22, 23)  Amen.

Queen Victoria in Coronation Robes

Charles Robert Leslie, public domain

Day Twenty-Three – The Armills

         For the first time since the coronation of the first Elizabeth, the Dean of Westminster brought the two Armills from the Altar.

         These were bracelets, wide and thick and solid gold, lined in velvet as cushioning for the Queen’s wrists.  The Armills were a unique addition to the ceremony, for they were the gifts of the people to their Sovereign.  They were, symbolically, Sincerity and Wisdom.  The Archbishop’s prayer was that they would “betoken the Lord’s protection, embracing her on every side,” and be to her “pledges of the bond which unites you with your Peoples,” whose gift they were.

These words were spoken also, that she would be “strengthened in all her work” and protected against every enemy, “bodily and ghostly.”  It is of interest to us, and important, that attention was given to Her Majesty’s spiritual protection, and that Sincerity and Wisdom were given for her defense.  It was a wise gift!  Sincerity and wisdom do safeguard us, when we keep them close and live by them.

In this moment of the Coronation Ceremony, her subjects were taking part, like the aunt whose necklace the bride wears to her wedding.  Both Elizabeths wore this honored gift, the people’s contribution in the presentation of the Regalia. 

We look, sometimes in vain, for Sincerity and Wisdom in our leaders.   Not politically correct sincerity, but the kind that is what the word implies sin cere . . . without wax.  As products of old were so labeled, that the purchaser would not go home with water vessels  fashioned with wax fillers that would melt and result in leaks, we want to be led by those whose lives and policies won’t melt in the heat of day.  We want to be those whose lives and testimony won’t melt in the furnace of life.

One thing is certain . . . Elizabeth hasn’t melted.  In her designer clothes and fetching hats, her pocketbook over her arm and her smile even more warm today than it was on that glorious morning, she doesn’t melt.   The Armills are stored away for another Coronation Day, but she has fastened Sincerity and Wisdom about her, as must all of us, here in the royal Kingdom of God’s Son.

The Armills

Wikipedia

Windsor Family

         The Windsors have been a rare and wonderful mix of devotion to duty and delight in simple pleasures.  They seem to do well, as is true for most of us, when they marry light hearts to regimentals. 

         The Queen’s mother, nee Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was the life of every party in sweetness and fun, sought after by all but won by none, until Prince Albert came along.  It took time (and three proposals of marriage!) to convince her to leave her happy home life in Scotland, to trade it in for a royal husband.  Prince Albert, later George VI, was wound much tighter than she, but he adored her.  She lacked neither money nor position, and she wanted no part of the intrusions of monarchy, even in marriage to a second son.  They loved one another, enjoyed one another, and weathered the abdication and the horrors of World War II hand in hand and heart to heart.  This happy soul lived a year beyond her hundredth birthday, at which she insisted upon standing at the gate to receive the salute as a long parade in her honor passed by Clarence House.

         Her daughter is the more regimented of the two current occupants at Buckingham Palace, by necessity and probably by nature, as well, although the Duke of Edinburough was an up and coming Lieutenant in the British Royal Navy for many years.  He is the jokester, and not without incident, but she loves to laugh, so they’ve managed well together, even with the media finding fault, severing trust, and opening tender schisms in their family.  Despite the personal tragedies of more recent decades, they’re still laughing.

         The Windsor family is, essentially, just like yours and mine, under glass.  Always scrutinized.  Never off the clock, not entirely.  They stay close; they keep going.  Perhaps they know that the vast majority of people are pulling for them.  Let’s hope they do.  That would have to help.

         

The Princess of York

Elizabeth with a Disabled Soldier

public domain

Day Twenty-Two – 100 Shillings

It means much to the British that those who defend others are by their Monarch defended. 

With a surreal metallic rustling of the twenty-three pound Supertunica upon the Abbey floor, the Queen was making her way to the Altar once again.  Still bare-headed, she was bringing the beautiful, sparkling Jewelled Sword, back to the Lord. 

It lay flat and glittering upon the open palms of her upturned hands; her concentration seemed divine and fierce and childlike, all at the same moment.  A Monarch, a Queen, a woman . . . a young woman . . . covered from her neck to the floor in the coat of silk, each thread wrapped in gold, bearing the Sword of the Offering, the Monarch's personal sword, back to the Altar of God.

It could not remain there.  The Marquess of Salisbury stepped forward once more.  In his hand was an embroidered bag, tied tight.  In it were 100 newly minted shillings, for the Sword had to be redeemed.  He who had borne the Sword of State now bore the Queen's own Sword.  He would, according to royal tradition, "carry it naked before her Majesty during the rest of the solemnity."  The 100 shillings would become an everlasting treasure belonging to those who serve Abbey Westminster, and the Sword, redeemed from the altar, spoke for the nation: “We will guard and watch over the gift God has given us in this woman, for she guards us before Him.”

              The Kingdom of God must be fought for, and aggressively, but not with earthly swords.  Through perseverance in faith and prayer, love and worship, speaking the truth of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we obtain a heavenly victory.  In Matthew 11:12 Jesus said that, from the days of John the Baptist to that moment, the Kingdom of heaven had been suffering violence, allowing violence, and that the violent were taking it by force.  For all that we may not understand about this verse, we know that each of us cut away our sin, our pride, and our old nature in order to have all that is ours in Christ Jesus . . . forgiveness, peace, reconciliation with God, purity of heart and soul.   For many it was a violent upheaval, for we loved that which hated us and we feared the God Who loves us.  His love triumphed, and the mighty Sword of His Word plundered our defenses, and we were free!

Her Sword, presented to her from the Altar of God, at the hand of God's representative.  Her Sword, returned by her to the Altar of God, in tunic of humility and garments of majesty, with uncovered head.  Our lives, given to us by God, our power and strength, needed redemption.  We required redemption.

God-given sovereignty is guarded by those whom sovereignty guards!  It is a bit of a dance, but we understand.  We guard our will by the watchfulness and the power that gave us liberty to act upon righteous decision and purpose.

Each of us has a sovereign will, and each may guard it by the Sword which goes before us, the Word of God.  Beyond price, beyond calculation, is the beauty and the glory of guarding every gift and power of God that has been redeemed on the Altar of God, honoring one another, bearing unsheathed the defense of the majesty of all, the power given to each to become a son of God.

Photo credit:

Rotherham Web, the Sword of the Offering

Day Twenty-One – Sword Dance

From the moment of the Queen's arrival at the Abbey, the elderly Marquess of Salisbury had been bearing, in two handed grip, with the blade upright, the Great Sword of State.  It is an enormous weapon, over 4 feet in height and weighing more than eight pounds, and it is splendid to behold.  The sword is crossed with the lion on one side of the hilt and the unicorn on the other; the scabbard is fabulously worked with jewels in the floral symbols of the United Kingdom.

Now, something of a Sword Dance began, as the aged (but able!) Marquess at last surrendered the Great Sword of State to the Lord Chamberlain of the Household, and then the Sword of the Offering was placed in his hands.  This one is known to be the truly beautiful sister, sword and scabbard covered with the rarest gems, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies, blade of Damascus steel.  Its price is beyond calculation.  It was presented unsheathed to the Archbishop, who brought it before God at the Altar, praying these words from the Liber Regalis (Regal Book,) that the Queen might use it “as the Minister of God for the terror and punishment of evildoers, and for the protection and encouragement of those that do well.”  Somebody has been reading their Scripture passages!

Then, joined by the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of London and Winchester, the bejeweled Sword caught the light and sparkled all the way to Elizabeth and was placed upright in her hand.

The Archbishop prayed as Her Majesty received the only sword that would be presented to her.  The others were borne before her.  “With this Sword do justice, stop the growth of iniquity, protect the Holy Church of God, help and defend widows and orphans, restore the things that are gone to decay, maintain the things that are restored, punish and reform what is amiss, and confirm what is in good order . . .”  This sword came to Elizabeth through her subjects, to the State, to the Church, to God, and again through the Church to the Queen, which is to say, State and Church acknowledged her right to bear it.

Our Sword is of God; rightly understood, our Sword is God, as Jesus Christ is the Word, and the Word is our Sword. (Ephesians 6:17)  By it we invoke justice, the Lord’s brand of justice, with mercy triumphant, and we pray for those who are desperate, fallen and lost.  We stop the growth of iniquity where fear and depression and violence seek to harm those we love, protecting and defending them with the very effectual prayer of faith from the heart of a righteous subject of God Most High.  We care for widows and orphans, restoring decayed family relationships and confirming what is good through our worship and praise and intercession.

But there is more  . . . let us pray today, pray as those who bear the Sword of God, and tomorrow we will see more of this great display of power, protection, and privilege.

The Sword of State, Wikipedia

Day Twenty - A Word About Chivalry & The Golden Spurs

 The Queen resumed her seat in St. Edward’s Chair, and the Golden Spurs, the Spurs of St. George, were brought to her touch.

The Spurs made their first appearance at the coronation of King Charles II in 1661.  They represent chivalry and the orders of Knighthood which support the Sovereign.  Her Majesty’s role in all Order of the Garter ceremonies is without doubt one of the most important in her calendar.

She is a member, ex oficio (by reason of her office,) as is the Prince of Wales.  She alone may appoint new knights to the order, and her grandson, Prince William, was invested the 1000^th Knight of the Garter, a very proud day for Her Majesty and the Windsor family.

The Order of the Garter is the oldest continuing chivalric assemblage in existence, founded in 1348 (or perhaps a few years earlier,) and having an uncertain formation.  The popular story is that Edward III, while dancing at a ball one night, saw Joan, the Countess of Shrewsbury, lose her garter on the dance floor.  It is said that he retrieved it, put it on his own leg, with the words, Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense, which has become the motto of the Order: “Shame (or evil) on him who thinks evil of it.”

The Knights, which originally numbered twenty-four but now include “Stranger Knights” from other countries as well as “Companion Knights” and “Lady Companions,” incorporate the Garter Insignia into their heralds, and each knight’s emblem hangs in St. George’s Chapel where special services are held, annually.  Living Knights have stalls in the chapel beneath their heralds, much like monks in an abbey.

Courage and chivalry are mainstays of the Order.  These are the words that are spoken when the “Garter” is presented in an Investiture:

Wear this riband, adorned with the Image of the Blessed Martyr and Soldier of Christ, Saint George, by whose imitation provoked thou mayest so overpass both prosperous and adverse encounters, that having been stoutly vanished thine enemies, both of body and soul, thou mayest not only receive the praise of this transient combat, but be crowned with the palm of eternal victory.

While the Knights are charged with bravery in time of battle, and the earliest of them were chosen for their military skill, it is clear that the honor they seek above all is meant to be the honor of personal integrity.

The Golden Spurs did formerly represent the idea that the Monarch would ride at the head of his armies, leading them valiantly, and that idea is not at all lost when, today, the Sovereign touches them and they return to their honorable place on the altar.

Our spurs might be a mop and bucket or a power drill.  They might be a computer and fax in a cubicle or even a cell phone, used to accomplish what we have been given to do in life.  Some drive tractors, some drive cattle, some drive children and their friends to ball practice.  All in Christ may continue in courage and integrity, servants of the Sovereign Lord.

What if the tools of our trade, of our vocations, were holy to us, as though taken up from the altar of God?  Corrie ten Boom told the story of a boat captain whose engine room was a brilliant, gleaming tribute to cleanliness, order, and maintenance.  When she asked him, having ridden and toured the boat in former not-so-well-kept days, what had effected the change, he told her simply, “Ma’am, I have a glory!”

We will have to “overpass both prosperous and adverse encounters,” and we have been admonished to “vanish” our enemies of body and soul, but we may ride valiantly into the future reserved for us.

What spurs you to action in the service of the King?

 Her Majesty in Order of the Garter robes

Fox News Photo

Day Nineteen – Next, the Supertunica

There were two austere white garments, the gown for the anointing and the Colobium Sidonis.  There were two made of cloth of gold, richly embroidered, so exquisite that a gasp was heard when the Robe Royal was lifted up for Her Majesty to don.  So for us … there are glories seen and unseen in the Kingdom of God and of His Son.

The white anointing gown had been replaced by the Colobium Sidonis, the under-tunic.  Now the Queen was clothed in threads of gold, woven into the “girdle” and the “Supertunica.”  The Dean of Westminster and the Mistress of Robes assisted as the Byzantine garment, with its wide, flowing sleeves, was fastened in place by the “girdle.”  

Elizabeth appeared to be dressed in a robe of beaten gold.  As if her exquisite, ornate Coronation gown had been but a petticoat, bishops and peers began to dress her in her rightful majesty, each piece symbolic of her royal and national highness, and of her place of spiritual value to her peoples.  To them, she was chosen of God.  Not divine, but Queen by divine choice, and most assuredly with a divine responsibility.

With every piece, with every clasp fastened, she was putting on the Sovereignty that was hers in Christ Jesus.

What can we say?  Where can we go to hide from the truth that defines us, and the majestic obligations that are ours, in the Lord our God?  The symbols of righteousness and power were many, tokens and reminders of valid Scriptural duty, man-made tokens of the authority that defends our high position in Jesus Christ.

Many, too, are the references in the Word of God to the “putting on” that is ours.  In some things we are “clothed upon,” and in many we must “clothe ourselves.”  God Himself clothed Adam and Eve in skins, the first bloodshed.  (Genesis 3:21)  In their humiliation, this was a glorious clothing!

In baptism, we have put on Christ! (Galatians 3:27)  We are to put on “bowels of mercy” (Colossians 3:12,) and In Ephesians 4:24, we are admonished to “put on” the “new man,” being created in righteousness and true holiness after God!

Oh that we would be as cognizant of that day when Majesty became our rightful and responsible adorning!  For Elizabeth, she was there; it happened.  So, too for us!  Perhaps she can still recall the weight of those golden robes … we still walk in the weight of the glory which is our redemption, and which is Christ in us, the hope of glory!

We are clothed with Christ.  There is no greater adorning.  Nothing in heaven or on earth can compare with it.  Apart from Him, all that took place on that day was paper dolls and pagan pretense.  In Him it was a celebration and an honest expectation, that God would support and defend Her Majesty, and that she would support and defend the dominions, lands, and peoples there placed in her charge.

Whose life, whose redemption, whose future and hope do we defend this glorious day?  May we uphold them in all the majesty of the compassions and the authority and the splendor of the love of God.

Supertunica and Robe Royal,

Wikipedia

Day Eighteen - The Colobium Sidonis

         After the “disrobing” and the plain gown of purity and sacred anointing, the Investiture began.  This was not haute couture as we think of it, but it was very “high” fashion for those few on earth ever called to wear it.

The first piece was as simple as the anointing gown that had just been removed.  A white linen-lawn garment, the Colobium Sidonis, was the under-tunic.  It calls to mind King David’s dance of joy before the Lord God.  Sovereigns are most often clothed with humility before the cloth of gold and ermine and jeweled robes.  Thus was the case with Her Majesty.  Like a funeral sheath, it went on over the ornate Coronation Gown, a symbol that this Queen had been made ready to receive all the garments and royal instruments to come.

Whatever we wear of glory, of majesty, of the reflection on this earth of the love and mercy and the very Person of Jesus Christ, we are anointed beforehand by the Holy Spirit: He Himself is our new life, and we wear humility beneath every honor and all power.  In baptism we are buried with Christ before our works of faith begin, and this garment symbolized the burial beneath the beauties and the brilliance to come.

We are told to “put on Christ” (Romans 13:14,) and to “clothe ourselves with humility” (1 Peter 5:5.)  The priests of the Lord are clothed with salvation.

Beneath garments that would weigh close to forty-five pounds when they were all in place, Elizabeth knew with certainty that she wore a humble linen shift; she wore purity of heart, and the utter end of life as she had known it.

White anointing gown,

Wikipedia

Day Seventeen - Shining Like the Sun

  

As the Scriptures have promised, those who humble themselves will be exalted.

         The crown-less Elizabeth, in a gown of monastic simplicity, hidden from view, was anointed to care for others in the power and ministry of the Holy Ghost.  She was about to receive the emblems of her authority, and “put on” the adornments of her new life.

         The canopy was removed, and now, bare-headed, a vision of ancient and distant splendor and majesty, what shone through was royal “right.”  The symbols of power were about to come to her in succession, but without crown or diadem.  She received them as the one to whom they belonged in sacred honor and privilege.  The surpassing majesty of the next part of the ceremony was encapsulated in the royal motto, “Dieu et Mon Droit” . . . God is My Right. 

Is there a correlation between Elizabeth on that day and us, the at-home, on-the-job members of the royal family of the Lord Jesus Christ?  Not at all that we may walk back in front of a mirror for the rest of our days, but, as Elizabeth would have to do the very next morning, to get down to the business of majesty, to understand at long last that majesty isn’t wealth or special benefits.  Majesty is the recognition and the honoring of God’s choice.

There are stories, not a few, of royal families, of kings and queens that have fled from overthrow with little or nothing more than their lives.  In a land that honors royal bloodlines, they are honored and protected.  In a land that does not, they are sometimes despised and sought out because of that distinction.  Either way, majesty sets them apart.

How much more true and enduring is the majesty that has come to us? Heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ, guardians of those who know Him and of those who need Him, defenders of the Faith in all our appearance at His throne in worship and intercession, there is a job to be done.  We claim no earthly throne.  We spend our riches on those in need.  Our authority is against unseen enemies, those who come but to steal, kill, and destroy, nothing attractive but for the person who has lived in abject fear or grief or bondage. We are cloaked in humility and crowned with compassion, but we are the real thing.  We have been given power to become the sons of God, to live free from fear, to put on bowels of mercy, to obtain the promises of God, to own the mind of Christ.

         Now by anointing and by proclamation, by the authority of the Church and the consent of the people, by her own Oath and Promises, Elizabeth was standing rightfully at the head of a nation, clothed in humility and about to be rightfully clothed in ancient and royal splendor, in the perfection of both humility and honor together, and she was about to receive every token of her rightful “highness” as their Guardian and Defender.        

         It is shining, golden imagery for us, certainly, but if we will heed it, the presentation of the Regalia may it be an abiding reminder, that we reign in the splendor and the majesty of the Holy Spirit of God, to protect, to defend, to lift up and to deliver by the Word of God and by our prayers and our love.

Sixty Years Later . . . Ian Jones photo

Windsor Friends

The Royal Family leads a very quiet life, when it isn’t going non-stop.  Friends are treasured, and loyal ones are hard to find … imagine . . .

They must be:

discreet

unpretentious

without jealousy

discreet

able to laugh and play (the Windsors LOVE play of all sorts,) and

able to observe invisible boundaries with ease

discreet

devoid of ulterior motives and personal agendas

wise, very wise

able to come last quite often

willing to serve or be silent for the joy of friendship

and discreet.

It does rather sound like a recipe for every top-notch friendship … may God bless the Windsors … and you … with a lovely Lord’s Day.

Edward VII (Elizabeth's Grandfather)

relaxing at Balmoral, public domain, expired copyright

Day Sixteen - A Canopy Over Us

       As the canopy was removed, Elizabeth arose, the anointed Queen of her peoples, lands, and dominions.  She knelt at the Faldstool placed before St. Edward’s Chair. Archbishop Fisher lifted his hand and voice to bless the young Queen, now consecrated through his own faith and obedience.  He spoke the words St. Dunstan had spoken over Edgar, the first King of All England, and very distant relative of the woman before him . . .

“by his holy Anointing pour down upon your Head and Heart the blessing of the Holy Ghost, and prosper the works of your Hands: that . . . you may govern and preserve the Peoples committed to your charge in wealth, peace and godliness.”

Whatever had gone before, all the pageantry of the processional, and of all that was yet to come, the Investiture, Crowning, and the Homage, none could have, none did so visibly, move the soul of the minister than the Anointing.

We know that it is the “anointing which destroys the yoke”  (Isaiah 10:27.)  We know it, but do we remember it and hold that truth as sacred to our lives?  

Elizabeth must wake up and be a monarch every morning?  We may wake up to our own anointing, if we will.

She reigns as Queen over millions of people; we may walk in the majesty of an Anointing that can relieve and release those around us from bondage.  Hers is a great calling; ours is greater.  She has received hers in good conscience and born the burden.  Sometimes we forget that ours is more than just the Gospel of our own redemption … Jesus went about, “preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 4:23 and 9:35,)” and so may we extol the glories of our God and bring to light the mercies and the power of God wherever loss and destruction have ruled.

For those who have not known love or truth or purity or hope or joy or purpose or strength or peace in their lives, we have an unction of truth and ministry.           Elizabeth must be the lawful and consecrated Queen of her realm; we must be the lawful and consecrated servants of God, co-heirs with Jesus Christ and witnesses with Him of the Majesty and the power of God.  Jesus, King of kings, is our lawful and not-at-all distant relative.  This is our birthright, here in the sanctity of the Kingdom of God, under the canopy of our new lives in Christ.

photo courtesy, the ridgewoodblog.com

Day Fifteen – The Anointing

         We have never awakened to a Coronation Day; no one has ever spoken over us the words of majesty and consecration that Elizabeth heard that day.  No one has ever prayed for us quite the way the Archbishop prayed for the new Queen … but … the Word of the Lord is full of  proclamations like this:       

 

“I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand-- I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, 'You are my people.'”  (Isaiah 51:16)

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. (Ezekial 36:27)

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (Thessalonians 5:23)

No ruler, no priest, no hero ever received more or better than this!

Now the music of Handel’s “Zadok the Priest” took the participants and guests to another place, to that time on earth when kings and priests were anointed by God to the service of His people. “And all the people rejoiced . . . rejoiced, and all the people rejoiced!”  To her people’s, this was another day like those.

The Archbishop had invoked the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, and now, when he had prayed over Her Majesty, Elizabeth rose from her knees and the voices of the choir rose, as from the top of a high mountain, as though filling the national valleys that remained following two World Wars and the death of two monarchs and the abdication of one, flooding the dry tributaries of despair and deprivation . . . in the eyes of her subjects, at home and around the world, God had given a Queen, and He was about to anoint her to her most high calling. 

The volume was intense and the chorus began to echo into “Amens” as only Handel can do!  The trappings of Coronation bowed with the tide of those “Amens” to the austerity of anointing . . . Elizabeth removed her glittering diadem with her own hands.

         The Lord Great Chamberlain did for Elizabeth that which every Lord Great Chamberlain before him had done and assisted in the removal of the Royal Robe as it was folded in perfect symmetry by the Maids of honor; the precious Collar of the Garter and all its symbolic protection was removed, and the glimmering Coronation Gown was covered by a nun-like garment, plain and white, special and superb only in its design and Elizabeth’s delicate figure.

         At last Elizabeth was seated on the Chair of King Edward, not yet enthroned but sitting where monarchs had sat for a thousand years for the same purpose, the Anointing. The Garter King of Arms summoned the four knights of the order who took the silver staves of the cloth of gold canopy and bore it over her, the twenty-five year old Queen.  Suddenly, she was gone, invisible to all but a very few.  One who was able to see her face thought she looked more withdrawn from earthly things than even the canopy could make her.  The cameras were turned off.

         The “Coronation” might well be called “the Anointing.”  It is the Anointing that supports the crown.  Unadorned, “uncovered,” Elizabeth was sanctified to her Majesty.

         “Be thy Hands anointed with holy Oil.  Be thy Breast anointed with holy Oil. Be thy Head anointed with holy Oil., as kings, priests and prophets were anointed.  And as Solomon as anointed king by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, so be thou anointed, blessed and consecrated Queen over the Peoples whom the Lord thy God hath given thee to rule and govern.”  

         There was nothing given to Her Majesty that is not ours in Christ Jesus.  We lift up holy hands; He lives within our Breast; we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16.)  We reign in love and watchful prayer over those given to us by God.

         From the beak of the tiny Ampula, drops of anointing oil fell into the Spoon.  This, the Ampula, was a tiny golden vessel, in the shape of an eagle, its Spoon believed to be one of the only relics to have survived Cromwell’s purge of all things royal.  Alone with the Archbishop, alone before the Lord, Elizabeth was anointed, blessed, and consecrated to rule and govern under God - exactly as have been our service, our love, and our wisdom in Christ Jesus.  The Anointing was the reason for it all; Elizabeth was anointed to be crowned.

If Members of Parliament forget the people in their struggles for power and position, she would not.  They might strive for position; she was anointed in it.  If the whole world collapsed in a heap, Great Britain would still have a Queen whom God had given.  This, as best an outsider can relate, was the joy and hope and exaltation in the Realm and Commonwealth that day.

The Anointing

Rotherham Web