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
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