Last week we – along with an estimated 5 million others in Australia, and one billion (or more) worldwide – watched the Queen’s funeral.
One could not help but be deeply moved by the occasion. If there’s one thing the Brits know how to do well, it is how to orchestrate an event like this.
I don’t mean that in any way as a negative comment – I think the whole affair was entirely fitting to mark the passing of such a remarkable woman, the longest reigning monarch in British history.
It is significant that three of the six longest reigning monarchs, who also saw Britain through some of its most significant decades, were women who reigned in the second half of the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries.
So, yes, I felt the way Elizabeth II’s funeral was conducted, along with the long march before and after, was not only moving, but entirely appropriate.
But nothing gave me goose bumps more than this single sentence, read as part of the second reading (John 14: 1–9a)[1]
Jesus saith unto him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
My heart thrilled to hear the exclusive claims of Christ, as the only way to God, publicly read, not only before all those represented in the gathering in Westminster Abbey, but before a worldwide audience.
“Defender of the Faiths”
For 500 years British monarchs have had, among other titles: “Defender of the Faith”. Originally bestowed by the Pope upon Henry VIII in his more zealous Catholic phase, the Pope was none too amused when Henry and his descendants continued to use the title after his defection from the Catholic Church. Sadly, most of his descendants, like Henry himself, showed very little genuine faith in their own lives.
More recently, and more than once, Prince (now, King) Charles has foreshadowed he would like that to be changed to “Defender of the Faiths”.
None would dispute that the monarch is there to rule for the benefit of all his subjects and therefore has a duty to guarantee religious liberty to all in the realm. One of the first to uphold and defend the right to religious liberty was Oliver Cromwell himself.
Sadly, his profligate successor, the present King Charles’ previous namesake, didn’t follow suit and, when he wasn’t chasing a new mistress, spent his days persecuting those like John Bunyan who didn’t want to join the Church of England.
I uphold the duty of the monarch to protect the religious liberty of all his subjects. But whether that is all Prince Charles meant by proposing to become “Defender of the Faiths” is far from clear: he has shown little evidence of the robust faith of his mother.
“Defender of the Faith”
But the title, “Defender of the Faith” persists in the British monarchy to this day. When I was young, Australian coins still depicted:
Elizabeth II • By the grace of God • Queen • Defender of the Faith[2]
Elizabeth has been known for being open about her own faith in God through Jesus Christ.
For the “private” committal service in St George’s Chapel[3] (following the public funeral in Westminster Abbey) Elizabeth chose as the first hymn:
All my hope on God is founded;
He doth still my trust renew.
Me through change and chance he guideth,
Only good and only true.
God unknown,
He alone
Calls my heart to be his own.
…
Still from man to God eternal
Sacrifice of praise be done,
High above all praises praising
For the gift of Christ his Son.
Christ doth call
One and all:
Ye who follow shall not fall.
There are those who may object to her openly speaking about her faith.
Some will say that the Queen’s flaws, such as they were, outweigh her Christian testimony.
While others object that she was supposed to be everyone’s Queen – for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, animists and atheists – not just for those that belonged to the Church of which she was the “supreme governor”, or even more broadly just for “Christians” – and that therefore she should’ve kept quiet.
But I am glad she was open about her faith, and increasingly so in recent years.
This for two reasons:
1) First, leaders are appearing more and more anaemic as they come under mounting pressure to fit the cookie cutter mould dictated by an increasingly intolerant society’s norms. Already, the monarch is not allowed to get involved in politics, nor have an opinion on almost any controversial topic without risk of being blasted by one interest group or another. I find such a plastic, one-dimensional figurehead as this as bland and unappealing as a McDonald’s burger.
2) Because of these same pressures from society around us I see Christians more and more retreating into silence rather than being open about their faith.
Indeed, from fear of harassment and worse by the more militant in the LGBTQQIP2SAA lobby, I have sadly observed some “Christians”, not only keep silent, but even begin to endorse their aberrant morality. They forget that “the righteous judgment of God” is reserved, not only for “those who practice such things deserving of death” but also for those who “approve of those who practice them.” (Rom 1:32)
Never has it been more important for Christians to be open about their faith, and bold to uphold the moral implications of the gospel.
“Always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” (1 Pet 3:15)
All Christians are called to be “Defenders of the Faith.”
Her Last Will and Testament
I am thankful the Queen became increasingly open about her own faith – though, sadly, the press often left out the overtly Christian elements in reporting her Christmas message.
Yet they could not do this with the funeral service she organised. In fact, in her death she may, like Samson, have had a greater impact than in her entire life.
She chose the hymns and the readings, including the one from John 14 (above).
She also chose 1 Corinthians 15:20–26, 53–58 – which includes these words:
Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet…
Again, my heart thrilled to hear these words read publicly before an audience of one billion (or more, most of whom no doubt, are not believers): “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.”
It reminded me of the anecdote told of Queen Victoria who, after a sermon on the Second Coming of the Lord, exclaimed: “Oh! how I wish that the Lord would come in my lifetime!”
“Why,” asked the preacher, “does your Majesty feel this very earnest desire?”
“Because,” she replied, with quivering lips, and her whole countenance lighted up by deep emotion, “I should so love to lay my crown at His feet.”
I imagine Elizabeth would have echoed just such sentiments.
I am thankful that the Queen’s funeral was such a testimony.
I am thankful it did not turn out to be another anaemic display of nothing more than pomp and glory, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
It was not (as Jonathon Van Maren feared) along the lines of the “rumours that the service might be the sort of watered-down, ecumenical offering that the shambolic, drifting Church of England specializes in these days.”
And, Van Maren was also struck by those words of John 14:1-9 “read to the assembled leaders and dignitaries, a passage devoid of ecumenicism: ‘Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.’ ”
I cannot but agree with Van Maren when he says:
“The singing was gorgeous. It struck me as I watched the readings and the liturgy and the choirs: there was nothing cheap or maudlin about this. It was not one of those modern funerals with post-modern pop music empty of any power or solemnity; not a mawkish ‘celebration of life.’ It was a clear-eyed recognition of death, eternity, and the necessity of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ before we make that final journey…
“As the readings were recited, the assembled leaders—most of whom believe not a word of it and despise those who still hold to the words of that Book—bowed their heads respectfully for a moment. They might not believe the words being read, but the Queen did.”
Last Post for Christian England
Some have wondered on social media if this could be the last Christian monarch we will see on the throne of Britain. No one knows: I hope and pray for God’s grace and that King Charles will yet make a credible profession of faith. Time will tell.
But I wonder at that turn of phrase: “the last Christian monarch”.
Indeed, knowing a little of British history one could almost wonder if she were the first Christian monarch. Well, not the first; but likely one of very few.
But, Van Maren noted:
“The Elizabethan Era contained within it the end of Christian Britain, but the Queen’s funeral may be one of the most-watched declarations of the Christian message of all time (estimates indicate that over 4 billion people may watch).”
I dispute that Britain has been particularly “Christian” for many years (or ever?), but there is no doubt that Elizabeth’s funeral highlights, by way of contrast, the seismic shift society has undergone over the last 70 years.
Another writer, Paul Kingsnorth, echoed similar thoughts and lamented: “I am thinking: I have just heard the Last Post sounded for Christian England.”
He notes that “there is a throne at the heart of every culture, whether we know it or not.” Only when God is on the throne in a society can that society prosper.
But what happens “if we cast out its previous inhabitant – and the entire worldview that went along with it”?
Then, he says, “we had better understand what we plan to replace it with. Someone, or something, is going to sit on that throne whether we know it or not.
“I can’t think of any societies in history which have believed – as ours does – that all that matters is matter. That nothing resides above the spires of the Abbey. That there is no throne.
“If there were any cultures like that – well, they didn’t last to tell us about it.”
It is fitting to close with the first hymn Elizabeth chose for the public funeral:
The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended,
the darkness falls at thy behest;
to thee our morning hymns ascended,
thy praise shall sanctify our rest.
…
So be it, Lord; thy throne shall never,
like earth’s proud empires, pass away;
thy kingdom stands, and grows for ever,
till all thy creatures own thy sway.
[1] For the full service, see here: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62948934 [2] ELIZABETH II • DEI GRATIA • REGINA • F:D [FIDEI DEFENSOR] [3] See here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11226791/Queens-Order-Service-revealed-list-hymns-Buckingham-Palace-releases-image-funeral.html