18/09/22 1 Tim 2:1-7 Matthew 25:31-40
I think we can be pretty certain that when Paul wrote to Timothy urging prayer for kings and all those in authority he was not thinking of the Queen marking her Platinum Jubilee by inviting Paddington Bear to tea. On the other hand it is just possible that the Queen was thinking of St Paul.
We will come back to this in a moment, but first a quick look at our readings.
It’s very easy to forget how unexpected the gospel was. We have so much history of faith around us, from much of which we have benefitted, that the Good News no longer startles us. We take for granted the change Jesus wrought in our standing before God, the way he transformed our relationship to each other.
But take what St Paul said ‘pray that kings and those in authority should behave so that ‘we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.’ What kind of sense would that have made to anyone?
The assumption for Rome dominant at the time, as it had been for the Greeks before them, and the Egyptians and whoever was before them was that might was right - if you were powerful you could do what you liked, you protected your own position and that of a favoured few - ruling for the benefit of the average citizen was simply not on the radar. Let alone the idea that leaders should be the servants of their people. Even now there are places where that is a subversive idea.
Then take what Jesus says in the gospel ‘the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ The least that this means is that in God’s eyes every person is as valuable as every other person. Again this was not on the radar.
And what did it mean to follow the risen Jesus when guided by his Spirit rather than his physical presence; and what did it mean when Gentiles began to follow him.
It was all new and in his letters Paul is filling out the shape of our faith on the hoof - so they are a mixture of answers to queries, interventions in arguments, encouragement of the faithful and filling out the understanding of his readers about the shape of the Good News.
Our passage from 1Timothy is no different. He roots the way of life of the church in its prayer and in what God has given us in Jesus.
The queen will have known both of today’s passages well and we know that she took her faith very seriously. We know that she espoused the idea of servant leadership; we know that the Son of Man in our gospel reading was the King to whom our queen held herself accountable.
We are going to look at one thread from this new understanding of what it means to be human - That each person is worth as much as any other person because all are made in the image of God - and using comments from three individuals try and shine a light on how the queen wove this thread into her life and how we can weave it into ours.
The first comment is from Paul Keating, former Prime Minister of Australia, and a staunch republican
“In the 20th century, the self became privatised, while the public realm, the realm of the public good, was broadly neglected. Queen Elizabeth understood this and instinctively attached herself to the public good against what she recognised as a tidal wave of private interest and private reward. And she did this for a lifetime. Never deviating,” he said.
What did he mean? Whenever she could the queen came down on the side of co-operation rather than competition, on the side of the common good rather than of self or corporate interest. She was on the side of reconciliation and hope. In so far as it was in her power she worked to enable us, in St Paul’s words, to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness because this is good, and pleases God our Saviour.
How can we work for the common good?
The second person I’m going to quote is Frank Cottrell Boyce the writer who scripted both the Queen parachuting in to open the Olympics and Paddington having tea with her at the Platinum Jubilee
‘It used to be said that millions of people had dreams in which they had tea with the Queen. Now watching her have tea with Paddington will have to do instead. It’s easy to see why that was so powerful. In retrospect, it was valedictory. A woman waving a happy goodbye to her grandchildren and great grandchildren, an image of love and a happy death.
Apparently the idea for the Queen to meet up with Paddington during the Jubilee ceremony came from Buckingham Palace. “And what an astute idea it was to have her act with Paddington, because Paddington embodies so many of the values that she stood for. He is all about kindness, tolerance, being kind to strangers, politeness, these things that are about character.
Cottrell Boyce is a practising Catholic and he too is familiar with our gospel, and goes on to say ‘And Paddington is an evacuee, a refugee, one-time prisoner, pretty much every category of need that is mentioned in Matthew 25. Here, he is being welcomed with tea and good manners. This is a strong statement of a set of values that are not uncontested in the corridors of power. To have them exemplified so joyfully at such a moment meant something.’
Every contact mattered to her, since she died probably what we have heard most frequently from those who met her was that she met them properly - person to person.
Each person we meet is as valuable to God as we are - do we think of them like that, do we treat them like that, do we meet them with tea and good manners, are we hospitable?
The third quote is from the former MP and now newspaper columnist Matthew Parris
Speaking about the queen’s political influence, ‘Did she win an argument? I doubt it. Did she make monarchists out of republicans? A few, perhaps; not many. What she did was different. By winning personal respect, and by making monarchy work, she gently put the argument aside.’
This sounds a lesser comment than the other two but may be what we need to hear most.
How did the Queen win personal respect? She was steadfast in what she did -- she had influence rather than power, but she was steadfast in doing good.
Jesus never treated people casually; to treat others with a proper concern is one of the areas where we can bear witness to his presence with us.
Three questions the passages ask of us:
How can we work for the common good?
Are we hospitable?
Are we steadfast in doing good?
An Indian Christian Pandita Ramabai Saraswati wrote ‘People must not only hear about the kingdom of God, but must see it in actual operation, on a small scale perhaps and in imperfect form, but a real demonstration nevertheless.’
We won’t be perfect but working for the common good, hospitality and steadfastness of care will show the reality of the kingdom of God more than words alone ever will
The queen knew herself accountable before God and like us she may not have found that a comfortable thought, bur she would also have known, ‘there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus’,
The trouble is that mediator can easily be impersonal theological legal word not at first glance a comfort so close with a passage by Donagh O’Shea an Irish catholic priest which fleshes out what it means that Christ is our mediator.
'The passion and death of Christ belong to us as fully as if we had suffered them ourselves.' I must have read this in St. Thomas (Aquinas) years ago as I crammed for exams in theology, but it failed to strike root in the mind's weed patch. Having rediscovered it, I think of little else at Mass. Christ is our brother: the Father cannot see us apart from him. So we stand before our Father with pride and joy, not in tortured anxiety.’
