(This sermon is to be preached on Friday 5th May 7pm in St Leonard’s, see: Psalm 72, Galatians 5.16-26)
Pray for the King! Oh my how would you be feeling if you were the King tonight! Hard to sleep, little appetite? Pray for the King!
And tomorrow – the telly, the dignitaries, the protestors, the safety, – and everyone getting their lines right, and especially the King getting his lines right!
Yes pray for the King. And pray for everyone else involved, yes the tech and telly, yes the Police , and pray for the crowds that it will all be a good experience and blessing.
And then the expectations –the shoes of his mother are very very big. So yes pray for the King.
The Psalm is a great psalm. Its obviously a sucking up sort of Psalm – for the King to live long, and for the crops to be abundant and for wealth and peace to be upon our nation. Long live the King indeed.
Pray for the king’s faith – look out in the ceremony for when he is given the Orb – the symbol of the world with the big cross above it- reminding the king that the world belongs to God. It is not his to do with as he pleases. In Galatians, St Paul reminds us that we are to walk by the spirit and not do whatever you want. That’s hard for us, but it must be harder for the king – surely the one upside of being king is you get to do whatever you want.
So pray for the king to walk in step with the Spirit, to be filled with God’s love joy and peace. Pray for God to help him show this with his own family, children and grandchildren – to show patience, kindness, goodness, and pray for God to bless him in his relationships with the Commonwealth, and even our own Government and Prime minister
And pray for the king to continue with his prophetic voice. For many years he has spoken about the importance of Ecology and way back then it was all laughed at – I seem to remember something in a newspaper about the prince encouraging us to talk to our tomatoes – but here we are behind the curve playing catch up.
Its not going to be easy. It was probably easier when he was a prince to say crazy things and to ride the wave of ridicule, but now as king, I suspect it will be harder.
And pray for the king’s power.
The Psalm we read is confidently sycophantic. Long live the king, may there be lots of crops and prosperity and stability during his reign.
There’s also comments about crushing oppressors – which is a little trickier as we no longer have that sort of king. The king has no power to call out the army. Nor does the king have any say over the judiciary. So his ability to defend the poor, the children of the needy, that too is limited.
Look out tomorrow when the king is given the rod and sceptre – note the rod – the BBC label this as symbolizing his spiritual role – I think it’s a reminder of Jesus and Psalm 23 and the shepherd’s rod and staff – the rod being used to beat off wolves, enemies, and so the importance of there being a dove at the top of this rod. This is the rod of justice and it is to be tempered with mercy, the dove of peace.
And look out for the Sceptre – for me this is a reminder of the shepherd’s staff for rescuing sheep, so it symbolizes his power and authority but note again the reminder of the Cross at the top of this sceptre, a reminder that all power and authority has been given to Jesus.
And then look to the Crown as its placed on his head and note again the cross – reminding the king that he too is under God. It is supposed to be a helpful preventative to not letting all that power go to your head – to remember that you too are a man under authority.
But what the king excels at is in soft power. Meeting with all sorts of dignitaries and presidents and rulers from all over the world and here his power is seen in how he sets the tone.
We have seen over these last few years different heads of state who have managed to lower the quality of debate and raised the acceptability of racism, sexism, homophobia, and allowed talk that dismisses ecological concerns and allowed even provoked not merely the rumour of war but actual war.
So pray for the king and his soft power. His ability to set the tone of a discussion.
But note – There’s a double danger as we look to the King to set the tone here. The first is the one that dismisses our responsibility – by saying something glib like – It must be nice to be rich enough to afford morals. As if its only when we are financially secure that we can then afford to consider ethics.
And the opposite that sees how the rich live, how they get away without paying taxes, by waging war, by squashing political debate and with it, justice and mercy.
And so the danger for us little people is to say Look if the big people don’t play by the rules of morality and kindness then why should we?
And so both positions set us up nicely for a dangerous spiral – why bother, am I my brother’s keeper?
So the solution must be found in us working with the king in setting the tone that gives a voice for – as the Psalm puts it – the poor and the children of the needy
This means that we too must endeavour to keep in step with the Spirit. That we too have be living out this life of the Fruit of the Spirit, this life of faith, that defends, that gives voice to the vulnerable, the marginalized, the forgotten in society. And as we do that that will give support the king and help him to keep in step with the Spirit, help him to wield his soft power and set the right tone.
So we pray that the tone he sets will be fueled by the Spirit, will be the Fruit of the Spirit.
So we pray for each other, for God’s blessing upon each other, and we pray for King, for God’s blessing to be upon the King.
Pray throughout tomorrow, but especially at that moment, unseen from the TV, that moment when he is anointed with holy oil, that the King may be filled with the Spirit, and show the fruit of the Spirit throughout his reign.
So we pray for the King . Amen.