+ In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Greeting:
Grace, mercy and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you
and also with you.
Prayer of Preparation:
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit
that we may perfectly love you
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our lord. Amen.
The Gloria:
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God, the Father. Amen
The Collect – Accession of the Queen
Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness,
bless our Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth,
and all who are in authority under her;
that they may order all things in wisdom and equity,
righteousness and peace,
to the honour and glory of your name
and the good of your Church and people;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
Readings:
Joshua 1: 1-9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Romans 13: 1-10
13 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore, love is the fulfilment of the law.
Luke 22: 24-30
24 A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. 28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Homily:
Joshua, son of Nun, did not have a very auspicious start to life. He was born in Eqypt when his people were slaves and spent their lives under cruel slave masters making bricks to build pyramids. Somewhere along the line, however, at some stage in his young life, Joshua was noticed by Moses: the leader of the Israelites, who guided and tutored him and gave him special insights into God’s fashioning of both the nation and their eventual conquest of the Promised land. After Moses had received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai and told all the people of the foundations of their communal life together, he returned to the mountain with the all the leaders and advisers of the tribes and having left them all at a distance, he went off to commune with God for 40 days and 40 nights. On the final part of that journey up the mountain, he was accompanied only by his aide: Joshua. Joshua, although unable to go the whole way to meet with God would have been the first person to see Moses’ face shining with the glory of having talked with God. He would have been close to Moses as they descended again and saw that the people had been using the time their leader had been away to build golden images and worship them.
We know from reading the book of Exodus that the people just could not keep the laws and so God made them walk around in huge circles in the wilderness for 40 years until he decided that they were fit to enter the Promised Land. That journey which took them 40 years, would normally have taken, incredibly, 11 days. Moses himself did not follow God’s instructions at one point and was told that he would die before entering the Promised Land. And that’s where our first reading today begins. Moses has died and God calls Joshua to take on his role and lead the people into Jericho. He assures Joshua that he will succeed at everything he does. All he needs to remember is to be: “strong and courageous” and God would go with him.
70 years ago today, the 25 year old Princess Elizabeth became Queen. She was in Kenya at the time and the day before she had been on a wild-life safari. Prince Philip told her that her father had died in his sleep and she was the new Queen. There began a life of duty and service to this nation and the commonwealth which we celebrate today. Until prevented by Covid, the Queen always stayed at Sandringham following her Christmas break until after today, in order to remember her father who died there. Right from that time in Kenya, personal feelings and grief always had to give way to duty and service.
Her father had been a dedicated King, thrown into the role by the abdication of his older brother. By all accounts, the whole family was close: with the grandparents, George V and Queen Mary, often looking after Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret when their parents needed to travel abroad. As Joshua had been inducted into leadership by being with and alongside Moses, our Queen became used to ceremonial duties and the hand waving at public events. Until her uncle abdicated when she was 10 years old, the Queen had no idea that she would one day accede to the throne. As heir to the throne, she continued to have as much freedom as was allowed in those days. When she married, she was able to live the life of a naval wife and mother in Malta and must have expected that to continue for much longer as the King was only 56 when he died.
Duty and service to us all has marked Queen Elizabeth’s life. Now, at nearly 96 we read of her being disappointed if she is prevented from conducting royal engagements by ill health. Her sense of duty never wavers. That promise she made on her 21st birthday to serve the nation for the whole of her life, whether it be long or short has never been forgotten.
As the years have gone by, we have learnt more about where that sense of duty comes from. In her Christmas broadcasts, she has increasing spoken of her faith in God and her sense that following the Christian life is what sustains her and will sustain us too. Somewhere in her life she has come to realise that all she needed to do was to be strong and courageous and God would be with her. She had not escaped many of the difficult parts of life which come to us all. Three of her four children have been divorced and two of them remarried. The Head of the Church of England, which until recently did not allow remarriage of divorced people in church, had to come to terms with that. She lost a daughter-in-law in the most tragic circumstances. She lost a mother and sister in the same year. In her extreme old age, she continues her duties alone without her husband. That’s just her personal life. The nation has been through many difficulties, most recently a pandemic. But the Queen appears to just continue. She makes public broadcasts to encourage us and now she has learnt how to use technology to continue to be relevant.
Whether we are royalists or not, she is an example to us of the great things we can achieve if we follow our calling to be the best that we can be. I’m sure, in private, she struggles as we do but she always returns to the fact that everything she is comes from God. Whatever anniversary or occasion she celebrates, it always begins or ends in Church, giving thanks. So, let us follow the example she sets for us in being strong and courageous in our lives of duty and service.
Intercessions:
This morning our prayers are offered for the life and work of Queen Elizabeth on this the 70th anniversary of her Accession. Also, for our nation and the commonwealth.
Lord God, who provides for all people through your power and rule over us all in love: bless Elizabeth our Queen, that under her this nation may be wisely governed and your church may serve you in all godly peace, and grant that she being devoted to you with her whole heart and persevering in good works to the end, may through your guidance come to your everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen
O Lord our God, who upholds and governs all things; receive our humble prayers for our Sovereign Lady, Elizabeth, on the seventieth anniversary of the day she was called to rule us. We ask you to bless her; Charles, Prince of Wales and William Duke of Cambridge and all the Royal Family; that they always trusting in your goodness may be protected by your power and crowned with your gracious and endless favour. Keep them in peace and safety, joy and honour and after death take them into your everlasting life and glory. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord, we ask for your blessing on this our nation and our government. We pray for all those who lead us at national and local level, for a strong sense of duty and a generous spirit that can see all sides of the debate and then come to an honest and open decision based on their desire to work for the good of all. We pray for our world and its leaders. We give thanks today for the stability created by our Queen through 70 years of friendship with the leaders of the nations. We give thanks for all her world tours and state banquets and all her wisdom and courage in dealing with Heads of State. We thank you also for her guidance of generations of young royals who increasingly now take on her various roles. We pray for those charities which owe their existence to the patronage of the Royal Family. We pray for the Princes Trust in all its work to promote young people and guide them into employment. We pray for the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme as it continues to challenge and extend our young people. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord, we thank for the example that the Queen is of someone who keeps a strong faith in you when she experiences family difficulties and estrangements. We ask you to sustain her as she moves into advanced age and provide the comfort that she needs as she gives over her life’s work to others. We thank you that she has the courage to speak out about the importance of her faith in her Christmas broadcasts and by her regular attendance at church. We ask that you will continue to bless her with the work that she can still do for you and for our nation and give her the strength to complete the vocation she took up 70 years ago. Give her a strong sense of a job well done. In Jesus’s name. Amen
Finally, we pray for those in need at this time. Our prayers are asked for ………
Merciful Father,
accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Peace:
We are the body of Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body. Let us then pursue all that makes for peace and builds up our common life.
The peace of the Lord be always with you
And also with you.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Final Prayer:
O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace:
give us grace seriously to lay to heart
the great dangers we as a nation and world are in by our unhappy divisions;
take away our hatred and prejudice
and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord,
that, there is but one body, one spirit
and one hope of our calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of us all,
so may we henceforth be all of one heart and of one soul,
united in one holy bond of truth and peace,
of faith and charity,
and may with one mind and one mouth glorify you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Blessing:
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ our Lord,
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you
always. Amen