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All posts for the day May 14th, 2013

Day Thirteen – The Holy Word of God, Part Two

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 14, 2013
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For Her Majesty, the weight and the press of the world is relentless.  The thousands that clamor daily for special privilege and sponsorship are not unwelcomed, but they never go away.  One could always, always be launching a ship or a new line of cars, cameras, corsets, or candies, visiting a factory, bestowing a medal, holding a garden party, inviting the favored many and the favored few.  “Down time” is time that could be given to courting favor and securing support.  From dawn to dark, moments of freedom are very few, and certain freedoms are unknown.

The Queen lives a somewhat monastic life compared to most.  There are so many things she cannot or must not do.  There are so many things that money cannot buy and privilege cannot bestow, like the liberty to take a walk in her own city or to do any public, or at times even a private, thing without the risk of censure.

We make these comparisons because we have a calling just as great, just as vital as hers.  Our lives may never touch as many others as has hers, but those given to us are just as important to God.  We need just as badly as she to seek the Lord and His Kingdom, to know Him as He is revealed in Scripture, to get wisdom, and to know God hears our prayers.  If she can carry on the business of monarchy day in and day out, so can we accomplish those things that revolve within the sphere of our legitimate responsibilities and still find time to seek the Lord in His Word.  We can give precedence to the Word of God and make sure it will dwell in us richly, as we believe it has dwelt in Her Majesty.

What is true in Scripture of rulers is true for us wherever we “reign,” wherever we have rightful authority.  Over a Sunday School class or a schoolroom.  Over a typing pool, a car pool, or a shark tank.  Over an operating theater or operations chief, if we would take up the duties and the honor of our own vocation as she and her Windsor forebears have done, we would have majesty in our lives, just as she does in hers.  Imagine, if we would begin our days with the sense of duty, purpose, and calling that is hers!  Just because it is not given to us in earthly coronation and public acclaim, does not mean our vocation isn’t just as significant on the world’s stage.

How fascinating it would be to look into the Word of God and examine for a season the rights, privileges, obligations, and authority that have been given to us.  Perhaps these thirty days will be a launch.  All authority, Jesus said, had been given to Him, and the next thing He said was that He was sending us into the world.  We go in the power of that authority, and it is great!  The power to speak of Him and His goodness, mercy, and justice, the power to have our words heard, authority to overcome temptations and deceptions in life, the sacred right to obtain the promises of God, the privileges of prayer and of peace, all are afforded in God’s Word, all are ours, all belong to the royal people of the Lord, the Most High.

How true it was that of all that glittered and was gold around her that day, of all the precious gems and beautiful fabrics and rich traditions, the presentation of the Word of God was more than all.  Truly, if we own a Bible we have as much as the greatest item that was hers that day, and the only one of all that she could use and enjoy back “home at the Palace.”  We have all that she has, if only we will use what we’ve been given.

By the Word of God we say, “I will lie down in peace and sleep, because He makes me to dwell securely,” and it is so.  We speak, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name,” and it makes a difference in our lives.  We proclaim, “The nearness of God is my good,” and it is so.

We have majesty, and we have authority as it is given, just as does her Majesty, Elizabeth II.  The Scriptures were presented to her as wisdom, and as priceless.  From where we sit, in a moment, we might lay our hands upon the richest of all the treasures that were brought to her on that day, we might take up the Word of God and read, and believe, and live!

Her Majesty at work on the Golden Jubilee Train near Darlington

Press Association

Day Twelve – The Holy Word of God

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 14, 2013
Posted in: devotional material, personal monasticism, Spiritual disciplines, The Coronation of Elizabeth II. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

 

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In the center of this tapestry of gold and silk, ermine and jewels, embroidered work and sculpted relics, a man stepped forward in a somber black Geneva gown, with a Bible in his hands.  He was Dr. James Pitt Watson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, asking her to receive the Scriptures “as the most valuable thing this world affords.”

“Here is wisdom;” he said, and his beautiful brogue intoned, “this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.”  Her God-fearing Scottish mother sat a few yards away in the Royal Balcony, seeing and hearing her countryman gift her daughter with the Scriptures by which she had lived and so carefully raised Elizabeth and her sister.  That she could behold this simple, profound presentation was momentous, for the two churches have not always agreed upon the best expression of worship and communion.  The world may never know in how many small ways Her Majesty’s reign has been, from the beginning, one of mercy and reconciliation.  So may it be with us, whether our victories be small and hidden from view, or brought by God into an arena for all to see.

Of how little benefit might such a moment have been had the Queen received the volume as a token, a mere symbol of religion and not as the foundation of her own faith and the good of her nation.  We have been given to understand that, like her mother and grandmothers before her, Elizabeth uses her Bible and Book of Common Prayer as more than decorative elements in her private suite.

“Here is wisdom,” he had said. We retreat to our own devotional closets, we make time when there is none, and we share with Her Majesty the comforts and the challenges of founding our lives upon grace and truth.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is our bedrock, as it has been hers.

She may have had a few “misses,” perhaps not too many; we, too, may have failed in our perceptions and obedience from time to time, but we, she and all of us, are alive before God, desiring His glory to be seen and His mercy to be revealed in every decision and every word, faith working through love.

The Queen is privileged to depend upon ladies-in-waiting, footmen, private secretaries, and pages to make sure her day runs smoothly, like clockwork, in fact, barring grave emergencies.  That isn’t so for most of us, but most of us do not face a schedule like hers, either.  As far as we are given to understand, her hours of prayer and Bible-reading take place before and after her workday, just as most working men and women must do.  We imagine, from what we do know, that those closest to her are acquainted with her devotional practices and perhaps can safeguard them to some degree, but she alone can determine that she will keep them.

Without ladies-in-waiting, footmen, private secretaries, and pages to help us keep our devotional hour sacrosanct, we must use our own good sense and an honest determination.  If the only free, quiet time a woman can claim as her own occurs during her children’s naptime, and if one of those children is ill and sleepless, her obligation is to her sick child, but faithfulness and honesty would suggest that, when they sleep, she would do well to read her Bible and pray before she checks her email, and determination will help her persevere.

“Here is wisdom,” said the Moderator, and wisdom and honesty are very valuable commodities.  In wisdom we can know that while our Spirit is willing to spend time alone with God, our flesh is weak, and weakened further by the excuses we make so adroitly.  There is a remedy, and it is just what Jesus said to his disciples in that passage: the Spirit is willing – the flesh is weak;  “watch and pray therefore, that you do not enter into temptation.”  There is wisdom!

How to find the time?  How to remain faithful in prayer?  Her Majesty’s life might be able to help us here, too.

More tomorrow …

The Guttenberg Bible

by permission, Mark Pellegrini