As the canopy was removed, Elizabeth arose, the anointed Queen of her peoples, lands, and dominions. She knelt at the Faldstool placed before St. Edward’s Chair. Archbishop Fisher lifted his hand and voice to bless the young Queen, now consecrated through his own faith and obedience. He spoke the words St. Dunstan had spoken over Edgar, the first King of All England, and very distant relative of the woman before him . . .
“by his holy Anointing pour down upon your Head and Heart the blessing of the Holy Ghost, and prosper the works of your Hands: that . . . you may govern and preserve the Peoples committed to your charge in wealth, peace and godliness.”
Whatever had gone before, all the pageantry of the processional, and of all that was yet to come, the Investiture, Crowning, and the Homage, none could have, none did so visibly, move the soul of the minister than the Anointing.
We know that it is the “anointing which destroys the yoke” (Isaiah 10:27.) We know it, but do we remember it and hold that truth as sacred to our lives?
Elizabeth must wake up and be a monarch every morning? We may wake up to our own anointing, if we will.
She reigns as Queen over millions of people; we may walk in the majesty of an Anointing that can relieve and release those around us from bondage. Hers is a great calling; ours is greater. She has received hers in good conscience and born the burden. Sometimes we forget that ours is more than just the Gospel of our own redemption … Jesus went about, “preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 4:23 and 9:35,)” and so may we extol the glories of our God and bring to light the mercies and the power of God wherever loss and destruction have ruled.
For those who have not known love or truth or purity or hope or joy or purpose or strength or peace in their lives, we have an unction of truth and ministry. Elizabeth must be the lawful and consecrated Queen of her realm; we must be the lawful and consecrated servants of God, co-heirs with Jesus Christ and witnesses with Him of the Majesty and the power of God. Jesus, King of kings, is our lawful and not-at-all distant relative. This is our birthright, here in the sanctity of the Kingdom of God, under the canopy of our new lives in Christ.
photo courtesy, the ridgewoodblog.com
Cor Unum Abbey 