A Pentecostal Jubilee

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 104:26-36, 37b; Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17

Preachers across the country have a tricky problem today. How could anyone possibly speak about both Pentecost and the Platinum Jubilee. On the one hand we’re celebrating the life and service of a unique figure; A life of discipline and duty; a life that has enjoyed every pleasure that wealth affords – and some that money can’t buy; And the virtues for which she is rightly acclaimed: stoicism, service, dedication, endurance – all those long dinners and speeches – and public spiritedness. Not to mention power, tradition, wealth, entitlement, stability.

But at Pentecost we think of a new church, a religion of slaves, foreigners and women; We think of change and youth; of ripping up the rulebook and doing something different; We think of challenge and reversal, the agony and the ecstasy; Not of human authority, but divine. It’s, perhaps, the difference ties and hats at evensong at Westminster Abbey, and a crowd of people in a school singing songs because they love Jesus.

But, actually, there are a great many connections between this moment and Pentecost, Between the Queen and the Spirit. In Jeremy Morris recent history of the Church of England, he looks at the beginning of the Church of England, as Henry VIII set himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England and notes ‘from this point on, the interests of the monarchy and the Church of England were inextricably entwined’ (28). The English Reformation and the monarchy cannot be separated. Not without heads being separated from bodies.

The English Reformation swung violently back and forth for its first two centuries. Immediately it did away with a great many festivals – many of which have since come back. But one it did not get rid of was Pentecost. In fact, Pentecost was so important to the mindset of the Reformation that the first English Prayer Book, that changed the liturgy of the Latin Mass, for the first time to the language of the people was launched on this day of Pentecost, 473 years ago. And it breaks my heart to bring this up, having a Latin name, but Latin liturgies were outlawed on this day of Pentecost. Latin, you see, being universal can be seen as a denial of the Spirit; And as I say to my wife, you can decline Brutus but you can’t conjugate him.

But in the preface for Pentecost the English Reformers rather gave the game away, celebrating the Holy Spirit that: ‘[gave] them both the gift of divers languages, and also boldness with fervent zeal constantly to preach the gospel unto all nations; whereby we have been brought out of darkness and error into the clear light and true knowledge of thee, and of thy Son Jesus Christ.’

The ‘divers languages’ including English by which the people of this land were brought out of the ‘darkness and error’ presumably of the Roman Church into the clear light and knowledge of Jesus Christ, by reading and understanding. And who knows on that day of Pentecost, when the apostles were accused of being drunk at 9 o’clock in the morning for their strange talking, their glossolalia – we can be confident that at least one was speaking in Welsh. Unfortunate for him – as Blackadder said – ‘Never ask for directions in Wales. You’ll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight’.

 So just as the monarchy, and especially the family of our monarch’s namesake, is inextricably entwined with the English Church, so is the English Church bound up with a theology of Pentecost. But it goes further than this. At the 10am the choir will sing the Veni Creator Spiritus – Apologies for the Latin title; Blame the Holy Spirit but Anglicanism has never been consistent – But this is sung at every coronation as the monarch is anointed, Anointing being a sign of the gift of the Spirit, just as the Kings of Israel, and Jesus, were anointed – the translation of anointed being Messiah.

And so the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed:

O Lord and heavenly Father, the exalter of the humble and the strength of thy chosen, who by anointing with Oil didst of old make and consecrate kings, priests, and prophets, to teach and govern thy people Israel: Bless and sanctify thy chosen servant ELIZABETH, who by our office and ministry is now to be anointed with this Oil, Strengthen her, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter; Confirm and stablish her with thy free and princely Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and government, the Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness, and fill her, O Lord, with the Spirit of thy holy fear, now and for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

At that point the choir sing Zadok the priest, as we will hear in the introit, of which the first line reads: Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king. During which the Queen was anointed on her hands, her breast and her head.

So as you can see there’s quite a lot of Pentecost involved in a coronation, which lasted just under three hours at Westminster Abbey (without the songs of Graham Kendrick). And we may never have a definitive answer but after 70 years I think we can say that the anointing probably ‘took’. Whether it’s the quality of her staff or the Holy Ghost, she remains as Eddie Izzard said one very saved queen, and perhaps the most visible Christian on the planet.

For many people, especially in these latter days after the Toronto Blessing of 1994, the Holy Spirit is inseparable from religious ecstasy, supernatural gifts and revivals and conversions – St Paul reminds us that no supernatural gift is worth anything without love, and that the fruits of the Spirit are in fact pretty mundane: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Mundane but enduring, as love endures all things.

These then are the marks of a Christian life, if we can but manage a few with God’s help. And if we can serve our community, especially for 70 years, with these gifts I think we can say both that we have lived a blessed life and a life that has blessed others. The gift of the Spirit, as the Gospel makes clear, is to go out into the world and proclaim the Gospel. And as St Francis suggested ‘we may use words if we have to’.

So as we reflect back on this long life, these 70 years of service, on this day of the commissioning of the Church, we might also ask ourselves, how are we preaching the Gospel; how are we taking God with us into the world? How are bearing the fruit of love joy and peace, Patience, kindness and generosity; Faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? We too have been anointed – at baptism; We too are bearers of the Holy Spirit; Wee too are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; We too have a Gospel to proclaim. Amen.