Today (06/05/2012) pageantry is being played out in London, England and by the media around the world. It marks the Diamond Anniversary (sixtieth) of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The pageantry is magnificent, and should be a goose bumps experience for true British citizens, or anyone relating to the life and history of the United Kingdom. The colors, red and gold, stand out in the regal procession of horses, horsemen and carriages; of men and women, whether in the parade or waving their arms. Both royals and commoners by birth seem to be sensing some experience of joy related to their country, and themselves akin to pride, spiritual experience or fulfillment, following traditional protocol. Union Jack flags seem innumerable. The Queen is obviously the center of attention, the only one dressed entirely in white. She is most admired in the sacrifice of her life to the best for and in her subjects. She has served longer than any monarch of the British throne, and expects to continue. Of course, there are those who deplore all this royalty business, and do what they can peacefully to phase out the monarchy. Power in the U. K. belongs to Parliament and the Prime Minister, but they must show some deference to the Queen and royal family – power of person representing the state. If not, they will not be elected. The people elect representatives for self-government, but they feel (those that do) that in the Queen they have a representative of what is good and ideal about themselves and their country. Here is the meaning of the yearning for majesty.
Decades ago, in the 1950s, I was invited to speak for some days each year at a large church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. On one of those occasions Elizabeth had recently succeeded her father as the English Monarch, and had visited Canada as part of the Commonwealth. Independent of England, Canada, as other countries had done, kept the English Monarch as the symbol of its commonwealth unity. When England went to war against Hitler in the late 1930s, Canada quickly declared war against Germany. On my visit to Winnipeg each year I was invited to that marvelous English institution of afternoon tea at the home of a lovely elderly lady. The description of the event would take too much space. It had some regal elements in it. The hostess introduced the conversation. She held her tea cup, with saucer beneath and pinky (small) finger slightly extended, and began, on this occasion: Do you love the queen? I had never thought in the term of love, but also did not want to say the wrong thing for the occasion.
I had known more of the accomplishments of Philip, the queen’s husband, than of the lovely young queen. Sensing that I was working through the question, my hostess lifted herself a bit, and said, I love the queen! She then proceeded with an excellent defense of her assertion that: The queen may not be perfect but she stands for the best in us. The queen was, in her elevated status and performance as queen, an example of dignity for her subjects. The conversation continued in that vein. My hostess remarked that she had seen the queen go through an arch that was dedicated only to the queen’s passage. I will never forget the sincere and magnificent presentation at the tea, its accompaniments and the idealistic conversation.
So it is that I find the conversation between God and Job to have been given support in the analogy of a human monarch. The British monarchy is, at its best, and rightly understood, a human analogy (partial) to mankind’s divine monarch – God. The most significant factors are in the model of the monarch, and in figurative meaning of majesty in nature. If Job can do what the divine monarch can do, and stands for, then he can take care of himself, even save himself. But Job can’t be or do what is necessary to care for his own destiny. God’s power is not in parliaments, with temporary fixes, but in himself, who and what he is – what he is competent to do for special life. God’s Majesty – to Glory! We do not understand it fully, but, in
God, the glory is present. It is a glory accounted for as evidence that God is God. It emanates not from the will of God, but from his person, his nature. The light shines surpassing all other light so that, according to Scripture no other light is ultimately needed but the glory of God. Where that glory is there will always be light. Where it is absent there will be found hell – outer darkness. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020