Do Not Touch The Queen!

1 John 1  John 21:19- End  Luke 2:1-7 John 13:24 John 19:26

I don’t want to brag or anything but I have preached in front of royalty!  Yep,  Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones was in the congregation one Christmas morning. And I shook her hand at the door afterwards and she complimented me on the service. Then there was Richard Branson grinning away from the back pew and making a quick getaway before the collection plate came round. Then let me think, I offered pastoral support to Alvin Stardust once , prepared Dr Who’s son for his marriage, Nick Cotton from Eastenders for his confirmation,   and that drummer in the pop group Slade – he was a godparent at a baptism I took. Best of all though was when I preached at the Belfry and Denise Nolan did a reading and I got her to sign the order of service afterwards  and she wrote – Fr Andrew I just loved your talk – love and kisses. Denise.

I think she thought I was the catholic Father!

I don’t know if you can beat any of that  – but let me ask you this – have you ever met the Queen?..have you ever spoken to her? ..and have you ever touched her?

I happened to be at Windsor Castle once, like you do,  and she was coming to a special garden party for residents only and I was able to go – but the powers that be took me aside before hand – to say I must not start a conversation with the queen, I must not crowd round her and most important of all – under no circumstances are you to touch the queen.

You must have thought it was strange coming to church today and having some nice Christmas carols, seeing the tree decorated up and finding the Vicar in a light hearted frame of mind – and then those bible readings – nothing about shepherds or wise men – just a strange encounter between Jesus and two of his followers as they walk along a road together some time after his resurrection.

This is actually the feast day of John the Evangelist – we could have ignored him and stuck with Bethlehem – but I think he’s quite important for us to hear about.  I don;’t know if you can countenance this or not – but he was one of the twelve disciples and you might call him Jesus’ best friend.  In the Gospel’s he’s sometimes referred to as “the disciple who Jesus loved” and here’s the important bit – when it came to the Last Supper – this John was sitting right next to Jesus and actually reclined on  him – laid his head upon Jesus’ shoulder.

In those days you were not encouraged to sit up straight at the table – you leant – you leant maybe on the person next to you – so this would not have been out of the ordinary – but John sat in the place where he could lean at the breast of Jesus.

To actually be touching God in an intimate way like that – what a privilege and a joy. And when you think about it this was almost a mirror of Mary holding Jesus at her breast in the stable as a Mother surely would do. Humanity cuddling divinity in the stable. Divinity cuddling humanity at the Last Supper.

I just find that sort of thing mind blowing. And then on top of that when you read through John’s account of the crucifixion who are the two people left together at the foot of the cross when everyone else has gone home – Mary and John and Jesus tells them to take care of each other.

Do not touch the queen. Keep your distance from God. Remember your place and don’t get too familiar. The cuddling of Jesus by Mary puts an end to that – it shows us just how near God has come to us in Christ – so the thought of a disciple reclining on Jesus at the Last Supper should seem entirely natural and point us to the way we should be with God – and then of course with each other.

But if you think that is proclaiming a snuggly sort of relationship typical of those who would water down faith – think again – for where did that intimacy take the two of them – to the most painful place on earth at the darkest of times – to the cross – for maybe they had generated a love that could stand the cutting edge of things.

And that’s what we need in this day and age – a Christmas story that does not stay at arms’ length but finds a touching place in the here and now 

Do not touch the queen , but you can touch the king – as you receive the bread into your hands and form the shape of a cradle – think of it as the touching place that transforms.

And the Queen at Windsor – she never even acknowledged that I was there – came nowhere near -

Tried to catch her eye..but nothing doing!

RH 27.12.09