“Meaning in Duty” A Sermon on St. Charles’ Day
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
“Why would an American honor a British King?” It is a fair question. After all, the US fought two wars to rid ourselves of British monarchy. The Declaration of Independence states quite frankly that:
“The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” (The Declaration of Independence)
It also restates the compelling argument of Enlightenment luminary John Locke that,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed (ibid).
Better minds than my own have argued for and against the Divine Right of Kings with most Americans coming down decidedly against such a proposition. If most know the history of the English Civil War at all, they are more likely to come down on the side of Oliver Cromwell rather than Charles Stuart. And yet Americans are fascinated by monarchy. Reuters estimated that 11.6 million Americans watched Queen Elizabeth’s funeral service. Despite its 5AM start CNN reported that 10 Million Americans watched Charles III’s Coronation last year. The TV show, The Crown has been enormously successful. Though fiercely autonomous, Americans are fascinated with monarchy they long for it.
My aim tonight is not to mount a defense of monarchy nor even to glorify Charles. As a trained historian and political scientist I have little patience for many of the glowing hagiographies of so many of the saints which elevate them to worlds unattainable. Too often such mixtures of fable and truth cast doubt on the Faith and brings despair rather than inspiring nobility. To pretend that Charles I was a man without flaw is to overlook the testimony of history - even those friendly to him admit it. Contemporary and fellow martyr, Archbishop Laud, is recorded as saying,
“A mild and gracious prince who knew not how to be, or how to be made, great.” (Cyprianus Anglicanus)
No, my aim this night is to Remember Charles as a man who embodied God’s call. Charles was specifically called by God to be a Christian Monarch. He was called in this life to wear a perishable crown. His call was specific but God’s call is universal for as Charles was called to be a Christian Monarch each human being is called to a Christian vocation. Indeed throughout life we are called to have our Christianity shape all sorts of our life. Through his Church God has called Fr. Lutz and myself (and some of you) to be a Christian priests. My new friend Davis is called to be a Christian organist. You may be called to be a Christian doctor, or a Christian nurse or perhaps a Christian IT engineer, or a Christian teacher, or electrician. In St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians
“Only, let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.” (1 Corinthians 7:17-24)
In 1 Corinthians 7 St. Paul is speaking about Jews and Greeks, those married and those single; those free and those in bond service. I am preparing several young people for baptism and confirmation right now. They are memorizing the 1604 Catechism which would have been published during Charles’ father’s reign. He, no doubt, would have been familiar with it. Question reads:
What is thy dutye toward thy neighbour?
Aunswere. My dutye towardes my neyghbour is to love hym as my selfe: And to do to all men as I would they should do unto me. To love, honour, and succour my father and mother. To honour and obey the Kyng, and his minysters. To submitte my selfe to al my governours, teachers, spiritual Pastours and Maisters. To order my selfe lowly and reverently to all my betters. To hurte no body by worde, nor dede. To be true and juste in all my dealyng. To beare no malice nor hatred in my harte. To kepe my handes from pickyng and stealyng, and my tongue from evil speakyng, liyng and slaunderyng. To kepe my body in temperaunce, sobernes, and chastitie. Not to covet nor desire other mennes goodes. But learne and labour truely to get myne awne livyng, and to do my dutye in that state of life, unto whiche it shal please God to cal me.
The idea of submitting ourselves to the duty of our state of life, to our betters, to spiritual or temporal authority - to anything really - seems old-fashioned and quaint and directly confronts the radical individuality of the American culture. I have been struck repeatedly by just how different the older catechisms are - indeed how older versions of Christianity is from what we see today. Repeatedly in the 1604 Catechism the Christian is reminded that the self must be restrained, the deadly deceipts of the world resisted, and the passions of the fallen flesh reduced to be ruled by justice and right order.
How much this contrasts with the versions of Christianity we see rampant in the various pastors, churches, and voices in our nation today. Somehow justice has been warped and made a servant of the passions. And the path to right order contains no order at all. The order of the day is self-indulge the delusions of the modernity is that serving one’s self and the avoidance of any kind of rejection or pain is the key to happiness. The great irony is that unfettered self-definition, self-actualization, that is that the self must be set free from all restraints and inhibition brings about despair and meaninglessness. Dr. Jeff Meyers who area is family ministry recently remarked that 75% of young adults say they have no purpose. A Christianity with no anchor in truth or end in God is no proper religion all. Is it any reason that people are turning away? Why waste one’s time? Simply to soothe the symptoms of meaninglessness? It does not make sense to submit one’s self to something which simply points one back to one’s self.
Now lest you think I have gone far afield my point is this. Charles I was not a man led by self-actualization. Neither was his Christianity that of the modern sort. Charles was a man of principle. He was a man with meaning. He was a man for whom his duty to God as a Christian Monarch came first. We celebrate him today as a martyr not because he was a king who was killed by an illicit and unjust “court” but because he would not abdicate the state to which God had called him and as part of that would not agree to the abolition of bishops. Charles could have saved himself. As Historian and Bishop Creighton of London wrote in 1895:
Had Charles been willing to abandon the Church and give up episcopacy, he might have saved his throne and his life. But on this point Charles stood firm: for this he died, and by dying saved it for the future. (King Charles the Martyr)
Other historians and contemporaries of Charles testify that while he was willing to compromise on other terms, he could not abandon the Church he had inherited from his Father and lay aside his duty to her. This was the state to which God had called him. He was a Christian monarch and to defend the Church against modern and possible blasphemous innovation.
Such and act is so foreign to our world driven by pragmatism and expediency. In an age where politicians are expected and even applauded for bearing false witness and even clergy make light of God’s commandments it is hard to believe anyone would go to his death over a matter of principle let along a king give his crown for his Church.
It is well and good to celebrate Charles for his act, but ought we also honor him by imitation? If not to honor him, than we ought to honor our common king, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, is the word of God and the Truth that anchors all things and gives meaning to life. His kingship does not stop in the heavens but extends to our lives. He loves us, but he also calls us as the old catechism and St. Paul says to be faithful to the state and life to which we have been called. It is this calling that gives our lives meaning and significance. As Cs Lewis observed in 1943:
The man who cannot conceive a joyful and loyal obedience on the one hand, nor an unembarrassed and noble acceptance of that obedience on the other, the man who has never even wanted to kneel or to bow, is a prosaic barbarian. (“Equality” The Spectator, 27 August 1943)
Contrary to what our modern culture tells us, the lives to which we have been called, our vocations, our duties and obligations are actually what gives us reasonable happiness in this life. None of us will experience the weight and duty of being a king, but many of us experience the work and weight of laboring truly for our own living. Doing this work well as a Christian gives a particular kind of joy for it is in the service of Jesus the King. Some of us have made vows as clergy or as spouses. If you are a Christian you have made vows to the Lord and his Church. Far from being impediments to our happiness, these are the things that give our life meaning. When we fail to live as Christians in the state to which God has called us, forgiveness and grace is plenteous. But when we fail we should once against stand up and walk forward because not only does our own good depend on it, but the good of those around us. As the famous Whig Edmond Burke wrote,
“the Author of our being is the author of our place in the order of existence; and that having disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic, not according to our will, but according to His, He has, in and by that disposition, virtually subjected us to act the part which belongs to the part assigned to us. We have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in consequence of any special voluntary pact.They arise from the relation of man to man, and the relation of man to God, which relations are not a matter of choice....”
How much more meaning would our lives have and how much more reasonably happy would we be if we spend less time trying to remake ourselves and our situation and more time trying to live faithfully into our duties with God? Let us not squander our heritage but look to the bigger picture. What if there are things worth living for and things worth dying for?
When he awoke the day of his execution on January 30, King Charles called it his “second wedding day,” as, “before the night I hope to be espoused to my blessed Jesus.”((Clark, A concise history, 203.)) Charles then declared his confession of faith in the Church of England and noted he had both a “good cause and a gracious God.”((Clark, A concise history, 203.)) When Bishop Juxon reminded him that Charles had but a brief moment before heaven, Charles comforted him with his last words, “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown. Remember!”((Clark, A concise history, 203-204.)) WHY WE SHOULD REMEMBER ST. CHARLES KING AND MARTYR
You and I too can have that meaning in life. Both the king and the begger have equal access to the King of the Universe. If you have not yet accepted His kingship, you can. If you have fallen down in your service, he is there to forgive and restore. You too can run the race and by God’s grace receive the incorruptible crown. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.