The Coronation of His Majesty King Charles lll was firmly at the heart of our morning’s worship last Sunday when the preacher was Mr Robert Williams. Robert was welcomed by steward Sue Fox and we sang happy birthday to Olivia, one of our young people.
Kingship was chosen as the theme of our service and Robert’s prayers, hymns and words reflected this theme throughout the service. After reading together the words of Psalm 47 we sang the great hymn by Robert Grant (1779-1838) “O worship the King, all-glorious above; O gratefully sing his power and his love” to organ music played by Rod Smith. Our opening prayers were full of praise and thanksgiving for the faith and dedication shown by King Charles.
Our prayers for others similarly reflected the dedication and service shown by countless many whose lives are dedicated to service in all walks of life. Sue Fox then read our first bible reading from Matthew’s gospel chapter 28, which tells of the resurrection of Jesus and his call to his disciples to peoples everywhere to baptise and teach them. The second was read by Ron Lucas from Philippian, chapter two, which tells of Christ’s humility and greatness.
Robert began his sermon quoting some words from Christ’s Kingdom “He came to Serve not to be Served”. If we were meeting the King, we should stand to attention, we should be on our best behaviour and put on a good show, said Robert. We should do our best to honour our King and events such as Coronation Day stay in the memory for a lifetime. Similarly, at Easter, after Christ’s resurrection we celebrated the coming of the Kingdom of God and honour the sacrifice and service of Jesus who reminded us when he said, “My kingdom is not of this world but of heaven” In the midst of the turmoil of this world Jesus brings a reign of peace and hope to the world. We experience awe inspiring moments when we reflect on the service to others shown by Jesus, and as St Paul said in his letter to the Philippian church, a true servant shows the quality of humility, a quality shown by our King.
After the closing hymn we stood and sang both verses of our National Anthem “God Save the King”.