Last week the future King of England visited B.C. Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton came to Kelowna. Their presence caused traffic jams, road closures, and exceptional security precautions.
So many police were assigned to shepherd the royal couple that it would probably have been an ideal time to rob a bank. But I guess the robbers were lined up along the streets with everyone else, hoping to catch a momentary glimpse of the someday king and queen.
I stayed home. But I remember my glimpse of their grandmother, just months before Princess Elizabeth became queen, in 1951. King George was ill, would soon need lung surgery. Elizabeth’s visit to Canada was scheduled, cancelled, re-instated, postponed, and finally took place a week later than originally planned.
She arrived looking harried and nervous; she left five weeks later looking relaxed and confident.

The best view in the crowd
During her visit to Vancouver, a motorcade took her to the University of British Columbia campus. I lived on the UBC campus in those days. I was 15. I had a paper route. I made a detour that afternoon, to ride over to UBC’s East Mall. The sides of the road were packed with royal watchers.
I leaned my bike, with its load of newspapers, against one of the maple trees that ran in a row down the central boulevard. But there were too many people, all bigger than me. No way I was going to see the princess over all those heads.
So I borrowed a biblical insight. I remembered the story of Zaccheus, the tax collector who climbed a tree so that he could have a better view of Jesus. (Aside: everyone assumes Zaccheus was short, but it could equally be that Jesus was.)
Anyway, I climbed a tree too. Standing on my bicycle, I could reach high enough to grasp the lowest limb. I hoisted myself up. I crawled part way out for a better view.
No, I didn’t fall.
But I had the best view of anyone in the whole crowd.
The royal convertible passed almost below me. Elizabeth had already perfected that royal hand wave. Everyone on the ground saw it. But I was the only person who could see down into the car, who could see her glance up at me and then gently touch Philip’s knee to draw his attention to the boy up a tree.
I’m sure that next wave was intended specially for me.

Expecting miracles?
Odd, isn’t it, that we make such effort to see royalty. Seeing them will not make any difference in our lives. They don’t fling gold coins to the crowds any more. They don’t even fling candies. They won’t invite us for tea at the palace.
Is it, perhaps, a distant genetic memory from the time when a king’s touch was believed to cure diseases? When relatives brought their sick, their infirm, their suffering, to line the roads where a king might pass by, might reach out and heal them?
I remember that people in the Bible people crowded the roads where Jesus passed -- to see him, to touch him, to be healed. The gospels say the people wanted to make him their king.
It sounds as if royal-watching has been around for a long time.
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Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN

Last week’s column suggested that instead of applying God’s qualities to Jesus, we should apply the personal qualities we associate with Jesus to God. Ronnie Nesbitt recalled an incident: “A pastor was visiting a parishioner who had lost her son. She asked 'How could God have allowed that?' He thought that she would never have imagined saying 'How could Jesus ever have allowed that?'
“Someone has said 'In God there is no un-Christlikeness at all'.”

Margaret McLachlan wrote, “I like this way of seeing God, through knowing as much of Jesus as we can see. I think maybe this was Gretta Vosper's way, but she didn't call Jesus incarnate. Where she got her foundation from I am not sure. To me, God is not some Santa Claus out there, when you know Jesus.”

Tom Watson also made a Gretta Vosper connection: “Seems to me that defining God is occupying the thinking time of both you and me recently. Probably a result of this whole business of Gretta Vosper. And then there's the Trinitarian formula which you write about today.
“Let's restrict things to baptism. My understanding that, to date at least, it's essential that when one is baptized (either child or adult) it be done ‘in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’ And over my time, all the baptisms I did were in accordance with that formula. One of the reasons has been that using the Trinitarian formula was necessary for the baptism to be recognized by our ecumenical partners.
“I find that Metropolitan United in Toronto -- one among many I suspect -- offers both Baptism and Blessing. I'm not sure what the differences are in the liturgies but I suspect the Blessing liturgy does not use the Trinitarian formula...and perhaps doesn't use water either.
“But what to do when it becomes increasingly more difficult to say the Trinitarian formula with integrity? I might like to shift the wording to Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. But that, as I understand it, wouldn't be official.”

Vern Ratzlaff corrected me: “Constantine made Christianity one of the legal religions of the empire in the Act of Toleration; it wasn't until Theodosius in 382 that Christianity became the religion of the empire.”

Isabel Gibson looked for solutions: “I continue to shake my head at our human ability to take anything (even good things) and ruin it/them/ourselves through excess or complication. I think of all the feel-good substances we enjoy, then abuse, and then can't live with or without.
“I think of love turned into obsession; prudence into paralyzing fear.
“And I think of ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ turned into straight-jacket creeds and theologies over which we fight and kill each other.
“Maybe we should chuck out all the creeds and theologies and try living as Jesus is reported to have done for, oh, say, two thousand years. Then we could put back whatever complicators or nuances we find that we still want or need.”
It seems to me that J.A.T. Robinson suggested something similar about 60 years ago.

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

I saw Psalm 66:1-12 as a song of immigrants and settlers and refugees, and of anyone recovering from a serious illness or debility.

1   On the other side of the mountains, a new world spreads before us.
2   The rocky ridges give way to spreading grasslands; 
the shadows of our past to endless sunshine.
4   The far horizon shimmers in holy celebration. 
In sacred silence we stand, speechless before the rebirth of possibility.
3   You tested us terribly, God. 
At times, we thought we would die, adrift, alone.
5   You scorched us on the deserts; 
you froze us on the glaciers. 
We could not help ourselves.
6   But you gave us shade against the sun, and fire against the cold. 
With your help, we survived every obstacle.
7   Through our trials you taught us that you alone are almighty, and not we ourselves.

8   We could have perished.
We could have fallen into shadowed chasms;
9   we could have been cornered by wild animals
or incinerated by forest fires.
10   We lost loved ones;
we still mourn their passing.
11   We suffered.
12   But in passing through our suffering,
we discovered grace.

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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