"The sacred place is one that has been singled out by suffering and sacrifice, by revelation and prayer. It is marked and because of this, is a recognisable point of meaning". Roger Scruton - The Face of God.
"The city is a dead thing - it cannot live in and by itself. Any living thing within its walls comes from outside. It does not renew itself from within, but by the constant supply of fresh blood from outside". Jacques Ellul - The meaning of the City.
"For you have come to Zion, the city of the living God". Hebrews 12:22.
This has most certainly been a week in which we have witnessed the importance of what can rightly be defined as 'civil architecture'. Not since the demise of the man known as the 'great commoner' in the 1950's have we witnessed the measure of 'pomp and circumstance' in the British isles that has been on display for over a week now.
What has been defined as 'the great loss to the community' has been adorned in the most sumptuous display of refinement that the nation could produce, but this, in and of itself, raises a question - why is this so? Why has the majority of a country's population required and responded in this fashion? What does it say about our necessity for continuity, even in the face of the abrupt ending of death?
There have been numerous attempts to speak to this in these solemn days, but none, in my opinion, came closer to grasping the vital truth beyond this moment than Dr Jordan Peterson, when, being asked a question concerning the Queen's death, he sought to look at what genuinely resided behind the death of this head of state.
Peterson rightly zeros-in on the "weight" of what is behind the monarchical system (architecture) of our society - that the office (not exclusively the person who fills it) is the symbolic repository of a far greater national legacy, dating back to the days of Alfred the Great, which was enshrined into the British constitution in 1688 following two centuries of enormous conflict and change.
This allowed the English especially to become those who would liberate so many others.
American culture is often found to be deeply devoid of this focal point, hence the 'need' to find it in First Ladies or at least via Hollywood, which is why, no doubt, it comes closest in a genuinely "good" leader or a noble story, especially when true.
What is encapsulated in the 'four-level' system of the English peoples is caution, confession, and a measure of required humility that allows for genuine pause and reflection. Of course, even the best of systems can be demeaned or ignored, as we have seen in recent times in the rush to replace this with "shot-gun" political megalomania, but whilst this depository remains, it allows room for genuine reform.
That brings us to the future.
It is already clear that there will be major change, so these more sombre days once again, give the nation a moment of pause to consider what is and what must remain if we to see true significance in our future. Perhaps this moment of transition will also, for some, become a vital moment of revelation in this respect, and allow them to recall the 'old paths, wherein lies the good way' (Jeremiah 6:16).
It is in our 'shared bonds' that our nation has been married to ways and means that are far higher and noble than our individual impaired selves. This has brought a true 'birthing' of righteousness and freedom across the globe.
The aspirations of Alfred, all those centuries ago, to see a Kingdom established on the sole foundation of 'Jesus Christ, and Him crucified' (The very Gospel of the Christian faith, in other words), has brought much fruit throughout the centuries, because it sought to root the English way of law and civil architecture into the very roots of truth, and we still have a vestment of this within and beneath our present culture.
Wisdom, as Peterson notes, would amount to our times re-discovering just how precious these 'living stones' of faith and practice can be in such a troubling day as this. We can only hope and pray that at this moment, we become a people who turn again to the one and only true source of life, who inhabits the eternal, living city above our own.
Beyond all the presumed guilt and shame of this moment, even if some of that is warranted, there is a vast treasury of wealth to do us good in respect to what derives from the actions of God amongst the men of the ages of this land, and we must come, with confidence born from that truth, to this same Almighty but gracious and everlasting King if we desire to see something truly rich bestowed upon us once again.
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