Times were hard for the prophet Elijah. For much of his ministry, he had to deal with King Ahab, who scripture describes this way, “And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.” (1 Kings 16:30) “He did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the kings before him.” He married Jezebel, a Phoenician princess from Sidon who was really bad too, and built altars to the false god Baal.

It’s a fascinating story which you can read in 1 Kings, but to summarize, Elijah bravely and resolutely confronted Ahab and Jezebel and their awful blasphemy of encouraging false prophets and false gods in Israel. That’s a big no-no, by the way. Those confrontations are alongside demonstrations of God’s extraordinary provision and mercy, sending rain and feeding, even raising the dead.

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When I was in seminary, a good chunk of the curriculum seemed designed to scare us. They were constantly warning us about how hard parish ministry is on clergy and their families. They pointed out different ways conflict could arise in churches. They’d bring in priests to talk to us who had been in some manner of trouble. Some had crumbled under stress and gotten into addictions or affairs and were disciplined. Others had taken the wrong call and been crushed by the experience. Some had burned out.

Meanwhile, we had a lot of conflict in the seminary itself. Our dean had been accused of sexual harassment, exonerated then disciplined anyway and eventually forced out. The students were divided in several ways. But worse, the faculty who were all ordained were as well.

Then one day during my third year, at the start of my last semester, a guy who had graduated at the end of my first year came back for a visit. I’ll call him Ken, because that’s his name. Ken Weldon, or as I like to call him, Ken “Good Servant” Weldon.

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When Meg and I went to England three years ago, it just happened to be after Queen Elizabeth II died. In fact, we went to Evensong that first evening in Westminster Abbey, where her funeral had been exactly one week earlier. It felt a little odd knowing King Charles III had succeeded his mother, which changed all the signs and stationery. That’s not just because my mum is British. Although we fought our war of independence 250 years ago to throw off King George III of England, we do share a great deal of history.

I hope and pray Charles does well. Many English monarchs did. Queen Elizabeth II reigned for over 70 years, the longest of any British monarch and second longest of any in history. Queen Victoria ruled about 25 to 30% of the world’s population, the largest empire the world has ever seen. There is only one English monarch who is called “great.”  Who, you might ask?  Maybe I should ask you!  It’s not Arthur, not Henry VIII, Elizabeth I or II or Victoria. His name was Alfred. Why was Alfred great?

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