A Final Accounting

  Pomp and circumstance is what Britain does really well. Meticulous in its execution,
  the ceremonial funeral of Baroness Thatcher was the first since 1965 to mark
  the passing of a former Prime Minister. The service at St Paul’s Cathedral was
  attended by the Queen, the British establishment and dignitaries from around
  the world. 

  Meanwhile, elsewhere in small pockets throughout the country, the former Prime Minister’s
  detractors held Thatcher death parties to celebrate her passing. Even, in death
  it would seem, Margaret Thatcher brought to the surface the many underlying
  tensions which remain in British society. 

  There is no denying that Mrs Thatcher has left her mark. Her election in 1979 is now
  seen as a turning point in history. Her government broke the cosy post war
  political consensus on the interventionist role of the state in favour of
  individual responsibility. That political approach became known as
  ‘Thatcherism’, and while many suffered through unemployment as the state was
  reigned in, many other ordinary people benefitted becoming property owners for
  the first time.    
 
  Margaret Thatcher had a strong Christian faith. She was brought up as a Methodist,
  attending church three times a week. While Prime minister, she attended church
  at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where she worshipped, not with the ‘great and
  the good’, but with the Chelsea Pensioners.

  She planned her own funeral service down to the last detail, and the choice of
  hymns and readings reflected her faith. Her grand-daughter Amanda, very
  poignantly read from the section on the ‘Armour of God’ from the Apostle Paul’s
  letter to the Ephesians. Perhaps a final reflection from the former Prime
  Minister on the spiritual battles she faced on a daily basis, and the need for
  the individual believer to take up the all the elements of protection provided
  by God.

  Margaret Thatcher fully understood the Gospel, recognising that peace with God could
  only be secured by a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. She agreed with the
  great truth in the Gospel of John: “For God so loved the world that he gave his
  one and only Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have
  eternal life”.

  The former ‘Iron Lady’ passed away at the age of 87. She had become a frail old
  lady, with a failing memory, whose health had been in decline since her late
  70s.

  With God salvation is individual, not corporate and the decision to follow Jesus is
  a choice that each of us must make as individuals. While Margaret Thatcher’s
  detractors held their death parties in order to satisfy their pent up desire
  for vengeance, perhaps they were unaware that they had one thing in common with
  the former Prime Minister. As individuals, they too will have to give an
  account of their lives before the living God.



Elmo