October 2, 2011
Good morning and welcome to this celebration. We are all decked out in white today in celebration for two reasons. It is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels and on this feast day we celebrate the baptism of Pearl Schussler.
So, what are we to say about angels? Each of our readings today speak of angels, chief among them Michael the Archangel. I always know when this Feast day is near, as we have Michelmas daisies growing in our yard. When those daisies are in full bloom I know the Feast Day is near. I also know it time for my son Michael’s birthday, since he was born on the Feast Day, which is Sept. 29 transferred to today.
In a world and society that seems more and more to deny the spiritual, or at least ignore it, it is difficult to focus on what we cannot see. Yet, we know the spiritual exists through faith and the testimony of scripture. Our Lord Jesus, by dying for us on the cross, has given a precious gift, that of a promise of eternal life in heaven. The Apostle Paul tells us that if we do not believe in the resurrection, we are the most of all people to be pitied, for our message would be in vain.
But, in fact, Jesus was raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15. Our lives are spiritual, and we are part of the heavenly Kingdom even here on earth. And so, the spiritual is important. Scripture tells us all about heaven and angels. In the Old Testament passage, we heard of Jacob who has received a blessing from his father Isaac. He has a dream and in his dream he sees a ladder set up on earth, the top reaching heaven and the angels of God are ascending and descending.
In the Gospel passage, two disciples have decided to follow Jesus and come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. In His response, Jesus says to them “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
According to research, angels are mentioned 108 times in the Old Testament and 165 times in the New Testament. This is where we get the foundational material for what we know of angels. Research suggests angels were created perhaps immediately after the creation of heaven and before the creation of earth. There are both good and evil angels as we learn from today’s epistle.
The very word “angel” means “messenger” and there is a purpose or job description for these unnamed angels that include a number of tasks:
a) Worship and praise (Isaiah 6:1-3, Revelation 4, 5)
b) Revealing — serving as messengers to communicate God’s will to humanity. For example, they helped reveal the law to Moses (Acts 7:52,53)
c) Guiding — (Angels gave instructions to Joseph concerning the birth of Jesus (Mathew 1), to the women at the tomb, to Phillip (Acts 8:26), and to Cornelius (Acts 10:1-8)
d) Providing—physical needs such as food for Hagar (Genesis 21:17-20), Elijah (1Kings 19:6 and Christ after His temptation (Matthew 4:11)
e) Protecting — keeping God’s people out of physical danger, as in the cases of Daniel in the lion’s den and his three friends in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3 and 6)
f) Delivering God’s people out of danger once they are in it (Angels released the Apostles from prison in Acts 5)
g) Strengthening and encouraging — strengthening Jesus after His temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11), encouraging the Apostles to keep preaching after their release from prison (Acts 5:19, 20), and telling Paul everyone would survive the ship wreck in his missionary journey (Acts 27:23-25)
h) Answering prayer (Daniel 9:20- 24, 10:10-12, Acts 12:1-17)
i) Caring for believers at the moment of death, as in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, where angels carry the spirit of Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom when he died (Luke 16:22)
Angels are not glorified human beings, though they appear to us as humans when sent. They do not marry or reproduce. It appears that all angels were created at one time, and no new angels are being added. Angels are not subject to death or any form of extinction so they do not decrease in number.
Research suggests angels are essentially ministering spirits and do not have physical bodies like humans, though they appear to us as physical at times: perhaps one of you may have encountered a stranger who helped you out of a jam. In the letter to the Hebrews we read this:
“Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2). The Bible makes it clear that angels can only be in one place at a time and must have a localized presence. While angels can appear to us as earthly humans, they also can appear in dazzling white and blazing glory as we read in Matthew 28:2-4.
Since angels are spirits, they do not have to appear visibly (Colossians 1:16). Recall the story of Elisha, who once prayed his servant would see the armies of angels surrounding the city, and the young man discovered he had overlooked a lot of invisible beings (2 Kings 6, 17). Sometimes an angel will appear to be a person with unusual features as we read in Daniel, when he saw an angel with arms and legs resembling polished metal and precious stones and a face like lightning (Daniel 10:5-6).
Sorry! You can't trust every angel.
The Bible classifies some angels as “elect” (1 Timothy 5:21) or “holy” (Matthew 25:31; Mark 8:38). All angels were originally holy, enjoying the presence of God (Matthew 18:10) and the environment of heaven (Mark 13:32).
Other angels oppose God under the leadership of Satan (Matthew 25:41; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Ephesians 6:12). We often call these “demons.” This is what is reflected in our passage from Revelation today, when war breaks out in heaven. Michael and his angels fight the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated. The great dragon is thrown down, the ancient serpent known as the Devil and Satan. (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-acb/acb-t005.html)
And so, in our world today we continue to witness the battle between good and evil. We are living in both an earthly and a spiritual world. Angels and demons are a part of the spiritual. But we have Good News. It is not a fight between two equal and eternal forces. God who created all beings is still in charge, and once He has used wicked angels to accomplish His purposes, He will bring them to a final defeat. The Good News for us is that God so loved you and me, He gave His only Son, to the end that all who believe will have eternal life.
This brings us to today’s relevance, our celebration of baptism. It is our privilege as a Church, as the Body of Christ on earth, to bring one of our own, this child, Pearl, before God for baptism into His Body. In this sacrament, the outward and visible sign of the water represents a death to sin, a death to ways that take us away from God, and a rebirth, new life given by God. This is the inward and spiritual grace of the sacrament.
Today, Pearl receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and through the Holy Spirit, she will come to know God. Through the nurturing of her parents, godparents, and family, and the larger family of God present in this community and the larger community of faith, Pearl will grow to know and to love God and to understand she shares in a ministry of service to God, a ministry of sharing our Good News with others.
Together with the larger company of heaven, the angels, and all of those who have gone before, Pearl will be led to a life of service and in the end, she, along with all believers, will enter the glory of God. For this, we give thanks. Let us pray.
Gracious and loving God, we thank you for Michael and all of the angels present with us and for all of the greater company of heaven witnessing with us today. Most especially, we give thanks for Pearl and for the gift of your Holy Spirit in her life. We give thanks that you will be with her in the days ahead to guide, direct, and support her. Thank you for this community of St. James, for the love and nurture and support we offer. Grant us the grace to know you deeper in our lives and to serve you humbly here on earth. In Jesus` name we pray. Amen.
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