Things Visible and Invisible: A Sermon for St Michael and All Angels

Preached at St Luke’s Creemore, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, for the Regional Ministry of South Georgian Bay, 29 September, 2024, the Feast of St Michael and All Angels.

Readings for this Sunday:  Genesis 28:10-17; Psalm 103:19-22; Revelation 12:7-12; John 1:47-51

This Sunday is serving triple duty for us.

First, because tomorrow, Sept 30,  is the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, it’s an opportunity for us to reflect on how we as God’s people have not always recognized our indigenous brothers and sisters as fellow Canadians and as fellow Christians.  As Bishop Andrew said in this week’s letter to the Diocese, we are called “to build together a country, and a Church, that – as we promised in our baptism – respects the dignity of every human being”. 

Second, today is an opportunity for us to celebrate the way we are starting to be church, which we call regional ministry.   Isn’t it wonderful to look around and see a full church, to see new people, and to think about how we can pool our resources, ideas, and talents?   As I’ve said this month, this is a new way of thinking that breaks with our old ideas of churches as siloes or as franchises.   One example of how we’ve been doing that lately is our Tuesday bible studies hosted by All Saints and ably led by Olivia Crowe from Prince of Peace, with a mixed group from both churches.   This shared project is a great example of how our churches can offer more when we work together.

Thirdly, today in the life of our church is the Feast of St Michael and All Angels.   While St Michael and All Angels would be a great name for our amazing regional clergy team, that’s not what we are celebrating today.    This feast, St Michael and All Angels, falls on Sept 29 in the church calendar and as our scripture readings have shown us, is an opportunity for us to think about those mysterious and wonderful creatures that we call angels, and also to think about their place in our faith and in Christian belief.

Now you may not think much about angels in your day to day faith life.   That wouldn’t be surprising, they don’t occur frequently in scripture, they aren’t mentioned in the creeds, and as part of the spiritual realm they are largely unseen and their role can seem unclear to us.   Indeed, for some of us, even for professing Christians, it may be difficult to believe in angels because we are so strongly influenced by rationalism and materialism.

And yet angels are everywhere in popular culture.   Think of:

Angels in the Outfield

Angels with Dirty Faces

Charlies Angels

Touched by an Angel

Angels in America

Angels are used to sell everything from cream cheese to lingerie.   We think of angels getting their wings, and we think of them as being cute and bumbling, like Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life.   It may well be that there are more people who believe in angels than there are people who believe in Jesus, which, if so,  isn’t surprising, because where as Jesus makes demands on his followers, angels in popular belief often seem like fairy godmothers.

So what if anything are we as followers of Jesus supposed to think about angels?   While they are mysterious, angels are in scripture and in the teachings of the church, and so we can say a few things about them.  We can start by saying that they are created by God who made the heavens and the earth.  So they like us in that they are creatures; they are not gods and we are not meant to worship them.    Unlike us, they are spiritual beings who are able to live in the presence of God, but they also have the ability to move between spiritual existence and material existence, which is why they can appear to humans as God’s messengers.   Indeed, the word angel comes from a Latin word meaning messenger.

The psalmist describes angels as “mighty ones who do his bidding, and hearken to the voice of his word” (Ps 103: 20).   The word “mighty” explains why angels can be terrifying when they choose to be seen, while the phrase “do his bidding” tells us that angels are obedient to God’s will and are agents of God’s purposes.  And God’s purposes for us are good and loving, which is why the first thing angels usually say in scripture is “don’t be afraid”, which tells us that their role is to bring us closer to God who wants to save us.

While the work of angels is largely invisible, we get a glimpse of their work in our first reading (Genesis 28:10-17), Jacob’s vision of angels ascending and descending the ladder from heaven to hearth, leads us to think that there are many angels (see also Matthew 26:53, when Jesus refers to “twelve legions of angels”.  So why are all these angels going back and forth between heaven and earth?    We don’t know, but if the holy angels exist to do God’s bidding, and if God’s wants to save us, then surely it’s safe to say that the angels are working on our behalf.

In a fascinating podcast, Fr. James Brent says that the work of the angels is to draw us closer to Christ.  Anything that prompts us to pray, any impulse that leads us to an act of charity, he says, might be an angelic influence.  Likewise, Fr. Brent suggests that the idea of the guardian angel is not just a childish story, but has a wholesome purpose that we should take to heart, because as the story of St. Michael suggests, angels can be seen as protectors.

Angels are thus opposed to the demonic forces who try to undo the work of God and who seek to pull us away from God.   Who or what is the demonic?  It’s something we should take seriously, but not live in fear of.  I’ve always liked what C.S Lewis said, which is that it’s a mistake to think too much or too little about the forces of evil.   But if we agree that evil exists as a force or power in the world, then we can also say that angels exist to help God save us from these forces.  The story of St Michael in our second lesson is an example of how the angels serve God’s primary purpose, which is to resist evil and death.  Jesus consistently opposes the forces of evil.  In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ first miracle is to free a man from an evil spirit.   Christ wishes that all of us are freed from the power of evil and death, and the angels exist in part to bring us closer to Christ.

I realize that much of what I have said may seem esoteric and far-fetched.  The idea of our world busy with invisible, divine activity is difficult for a materialist mindset to accept, and almost as difficult for those who see God as being far-off and detached from the world God made.  But why would a God who made the world out of love, and who wants what is best for us, keep a distance from that world?  As Archbishop Rowan Williams has written, the possibility of angels remind us that created world is actually more mysterious that we can imagine, “pulsing with something unmanageable, terrible, and wonderful, just below its surface”.   And surely, if the world is full of God’s activity and full of God’s angelic agents, then should we not strive to care for it, as God’s angels care for us?

So in this homily, I have suggested that angels are part of the Christian story, that we glimpse them in scripture, and that they exist to help God in God’s work of saving us.   It’s not childish to believe in angels.  If the idea of a guardian angel comforts you, then embrace it, as part of your faith.   It’s okay to ask our angel for help when we don’t have the concentration to pray, and when are sad or in despair, we can ask our guardian angel to quiet our troubled minds and lead us back to Christ.  If that is a comforting idea for you, then I encourage you to take it to heart.  After all, if God loves us, and if God created the angels to help us, then the angels must also love us.

It is not childish to believe in angels.  Their existence is testified in scripture and in the teaching of the church.   We may not see them, but we can draw comfort in their presence as a sign of God’s commitment to us and of God’s involvement in our daily lives.  And, as a final thought, we can see them as role models, for if angels exist to protect us, to help us, and to guide us, then we can initiate their work by protecting, helping, and guiding others.   In that way we can serve and love God in our earthly realm, as the angels serve and love God in the spiritual realm, for God’s will for us is that, when we are raised on the last day and perfected, we too may become angelic.

 

God's Guideposts: A Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent

 Preached at All Saints, King City, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Sunday, 13 March.   Readings for this Sunday:  Gen 15:1-12,17-18; Ps 27; Phil 3:17-4:1; Lk 13:31-35

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.  (Phil 3:17)

You’ve probably noticed that shortly after I joined you as your interim priest, I’ve started referring to you collectively as “saints”.   I say that to remind you of the generosity of God, who in Christ wants us all to be transformed and made better.    The Greek word “hagios” means holy ones, and when Paul would write his letters to various churches, he would address them as “holy ones”.   Today’s second lesson from Philippians begin with this greeting:

“To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Phillippi, with the bishops and deacons:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 1.1-2).

Paul was using the term “saints” in part to compliment these new Christians and to encourage them to continue in the faith, but he was also using the term to remind these congregation were being remade in the new life and new identities that God in Christ had called them to.   The same applies to us.

I think it’s important to keep in mind that God has plans for us, that God wants to improve us and bring us closer to God’s self, and so I like that this parish is named “All Saints”, because the name reminds us that we God has God’s sights on all of us, that we’re all part of God’s improvement plan.

So there are saints – all of us – and then there are “Saints” with a capital S, the heroes of our faith.    How do we in the Anglican tradition understand this latter group of saints.   Our understanding of them is a little different from that of our Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends, who see them as means or channels of God’s grace.   

As Anglicans we think of the saints as role models, as people that we should imitate.    One of our prayer books explain it this way:

“… the history of God’s mighty acts of salvation is always a personal history. The Church believe that the divine purpose of justice, mercy, and love is revealed in the story of particular persons.   Indeed, it is through the stories of individual saints that the Almighty renews and strengthens the witness of ‘the holy people of God’ (For All the Saints 11).

This idea of the role model is absolutely behind Paul’s exhortation to the Christians in Philippi to “join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us”.  This statement might strike you as being quite egotistical, as many often perceive Paul to be.   But think about what we all expect of coaches, mentors, and role models.   Don’t we want such people to be examples of good practices and skills that we want to adopt?

Imagine if you were going to a gym and wanted to hire a fitness instructor.   Wouldn’t you want to hire someone who was clearly in good shape, who had studied disciplines such as anatomy, and who had the experience and the skills to improve you?  Just as the same is true of music instructors and college professors, it’s also true of fellow Christians who can be role models of our faith for us.

Before Covid, Joy and I liked to go to the monastery of the Society of St. John in Boston to participate in one of their weekend guided retreats.  One of the monks would lead us in several sessions over the weekend, helping us to pray, meditate, and listen to God.   That a person would give up their worldly life and travel to devote themselves to prayer and spiritual disciplines gives the brothers authority and credibility.

Paul had the same credibility.  Whatever you may think of him (as a Paul fan, I’m in a bit of a minority), remember that Paul used to be Saul, a persecutor of the church, until he was literally transformed by Jesus into Paul, the teacher and evangelist and church planter.   When Paul told the Philippians to imitate him, be was pointing to himself as a sign of how God could turn a life around.

If you don’t want to imitate Paul, there are lots of other Christians you can turn to as role models.  Some are long dead, such as those we call the Communion of Saints, those Christians whose lives across the centuries have been memorable for their piety, their charity, their bravery, and even their eccentricity!  Some of us are currently playing a game called Lent Madness, where we get to learn about 32 saints from across the centuries and vote for our favourite.   You can learn more and play along at our parish Facebook page or at www.lentmadness.org.

Your own saint may be someone who was a role model to you in your own life, perhaps a Sunday school teacher, a grandparent, or your confirmation teacher.  It may be someone who is sitting here today, who models a particular aspect of the Christian faith for you.  For all you know, you may have helped someone else as a role model of the faith.  These personal saints can play as transformative a role in our lives as any saint n a stained glass window.

 Here's a final thought on why we need saints as role models.   Paul tell the Christians in Philippi to “stand firm in the Lord” (Phl 4.1).  Another variant of this thought occurs in our Lenten prayer for the Breaking of the Bread: “if we hold firm, we will reign with him”.  What does standing firm mean? 

In this season of Lent, we are encouraged to think about the traditional disciplines of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and scripture reading that bring us closer to God.   We also acknowledge that there are lots of things that are trying to pull us away from God.  

Recently I read about a spiritual retreat where “the retreat leader led participants in discerning formational forces at work in our lives. Churches, schools, families, friends, neighborhoods, media, advertising, employers, professional organizations, etc., affect us daily, for better and for worse. At the end, the leader reminded participants, “Remember that as you leave, you will renter the multibillion dollar formation machine that is American media and advertising.”

The leader’s point was that we are exposed to many influences that try to shape our opinions, our personalities, even our souls.  Not all of these influences are necessarily what Paul would call “enemies of the cross of Christ”, but many of these influences seek to align us with selfishness, materialism, hatred, and violence.   

Looking to the saints is one way of re-aligning ourselves with the values of our faith, whether the saints are historic, stained glass figures, or personal saints who have shaped our lives.  In an age where so many forces try to pull us away from God, the saints are like those radar beacons that guide aircraft at night and in fog.   In short, the saints are guideposts that lead us home to Jesus.

From George Herbert, A Poem For His Day

http://actorphotobook.com/images/george-herbert-05.jpg

Today in the calendar of the Anglican Communion is dedicated to remembering one of our "saints", the 17th century poet and clergyman George Herbert. I put "saints" in quotation marks since the Anglican understanding of sainthood is somewhat different from that held by our Catholic brothers and sisters. Anglicans don't see saints necessarily as miraculous or intercessory figures, but rather as those worthy of remembrance examples of a spiritual gift or God-directed life. The editors of the prayer book For All The Saints: Prayers and Readings For Saints' Days, put it well:

The habit of remembering "the friends of God" has been one of the great delights of Christian people since the dawn of the Church. The reason for this is neither fancy theology nor sub-Christian superstition. It is simply that the history of God's mighty acts of salvation is always a personal personal history. The Church believes that the divine purpose of justice, mercy, and love is revealed in the stories of particular persons. INdeed, it is through the stories of individual saints that the Almighty renews and strengthens the witness of "the holy people of God". Thus, the Calendar of Saints is meant to jog our memories, to remind us that today or tomorrow is the heavenly birthday of someone whose faith, holy life, and witness to Christ were so great in their time that they continue to be a cause for celebration by us in our own time." (FAS 11).

We remember and celebrate Herbert because, after much struggle and ambition, he turned his back on a life of social advancement at court to become a humble country parson, as well as an accomplished poet of Christian verse. Some of his poems have been set to music, such as "Come My Way" which lives in Ralph Vaugh Williams' haunting setting as part of "The Call". Here's my favourite Herbert poem, offered today for everyone who ever felt that they weren't good enough for God.

1Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back, 2 Guilty of dust and sin. 3But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack 4 From my first entrance in, 5Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning 6 If I lack'd anything. 7"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here"; 8 Love said, "You shall be he." 9"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear, 10 I cannot look on thee." 11Love took my hand and smiling did reply, 12 "Who made the eyes but I?" 13"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame 14 Go where it doth deserve." 15"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?" 16 "My dear, then I will serve." 17"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat." 18 So I did sit and eat.

More Herbert poetry here.