Advent Four – Angels
Among Us
Reading: Matthew 1:18-25 The Angel Visits Joseph
Now the
birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.
When his
mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph,
but before
they lived together,
she was
found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Her husband
Joseph, being a righteous man
and
unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,
planned to
dismiss her quietly.
But just
when he had resolved to do this,
an angel of
the Lord appeared to him in a dream
and said,
‘Joseph, son of David,
do not be
afraid to take Mary as your wife,
for the child conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit.
She will
bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus,
for he will
save his people from their sins.’
All this
took place to fulfil
what had
been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’
When Joseph
awoke from sleep,
he did as
the angel of the Lord commanded him;
he took her
as his wife,
but had no
marital relations with her
until she
had borne a son;
and he
named him Jesus.
Theme Introduction:
When
you picture an angel, what do you see?
There
is a pretty classic image:
the
perfect human body,
the
white wings enfolded behind the shoulders,
the
halo...
maybe
they are carrying a sword,
maybe
they are brooding silently
or
flying through the air.
And
where do we find angels in our tradition?
Angels
guarded the entrance to the Garden of Eden
when
we were kicked out;
angels
came and destroyed the cities that turned against God;
angels
came to speak to Mary and others about the birth of Jesus,
they
sing in a heavenly chorus
and
angels destroy the world in Revelations.
It
is a bit of a mixed bag -
from
warriors to choirs to messengers.
But
the actual word “angel” has a pretty specific meaning.
If
you trace it back, it comes from the Latin “angelus”
which
in turn traces back to the ancient Greek ἄγγελος (aggelos).
In
any case, it means messenger.
So
angels come to bring a message,
they
come on behalf of the divine,
and
they show us something that we otherwise would overlook.
Angels
exist in Christianity, in Judaism, and in Islam.
And
over the centuries there has been a lot written,
a
lot imagined,
and
a lot of traditions which have developed.
Believe
it or not,
there
are some dozen types of angels
that
we have come to believe in.
The
main divisions are listed in the back of your bulletin. (Note:
At the end of this document.)
From
Guardian angels who protect us and keep us safe
to
the Cherubim and Seraphim
that
pop up around this time of year in some of our Christmas carols,
known
for their joy and beautiful singing abilities.
Who
knew that this whole angel thing could be so complex!
When
we think of the stories, the movies,
the
ways in which Angels have been known in popular culture,
angels
are the ones who come to us and show us the way.
Are
they real?
What
exactly is an angel?
Where
do these beliefs in angels come from anyway?
Join
me today as we explore these mysterious creatures.
Let's
think together about who or what they are
and
how they might work in our lives today.
Exploring
Reading: Exodus
23:20-22 An Angel to Guard You
I
want to read you a couple of verses from Exodus
that
show us that the notion of angels is really quite an old one.
Listen
to what God promises to send to someone who needs help.
I
am going to send an angel in front of you,
to
guard you on the way
and
to bring you to the place
that
I have prepared.
Be
attentive to him
and
listen to his voice;
do
not rebel against him,
for
he will not pardon your transgression;
for
my name is in him.
But
if you listen attentively to his voice
and
do all that I say,
then
I will be an enemy to your enemies
and
a foe to your foes.
Reflection: “The Stereotypical”
When
most of us think of angels,
we
do think of the Guardian Angel.
Perhaps
it was Michael Landon in Highway to Heaven,
or
maybe Touched by an Angel,
or
maybe It's a Wonderful Life,
but
when angels come to mind for most of us,
it
is this heavenly person sent from God
to
watch over our shoulder.
This
is not the Angel of classical paintings either -
no
wings or perfect bodies.
Rather
they look just like us.
So
ordinary, in fact, that you might never even notice them.
But
you can usually find someone
who
has had an encounter
or
thinks some invisible angel has helped them.
Perhaps
an invisible presence has warned them of a
storm
or
helped them out when their car broke down… or….
well,
you get the idea.
The
thing is,
this
understanding of an angel
is
not mentioned very much in the Bible.
And
it is not all that different
than
how we think of God -
the
voice that leads us,
our
conscience,
those
little voices that warn us of danger.
This
is not to say that this goes against the definition.
An
angel, after all, is a messenger of God.
An
Angel speaks for God.
An
Angel is the voice of God.
So
this is where we start our journey -
with
angels as the voice of God, however we hear it -
that
still small voice,
or
that overwhelming feeling which changes everything.
I
love It’s a Wonderful Life.
I
think we have all been there:
feeling
like nothing we do works out
or
makes a difference.
And
we really do need reminders
of
who we are
and
how much we matter.
Perhaps
that is where these stories come from.
They
come from times when we have somehow been connected
to
the Divine enough
to
hear the way it is at work in our lives.
The
idea of the Guardian Angel comes from
the
feeling that God is speaking to us
and
usually that God is warning us.
The
other thing about this way of seeing God at work amongst us
is
that the end result is up to us.
The
angel comes and speaks to us
but
we are the ones who have to make the choice
whether
to listen or not.
Reading: Revelation 12:7-9 Michael Defeats the Dragon
Sometimes certain angels are mentioned by name.
At
Christmas time,
we hear an
awful lot about
the Angel
Gabriel, for instance.
And then
there's Michael,
an
archangel who features at the very end of the Bible
in the Book
of Revelation.
His claim
to fame is described in this way:
And war
broke out in heaven;
Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon.
The dragon
and his angels fought back,
but they
were defeated,
and there
was no longer any place for them in heaven.
The great
dragon was thrown down,
that
ancient serpent,
who is
called the Devil and Satan,
the
deceiver of the whole world—
he was
thrown down to the earth,
and his
angels were thrown down with him.
Reflection: “The Unexpected”
So,
angels are messengers from God
but
they are not always what we expect.
In
fact, you might say when God interacts with the world,
it
is almost never what anyone expects.
Jesus
born as a baby in order to save the world?
Not
what the people were really hoping for.
What
is it that we are expecting of angels?
What
is it we are hoping for?
I
loved the movie Michael when it came out,
because
it so highlighted the idea
that
this was an angel who was not what anyone expected.
And
it reminds us that what we have in mind,
really
is our own projection.
The
same could be said about our conception of God, right?
And
this is why this is so important.
The
angel is the stand in for God.
When
we imagine angels,
we
are imagining them
speaking
or acting for God.
And
the thing is,
God
is almost never acting the way we want.
It's
like when we talk to someone on the phone for a while,
or
write emails back and forth,
and
then finally meet the person.
The
voice led us to imagine they look a certain way,
and
they do not.
The
Archangels like Michael are not what we expect
an
angel to be.
In
fact, they might just be the opposite of what we expect.
The
image of Christmas angels
fills
our heads with white flowing robes,
soft
angel wings, and harps –
the
very picture of peace on earth.
But
according to legends,
archangels
were the shock troops of God.
And
when you look at the biblical stories about them alone,
they
give us cause to worry.
These
are the soldiers who swoop down from heaven
and
kill every first born child.
These
are the ones who wipe out whole cities.
They
guard the Garden of Eden with flaming swords.
Now,
I mention this not to say
that
our God is a violent, vengeful God
who
sends fully-armed messengers to earth,
but
to make the point that God shows up
in
unexpected places
and
in unexpected ways.
There
is no simple way of understanding God.
So
keep your eyes peeled for God's messengers
in
all kinds of places.
God
may be trying to speak to you
through
the lovely older lady
who
speaks gentle words of wisdom
but
God also might speak through
the
young inexperienced tattooed man too.
God
might try to speak to us
through
the confident preacher on a hillside
or
through the inaudible cries of a tiny baby.
Reading: Matthew 28:1-7 The
Angel in the Garden
It is interesting that the two events
that anchor
our Christian faith
rely
heavenly on angels.
We've
already talked about Christmas angels,
and now I'd
like to read you about an Easter angel
from
Matthew's Gospel.
After the
sabbath,
as the
first day of the week was dawning,
Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary
went to see
the tomb.
And
suddenly there was a great earthquake;
for an
angel of the Lord,
descending
from heaven,
came and
rolled back the stone
and sat on
it.
His
appearance was like lightning,
and his clothing
white as snow.
For fear of
him,
the guards
shook
and became
like dead men.
But the
angel said to the women, ‘
Do not be
afraid;
I know that
you are looking for Jesus
who was
crucified.
He is not
here;
for he has
been raised,
as he said.
Come, see
the place where he lay.
Then go
quickly and tell his disciples,
“He has
been raised from the dead,
and indeed
he is going ahead of you to Galilee;
there you
will see him.”
This is my
message for you.’
Reflection: “The Comforter”
Angels
can be guardians and angels can be warriors
but
here is another way to understand angels – as comforters.
We
have all been in those low places,
those
times of our lives when the tears fall too easily,
or
when we cannot possibly imagine what to do next.
We
have all had times where so much seems
to
have fallen apart that we really do not know where to go.
Picture
Mary Magdalene on Good Friday.
Jesus
has been crucified and buried.
Everything
she believed in has been turned upside down
and
if she could wish for one concrete thing,
it
would be for someone to come
and
tell her everything is going to be all right...
maybe
even tell her exactly what to do.
And
that is who she encounters in the garden.
In
those moments when we do not know what to do,
we
hear the voice of God
or
the whisper of the cosmos in our ear
and
it sets us in the right direction.
We
could be talking about conscience,
we
could be talking about a dream,
we
could be talking about someone else
who
is communicating possibilities -
for
those are all ways
that
God speaks to us.
And
so all of these examples
could
be seen as angels of comfort.
And
I see that as another way
that
we are connected to God.
Prayers of the
People:
In this
most holy season,
we have
gathered, God,
to
celebrate the birth of Jesus,
to join our
voices with the choirs of angels,
to come
with shepherds to the stable
and wonder
at this Christmas miracle.
With us,
we bring
the hopes and hurt of the world.
In this
season of abundance,
we remember
those who have little.
We remember
neighbours who are unemployed,
those whose
futures have been frustrated.
In this
season of carols,
we remember
those who have little to sing about -
all who are
lonely, anxious, or sick.
In this
season of festivity,
we remember
those who face
the harsh
reality of oppression and violence.
Yet through
the shadows of our world
shines the
light of your promise.
The angels'
heavenly music
floats over
all the weary world.
For
ourselves,
we ask
strength and purpose,
to live the
love of Christmas Emmanuel,
God-with-us,
in whose
way we now pray:
-3-
Reading: Genesis 32:22-31 Jacob Wrestles with an Angel
There
is a funny little story way back in the book of Genesis
about
Jacob struggling with an angel.
It
is funny in the visual image that pops into your head
when
you think of a grown man in a wrestling match
with
a stereotypical white winged angel.
It's
not so strange though
when
we consider
how
we metaphorically “wrestle” with God
all
the time.
So,
listen to these words
and
see if you can find yourself in them.
The
same night he got up
and
took his two wives,
his
two maids,
and
his eleven children,
and
crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
He
took them and sent them across the stream,
and
likewise everything that he had.
Jacob
was left alone;
and
a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
When
the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob,
he
struck him on the hip socket;
and
Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Then
he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’
But
Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’
So
he said to him, ‘What is your name?’
And
he said, ‘Jacob.’
Then
the man said,
‘You
shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,
for
you have striven with God and with humans,
and
have prevailed.’
Then
Jacob asked him,
'Please
tell me your name.’
But
he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’
And
there he blessed him.
So
Jacob called the place Peniel,
saying,
‘For I have seen God face to face,
and
yet my life is preserved.’
The
sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel,
limping
because of his hip.
Reflection: “The Challenger”
How
do we hear the voice of God when it comes to us?
We
have been exploring different ways
through
which the voice comes to us,
but
I want to turn it around for a second
and
put the focus back on us.
What
do we hear?
How
do we hear it?
Do
we always hear it?
I
really think that answer to the last question is no.
We
do not always listen to the wisdom of God;
in
fact, we often get so caught up
in
ourselves or our problems or our despair
that
we need to be challenged
to
see life from a different perspective.
Sometimes
the challenge comes through our acceptance of pain
and
how life is worth living even in the face of that pain.
At
other times,
it
is about being honest with who we are,
as
we see in our reading about Jacob at the Ford in Jabbok.
Here
is a man who has not made peace with his past,
a
man who is feeling a lot of pain.
And
he wrestles with it through the night
in
order to make peace with it.
He
is wrestling with the angel of the Lord,
according
to the story.
Angels
challenge us.
Angels
come and bring with them a wisdom,
a
way of seeing us that we perhaps do not have
and
thus we grow.
In
all of our stories about angels,
we
are looking at the ways we hear the voice of God
and
how it helps us out.
But
there is one step more:
we
need to hear that voice,
we
need to believe that voice,
and
we need to act.
Look
out for the angels,
for
just as they could be heard
singing
in the fields of Bethlehem
when
Jesus was born,
you
can find them in your life too.
I
can't tell you exactly
how
they might appear
or
how you might experience such a presence,
but
I can say that if you open yourself up,
you
will surely hear God speaking to you.
How
will you respond?
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