Are not all angels spirits in the
divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit
salvation? (Hebrews
1:14) So asks the writer to the Hebrews at the end of today’s second reading
giving us as he does a biblical definition of angels.
The
passage in question is about Christ’s being higher than the angels and so it
started with another question: To which
of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you’? Or
again, ‘I will be his Father, and he will be my Son’? (Hebrews 1:5)
I
wonder what questions go through your mind
though as in obedience to the Church Calendar we keep this Feast of St Michael
and all Angels?
The materialist
in you is bound to question theories of the invisible world, be they of God, of
the realm of the resurrection or of angels.
The democrat
in you will question the whole hierarchical business descending from God in
Christ through angels and saints down to mortals, further down to demons and
then to the devil himself.
The pacifist
in you will be alarmed by that Revelation reading: War broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the
dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated.(12:7)
The hard
headed part of you will balk at today’s Gospel: seeing heaven opened and the
angels of God ascending and descending on Jesus. (John 1:51)
What
has the preacher got to allay those questionings as the Church calls us this
morning to reflect on the historic quarter day Festival of St Michael and all
angels on God’s constitution of the
ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order?
I have
four thoughts for you.
First,
for the materialist. Have you heard the theory of parallel universes? Or
of the multiverse in which at any moment there are simultaneous happenings in
St Giles Church on Sunday morning 29th September 2013 with a good,
bad or indifferent sermon? Which one are you in right now?
Lay
aside the multiverse! Might it not be more reasonable to put faith in One whose throne is for ever, and who in
Christ is shown to have loved
righteousness and hated wickedness? (Hebrews 1:9) Jesus Christ, whose
resurrection lifts human nature into a world beyond this world? Christianity holds
to no parallel universe save one beyond the material order, since God is
Spirit. His Mind comes before all matter and he has spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who
are to inherit salvation.
Second
thought for the democrat. It is a good principle to challenge inherited
power and questionable hierarchy. That principle has limited application, even
in this world, as is amply demonstrated by western attempts to export democracy
to the Middle East! If this world is just one section of reality we have to humbly
accept our place, rather lower down than we might like, in that full
supernatural reality.
Human
beings aren’t top dogs. They never have been. The angels are above us, with God,
in highest heaven. In scripture we read they excel us in both knowledge and
power so they remind us that, even among created things, humans aren’t top of
the heap. In the Gospel Nathanael is struck by Christ’s supernatural knowledge
of him. ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God!
You are the King of Israel!’ In answer Our Lord speaks to him of that
fuller understanding of reality, shared by angels not by mortals, which his
resurrection unveils. Jesus answered,
‘you will see heaven opened and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’
Third
thought for the pacifist. Watch your talk
of peace doesn’t distract from building
peace. ‘Jaw, jaw’ can be better than ‘war, war’ but sometime there’s need for
action, however limited, to disarm an evil power. We are sensing this over
Syria aren’t we? Talking at the United Nations may be insufficient in this
situation.
The
way things actually are, what the
Bible teaches, is this. We human beings are caught in a cosmic conflict between
the truth of God and those who balk at it, led by the devil as father of lies.
By his Cross and resurrection Jesus has shifted things forward. 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. (Revelation 12:9) To put faith in the angels is to recognise this
decisive victory and God’s mopping up operation, the peace keeping work of angels and mortals in a wonderful order.
Fourth
and last thought: for the hard-headed. A human mind can’t think itself into salvation. God knows
this, which is why he sends spirits in (his)
service, (sending them) to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit
salvation. If God is the ground of our being he is being itself so our perception of him is like an insect’s
perception of us humans. We must reach up
for his helping hand if we are to leave the limited dimensions of our existence
and enter salvation, the glorious liberty
of the children of God.
Angels
are about that freedom. They possess it. They fly because they’re not
hard-headed. They don’t take themselves too seriously. This brings me to a word
of testimony.
On
this day in 1969 I was heading on my Lambretta from Harwell up the A34 to my
Oxford College when the front tyre burst and I went across the road to slide under
a lorry. I was heading to keep this feast by serving the evening Mass at St
Mary Magdalene, Oxford. The good news is I passed under the lorry though I
missed that Mass and ended up in the Radcliffe Infirmary. I remain convinced St
Michael and his angels were sent by God to protect my life for a purpose. Four
years later that purpose was revealed. I left my work at Oxford University and
the nuclear power station at Harwell to train as a priest.
The
angels who shifted the lorry, or my scooter, helped shift my career their way.
I say ‘their way’ because angels and priests have the same mission: to bring
God’s love to people and people to God’s love. We are both in divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to
inherit salvation.
Both
ministries are about serving God and the church so church members are made
better servants of the message of salvation. We are all caught up with the
angels in worship of the God we cannot see and in witnessing him to our
neighbor in deed and word. The joy of the angels over sinners who turn to God
is for us as well.
In the Eucharist we are promised
the support of angels and archangels and
all the company of heaven in lifting our selves through, with and in Jesus
Christ to the Father whose face the angels see and whose sight is promised when
we ourselves will see heaven opened and
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. So to God…
No comments:
Post a Comment