St Michael and All Angels

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    So we have come to a Church Holiday that is interesting: St. Michael and All Angels'. It is the church holiday where we give thanks to God for His angels who work to guard, to protect us from the assaults and attacks of Satan and his demons that we today so often aren't even aware of. Now pause, for a second – I said the words. I said the words angels and demons – and as modern Westerners living in the 21^st century, we can be almost embarrassed by such words, by speaking about the so-called “supernatural”. We can be embarrassed on the one hand by thinking about the educated elite and all their know how and their “oh, that's so silly” smugness. And on the other hand, there's all sorts of wild, fly by night nut-jobbery that gets thrown around, too. So how are we to handle this, how are we to handle this topic, this idea – indeed, how are we to be comforted by it and give thanks aright to God for it? Well, by considering what the Scriptures and the Creed teach us, and relaxing in God's goodness.

    To start, I want to look at a simple little line from the Nicene Creed that explains the whole set up, or at least prepares us to understand what is going on around us. You all know it – I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things... all things what? All things visible and invisible. God has made everything – the universe, and in this universe there are things that we in our normal course of life get to see, get to study, get to examine and manipulate with more or less success. That's what the Creed sums up as the visible world – I can see it, and I can manipulate it. Our arts and sciences seek to understand all that stuff from the visible world. But the Scriptures teach and work with the understanding that there is also an invisible reality, that all around us there is an unseen, spiritual world. That we are surrounded by angels. Even Jesus says in Matthew 18:10 - “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” That little person of no repute that you might think is lowly – nope, they have Guardian angels (did you hear it, plural – their angels) who worship before God. And the simple fact is we don't see this directly – well, normally.

    Every week in worship we reference one of the times where someone got to see the angels that are always present. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! This is where we get the line “Holy, Holy, Holy” from in the Sanctus, which we claim we are singing along with “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.” Right here, right now, this place is filled with angels and the hosts of heaven, singing with us, praising with us, hearing God's Word with us. And we don't see it – and I'll even say thankfully – because whenever someone gets to see the angels, it's too much for them to handle. Isaiah here thinks he's a dead man. The Shepherds hit the dirt when the angels show up. We are not equipped yet, and we don't be until the resurrection and the new heavens and the new earth, to handle dealing with the invisible and spiritual world on a regular basis. And that's fine. The angels exist.

    And we should remember what they exist for. The Angels are servants. The name “angel” means messenger – they're God's runners, they're God's gophers – go here, go there, do that, do this. And they are God's servants for our good; indeed, they are our servants, created by God to serve and protect us. This is why Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 6 - Do you not know that we are to judge angels? When you die you don't become an angel – you're a brother, a sister of Christ – your brother Jesus is the King of all creation. You will reign with Christ; you don't get demoted to maid or butler. You are of the Royal priesthood! And this is where a lot of the modern Christian-ish blather and speculation about angels goes off course. Yeah, they are wondrous... but they aren't above us – they are there to serve us. Of course, the Church has long had to deal with people going off into the weeds with their speculations on angels – the first 2 chapters of Hebrews are basically telling people to quit with all the palaver on angels and rather just focus on Jesus.

    So angels exist, and they are servants of God for your good. That's where we are at so far. Now, the third point. We need the angels to serve us, to protect us, and why? Well, there are demons, there are evil angels who have fallen, who did not want to serve, and they have rebelled, and there's all sorts of evil and chaos unleashed as a result. And again, here today we don't generally see these things openly and obviously – the invisible remains typically invisible, and when it doesn't it's frankly terrifying. And to a certain extent, we have been spoiled. We have grown up and been raised in a country that was relatively Christian, where daily prayers would resound, and the awkward freaky stuff was restrained to where it was viewed as just myths and rumors from far away places. Maybe if a missionary came back from Papua New Guinea or Haiti we'd hear stories, but then we'd ignore them. That's shifting, and wickedness and evil is becoming far more apparent, far more welcomed, far more celebrated here. But even without spooky manifestations and the like, there's always been spiritual, demonic stuff that's around. We've lost our understanding – we forget where temptation comes from, what drives it. Yes, our sinful flesh, yes the world, but also Satan. Luther can say, Let us learn carefully what kind of spirit the devil is and how much harm he does to body and soul – to the soul with false teaching, with doubt, with evil desires, etc., all of which he does in order to snatch away faith and draw us into wavering or into lazy, weak thoughts. I certainly feel the devil's [temptation], but I cannot treat them as I would like. I would gladly be more fierce, heated, and serious in what I do, but because of the devil I cannot [do it]. Even saying that our modern attitudes creep in and jeer at us for even thinking that there's spiritual, that there's “invisible” forces around us and outside of our control. Yet the Scriptures teach just that. We are familiar with the “Armor of God” passage from Ephesians 6, yet we forget how Paul sets it up.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God... The Scriptures constantly remind us of the reality of Satan, the reality of evil, of this present darkness, yet in our “modern wisdom” we keep being surprised when evil happens.

    So what is it now, Pastor, are you trying to terrify us? Well, no actually. I just don't want you caught off guard by what goes on in the world around you. I don't want you surprised by false teaching, doubts, or evil desires. It's going to happen – as Luther would have us sing, “This world's prince may still scowl fierce as he will.” Satan will be prowling around like a roaring lion, and we must not forget or ignore this as we have been want to. However, there is the other ditch that we can fall into. Yes, it is bad to forget that Satan is powerful – that “with might of ours can naught be done” against him. But don't over-correct and fall into the other ditch when you do become aware of evil and Satan and such. That other ditch overestimating Satan's power. One of the old, ancient heresies is that good and evil are evenly matched – that the spiritual battle is in doubt. You know the pictures – Jesus squaring off against a big, burly red devil Satan and whose going to win this match.

    Um, no. It's not a battle in doubt. Jesus wins. Hands down. Crucified and raised from the dead. It is finished. Satan might be more powerful than us, but He doesn't hold a candle to Christ Jesus. And we shouldn't be surprised at this. Our Gospel lesson had one of my favorite “Well, duh” moments in the Scriptures. Jesus sends out 72 folks in pairs to preach the word, heal, all sorts of neat stuff. And when they come back the first thing they say to Jesus is, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” Do you get the excitement? The wonder? To which Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Well, duh. I mean, I'm God Almighty. You know – almighty. When I kicked Satan out of heaven it wasn't like it was a tough battle where we were on the edge of a cliff and Satan lost his footing and he fell back windmilling his arms, “ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.” No, I flicked my little finger and he flew faster than lighting down out of heaven. It was never in doubt. And we shouldn't be surprised at the power of Jesus. He's God almighty, of course He's got power – duh.

    But here is the wonder, my friends. Jesus is mighty, and He is mighty for you. This is why Jesus says, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Don't miss the bigger point, people. Yes, you outrank the angels, and even the demons will have to flee when you speak in My Name as I have bid you to. Rather, rejoice that your names are written in heaven – rejoice that you are baptized, saved, redeemed children of God. This is the point and wonder of Baptism, in fact. What benefits does Baptism give? It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe.... You've had God's almighty power placed upon you, You've had His Name placed upon you at baptism – where Jesus told Satan to take a hike because you belong to Jesus. And the reason why I still formally ask what the kid's name is, and why I state their name as I baptize them is because yes, look, this person's name is literally written in heaven – here we are and the angels and archangels of heaven are all around us and yes, this person right here with this name is Baptized, so note it down in heaven – and it is. Again, one of those invisible realities that we just don't see but is happening all around us – you know, that the good old art with paintings of angels all around the sanctuary, it confessed and taught that reality. This is why I make the sign of the cross on people when I baptize them, why I make it over myself at the Baptismal Name, at “deliver us from evil” in the Lord's prayer – why I make it over you all the time when I bless you. It's just a physical reminder of those invisible truths that are real but we can forget.

    So yes, there is more to this creation than we typically see. There is that which is visible and there is that which is (and typically remains) invisible. And rejoice that even among all the things unseen, which we don't notice, that Jesus is still your Lord and Savior, and that He sends His angels, His servants, to protect and defend you from the power of the Evil One constantly and continually. And this is not in doubt – Jesus has it all in hand, and it is for your good, O Baptized child of God.