In the biblically correct version of the Nicene Creed we say that we individually believe in God the Father, the Creator of all things both visible and invisible. In the modern world, in our western culture it is difficult for us to believe that anything exists which we cannot see or weigh or touch or somehow materially examine. However, the world in its marvelous order is much greater than the mind of man. We have it as a revealed truth that there is a whole order of invisible beings that we know and experience. These invisible beings are called the angels. The word 'angel' means messenger. They are the 'messengers of God' the messengers of his healing and strengthening and guiding power, who come to us as we need them to assist us in all our struggles in this life and in all our needs and desires. The angels of God are available to serve Him in our behalf. It is a rather narrow-minded and unimaginative person who cannot accept the fact that there is something in this world greater than his own philosophy.
In the Far East there are certain religions that teach that everything material is an illusion. They doubt the existence of what we affirm so strongly and believe only in an invisible world beyond man's senses. The Bible says both realms are part of God's world.
The angels of God are spoken of throughout the Holy Bible. They were present at creation. We heard in the Book of Job this morning how all the sons of God shouted for joy at the clap of creation when being came into existence. The mighty chorus singing God's praises continues forever and ever around His throne. In our Eucharist service we join with the chorus of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts".
The angels surrounded Jesus from the very beginning to the very end of His earthly ministry. The angels continue to bless God's people, to help them, to guide them, and also to greet us all at the end. There is a beautiful passage in the liturgy used on the Feast of the Guardian Angels. It goes like this, "O ye angels of God, guardians of the people Israel, announcing the birth of Jesus, ministering to Jesus in the wilderness, strengthening Jesus in his agony, appearing with Jesus at His resurrection, confirming His Ascension, ministering to the heirs of salvation, rejoicing over the sinner that repents".
The angels appear in the Bible to verify and confirm the power and the presence of God. We have a great source of strength and help as we go ahead on our path through life. We do not have to depend on ourselves alone. We have this intermediary realm of being whom God has created to praise Him and obey Him and who will come to our aid as we need them.
The Bible names the three great archangels who represent the particular role and work of this special order of being. There is the Archangel Michael, the great warrior angel whom you heard about this morning from the Book of Revelation, who leads the armies of God against the powers of evil. He is the one who strengthens us as we struggle in all of our uncertainty and difficulty against evil and against temptation. Michael is our succor and helper who is victorious in the fight. He was the one who, with his warrior angels, cast out the angel of darkness from heaven, Lucifer or Satan. We will talk more about him later.
The second archangel of God who brings God's teaching and God's messenger of peace is Gabriel. He brought the announcement of the birth of Christ. He will herald the end of the world. In the meantime, he brings God's truth to our minds and enlightens them and opens them to a deeper understanding of divine revelation.
Thirdly, there is Raphael, the angel of mercy, of peace, and of healing. He helps cure our wounded souls of sorrow and of pain. Raphael is the ministering angel easing our grief and curing us of our ailments. All these angels have been depicted in mosaics and statues and paintings throughout the history of Christianity.
We should never underestimate the power of evil.
This is where Lucifer, the fallen angel called Satan, comes in. He is a super-human being, who was originally the angel of light, dazzling and brilliant and bright, who sought to outshine God. He represents the overwhelming pride that all of God's creation can be tempted by; the angels, as well as men. Pride is the worst of the sins, and the Biblical understanding is that this angelic being was carried away by his own beauty and magnificence, and sought to be equal with God. He rebelled and was cast out of heaven, and is now stalking about the earth as the New Testament says, "Like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."
We must be aware that we have an antagonist. We have an enemy who is seeking to entrap us and lead us away from God. However, his power is limited. The Bible is very clear in saying that the devil has control or power only if we assent to him. We are taught to resist him. St. James says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." It is only as we give him power, it is only as we consent to evil that his power enters into us. So the saying, "The devil made me do it," does not hold up.
We can, however, be unbearably enticed beyond our ability to resist. We can be totally entranced and caught up and carried away by the snares and subtleties of the devil. Mankind is no match for his illusions and lies and entreaties. Temptation can be overwhelming and we need to have God's help and the help of His angelic powers to fight off the powers of darkness. It is a great impoverishment of our spirit to ignore this spiritual realm. It is interesting that in the fifteenth century we decided that the earth was not flat, and that it was a vast cosmos out there in a material sense. But somehow in a spiritual way we made a decision that is was a flat world, that it only had one dimension-materiality. That was a great mistake. It has the multidimensional existence that God has given it in which the spiritual inter-penetrates the material. This is what makes it all so fascinating and exciting and, also, so dangerous.
One can become very powerful indeed by giving in to the devil. One can cut a tremendously wide swath in human history by deliberately doing everything that is bad and destructive for a while until, finally, this destructiveness collapse in on us and we destroy ourselves. Evil has no permanent existence, but when it is going full speed it is terrible indeed. By analyzing some of the terrible destructive movements of the twentieth century we can see the power of spiritual evil lurking there. For instance, look at the People's Temple under the leadership of Jim Jones, which ended up in a mass suicide. Something more was working there that just the actions of a bad man and some deluded people. There was a power of darkness, a power of evil that captivated those poor individuals. Certain people delight in making use of this power.
Another example is the Nazi holocaust, which deliberately adopted evil as its standard using such practices as the Big Lie, the use of force to intimidate, and the singling out of certain groups as scapegoats. This movement became an evil force that threatened the order and the peace not just of Europe, but of the whole world, and the whole world had to get together to overcome it. At the same time, we can perceive the angels of light , led by the warrior angel Michael and all his heavenly host fighting right bedside those English RAF flyers in their heroic protection of the nation of Britain in its darkest hour. We can see through the eyes of faith the angles of God working on the side of good and truth and right, as well as the angel of darkness opposing all that is good and true and right.
Some of the great literary works of earlier times describe this spiritual warfare and struggle. Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" from the seventeenth century is set up in a time frame describing reality before material existence began. In this poem, the angel of light, Lucifer, rebels against God. The devil is a mighty figure, a giant angel who is cast down to the uttermost of hell. Weeping in anger and frustration on the shores of the frozen ocean in the center of hell, he makes a commitment. He says, "evil be thou my good." That is the mark of the devil, whatever is evil, that is his 'good'. He vows then to insinuate evil into the world. The poem ends with the creation of Adam and Eve, with the devil lurking in the garden waiting to seduce the highest and best of creation and to turn them away from God.
We should not become overwhelmed by this evil satanic spiritual force because we know that, as the New Testament says, "His time is short." That is why he is trying so hard; he knows his time is running out. In the meantime, God's faithful need to understand the struggle that we are in, and be able to discern between what is truly good and what is masking as good and is really evil. We need to discern what we must say 'yes' to and what we must say 'no' to. We need to know that there is nothing that can ever separate the faithful from God's presence and God's power.
A great and wonderful message that comes to us as this day of St. Michael and All Angels is that every baptized human being has been given a guardian angel. Every baptized child has an angel that watches over him and who guides him and helps him throughout all his days and is a special, personal companion.
Perhaps, some of you could recount instances in your life when you actually felt that spiritual presence. C.S. Lewis tried to illustrate this reality in modern language and modern thought forms in his book "Out of the Silent Planet". He used an inter planetary theme to give the feeling of another realm of being, in which the hero is taken to another planet where he is surrounded by a host of wonderful beings, glorious figures of light, charming and lovely. They say, "We will be with you when you go home. you can count on it." He asks, "How will I know you are near?" and they say, "You will just know it." The story goes on to tell that after his return to this earth there are times when he feels a most wonderful joy and peace within. He cannot see anything, yet he knows that a messenger from the Silent Planet is near.
The angels of God bring order to our distracted life, they bring beauty to it, and they bring hope. We, as Christians, look forward to the time when, like the hero of C.S.Lewis' story, we will leave this realm of being and go on to a higher and fuller one. There we will see face to face, not only our Savior, but all of those blessed spiritual beings who have been our guards and guides all our days.
Shakespeare brings out this theme in the very last portion of Hamlet. As Hamlet dies, his faithful friend Horatio says, "Goodnight sweet Prince. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." The last role and function of the angels is to take us safely to our heavenly home after we leave this one.
There is a beautiful prayer in the liturgy for the dead, which speaks of this glorious work that the angels perform in behalf of every faithful Christian. "May the angels lead thee into paradise and the martyrs receive thee at they coming and bring thee into the Holy City, Jerusalem. May the choirs of angels receive thee and mayst thou as Lazarus, once poor, have everlasting rest."
We give thanks to God for the glorious gift of creation, not only of the life of this world, but of the life of the next with its marvelous inter-penetration of spiritual, as well as material being. May the angels, and the archangels, and all the company of heaven guard, guide, and protect you all your days through Jesus Christ our Lord.
