+ The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels (observed) – September 30th, 2018 +
Daniel 10:10-14, 12:1-3; Revelation 12:7-12; Matthew 18:1-11
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our daily life is full of messages. Phone calls, texts, emails, a card in the mail, carrier pigeons…ok maybe not pigeons. Whatever the means, behind every message is a messenger. Text messages rely on circuits, chips, and signals so we can text our friend sitting next to us. Thank you cards delivered by the mailman. Amazon packages don’t just magically appear on our doorstep. Where there’s a message, there’s a messenger.
And that’s what, or rather who, we rejoice with, remember, and give thanks to God for today. His ministering spirits. His messengers. His holy angels.
The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels reminds us that we live in a world that is bigger than we are. Creation is more than meets the eye. God is Maker of all things visible and invisible, as we confess in the Creed. God’s angels are his servants; they dwell in eternal light, incorporeal, spiritual beings, yet creaturely, easily moving between heaven and earth.
Though there are an innumerable myriad of angels, Scripture only names two - Michael the warrior, the protector of Israel, and Gabriel the herald, the preacher of the Incarnation. There’s the mysterious seraphim, six-winged fire angels who flutter around the throne of God singing an eternal “Holy, holy, holy” to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there’s the cherubim and the countless throngs of heavenly creatures mysterious beyond comprehension, yet united with us in worship.
Scripture also teaches us that God’s holy angels aren’t the cute, cuddly little cherubs of Hallmark Christmas cards. There’s a reason the first words they speak are, “Fear not!” They’re God’s Spiritual Warriors. The real Guardians of the Galaxy for God’s baptized children.
This is good news for us. We need his guardian angels. For God’s holy angels aren’t the only angels that exist. There are fallen angels too. They rebelled against God, and their warfare against us is ceaseless, like the sirens beckoning Ulysses to join their sedition.
It’s not a war of flesh and blood, Paul says. Satan’s weapon is his word. He deceives. He accuses. He leads astray. We know this. We fall into his deception. We’re prideful and lust after power as he did. And the worst part about his accusations against us is that it’s all true. We are guilty of all the sins against God that Satan throws in our face.
And yet, this is where the devil deceives even himself. His greatest lie is exposed. For our sins no longer belong to us. Jesus has taken them away. Every accusation and temptation – answered for and overcome by Christ’s death for us. Every sinful thought, word, and deed, all that we’ve done and left undone – placed it into his pierced hands, under his feet that crushed the devil, and upon his head crowned with thorns for us. Jesus received the guilty verdict we deserved. Jesus fought for us on the cross and won. By his dying he has destroyed death. Conquered Satan. And by His resurrection he has broken the power of the grave. Satan’s accusations are now as empty as Jesus’ tomb.
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And 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. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brother has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
In Jesus Crucified, the war is over. “I saw Satan fall like lightning,”Jesus says. Sin, death, and the devil are thrown down. Defeated. Overcome. Conquered. Not by the strength of Michael and his angels. Not by our strength, will power, or resistance to temptation. But by the blood of the Lamb, who shed His blood on the Cross for you. Satan’s accusations against us are null and void. For the Blood of Jesus – given us in Baptism and the Supper - cleanses us from all sin. Jesus’ victory is yours. His death and life are yours.
This is the message of God’s holy messengers: Christ crucified for you. They do not desire our worship. As Jesus says, their faces are ever turned toward God. That’s where they point us as well: to the Word made flesh for us. To Jesus the crucified and risen Son of God who though equal to the Father was made a little lower than the angels in order to rescue us by His death, whom the angels now adore with unending worship praise.
Mysterious though they are, we know what’s most important about God’s holy angels. They’re his heavenly heralds of Good News. Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. That’s their job: messengers of God’s Word.
God’s Word declared to Joseph, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
God’s Word announced to Mary, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”
God’s Word sung to the Shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.”
God’s Word proclaimed to the women at the tomb on Easter Sunday: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus the crucified One. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”
Today our Lord arms us with the same weapon he issues to his heavenly army of angels, His holy Word. The Word that fills our ears, eyes, hearts, minds, and mouths with Jesus forgiveness.
Today Jesus calls us to be fellow messengers with the 72 disciples and his holy angels; he sends us out into our daily vocations in life as he did the angels to the shepherds, to share the Good News of “Christ Crucified for you”, to the least, the lonely, and the lost.
Today we thank and praise our Lord for his messengers, and all the more for his message of Good News, that sin, death, and the devil are conquered by the blood of the Lamb and our names are written in heaven, where the angels seek his continually face and sing his praise.
On this day of St. Michael and All Angels, as we do every Sunday, we worship with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, praising our Lord who gathers heaven and earth for the marriage supper of the Lamb who was slain, yet lives for you and sends his angels to guard you in all your ways.
A blessed Feast of St. Michael and All Angels to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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