Sermon for Michael and All Angels Year C 2013 Calling All Angels

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Pamela Nancy Hopkins
5 years ago
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1 Sermon for Michael and All Angels Year C 2013 Calling All Angels For a number of reasons, we don t generally celebrate the feast day of Michael and All Angels. The main reason is that, in general, is that Lutherans don t commute feast days that fall during week to Sundays. But this year, September 29th which is the appointed feast day of Michael and All Angels is a Sunday giving us a unique opportunity to celebrate and consider the many ways in which God s loving care watches over us, both directly and indirectly. The feast of Michael and All Angels reminds us of the richness and variety of God s creation a creation that far exceeds our knowledge of it. According to a poll taken in 2011, 8 out of 10 Americans believe in the existence of angels. While many of those who said they believed in angels identified themselves as religious or Christian, the belief in angels was fairly widespread among non-religious people. So... are you one of the 8 our 10? Do you think you have ever met or seen an angel? A few months ago, Pastor Charles Austin shared a story with us at one of our clergy bible studies while he was serving as an interim pastor. One of the council members was retiring and moving away. And at the last meeting he attended, he brought in some cups and passed around some Sarsaparilla soda for everyone. Then he shared a story with them about its significance in his life. Now I don t remember all the details, but it seems that a number of years back, this man s first wife was very ill with a certain kind of cancer. And she was having a great deal of difficulty with nausea due to the effects of her chemotherapy. She was not doing well and things were dire because of her inability to keep the medicine she needed down. They needed desperately to find something to help her to settle her stomach and swallow her medicine. The man s wife told her husband that she thought birch beer or root beer might be something she could tolerate. So off to the supermarket he went. When he got to the market, he began searching for birch beer when a tall rather gangly young man who was stocking the shelves. 1

2 Just as the husband took a bottle of birch beer and a bottle of root beer off the shelf, the young man turned and said to him, You know, they say Sarsaparilla is very good for what ails you. Why don t you try some of the Sarsaparilla. So the husband thought, why not, and he took a bottle of that soda along with the other two sodas, checked out and brought them to his wife. It turned out that the only soda she could tolerate was, in fact, the Sarsaparilla and she was able to get some relief and keep her medicine down. On his way home from the hospital just a few hours later, the man decided to stop at the supermarket to thank the young man for his advice. He walked up and down every aisle in the supermarket but couldn t find the young man. Finally, he went to the store manager and described the very tall, gangly young man and asked if he was still at work. But the manager looked at him in surprise and said that there was no one who worked in the supermarket who could fit that description. And, the manager said, they did not have a delivery of soda that day so there shouldn t have been anyone stocking shelves in that aisle. The husband always wondered about that young man from that day until now. Though his wife did eventually die from the cancer, the discovery of that Sarsaparilla soda could bring her some relief of her discomfort was a blessing. Who was that young man? Was he an angel? Scripture is full of angels. From the Garden of Eden to the garden in Revelation. There are angels with Abraham, angels with Lot. Jacob dreams of angels ascending and descending a great ladder between heaven and earth and then he even wrestles with an angel. Some of the angels are named like Gabriel who appeared to Mary, and Michael the archangel of Revelation. There were hosts of angels singing at the birth of Jesus. Angels appear to kings and to the poor. In Jesus parable about Lazarus and the rich man, the angels bear Lazarus to heaven. But just what are angels anyway? 2

3 Well, before we go into that here are a few things that angels are not. They don t get their wings every time a Christmas bell rings and we don t become angels when we die that s just the quaint plot It s A Wonderful Life. One of the problems we have is that popular culture has turned them into shadows of themselves and distorted their purpose, their mystery and yes, even their power. Because scripture shows us beings with power. Maybe that s why we don t mention them much or why they are misrepresented in movies and TV shows. We don t understand them or quite get what they are all about. But angels are messengers. That s actually what the Hebrew word and the Greek word means messenger. One who speaks for God. They are ones who bring divine messages to us. Just as in today s texts, when angels show up in passages in the bible, they are never the main focus. They signal that God is about to show up. God is about to pronounce or fulfill a promise. God is acting to set people free. The angels testify to Jesus victory, that Jesus is the one who conquers death, and brings salvation to God s people. The meeting of God with people, with us is what the angels signal and bear witness to. We humans possess a yearning for that which our senses do not readily or easily perceive. We have a need for the discovery of the transcendent. The problem is that we link transcendence with self-help. And this self-concerned spin on angels leaves us misinformed and spiritually malnourished. A few years ago, I remember reading a newsmagazine that featured an article on angels. In it, a Catholic theologian was quoted as saying, "If people want to get in touch with their angels, they'd be a lot better off working at a soup kitchen." There s some truth to that. And its very biblical. In my own possible angel encounters which may be in actuality many but I count only two 3

4 Both of my possible angel encounters involved a homeless person. My first encounter happened about 30 years ago. I have told this story before to some of you but never as far as I can recall in a sermon. I was working as a secretary at New York University. It was some time during the first year of our marriage and we were always living in those days from paycheck to paycheck as many young newlyweds do. I remember it was the day before a payday, and I was walking down University Place in Washington Square when an elderly bag lady came up to me and asked me for some money to buy something to eat. Now I knew I only had 2 dollars in my wallet. I decided that I didn t have enough money for myself to give her anything. So I refused her. But no sooner had she walked away then I heard the words of Jesus in my mind Give to all who ask. If you have two coats, give one away. I realized that I would be just fine if gave that woman one of my two dollars and so I turned around to give her the money but she was nowhere to be found. I looked for her up and down the street and inside the shops along the way and I could not find her. Who was that woman? She couldn t have been an angel could she? My second angel encounter happened while I was doing my field education work at St. Matthew Trinity in Hoboken. I was helping out with the lunchtime ministries, serving food and coffee to the homeless guests, when out of the blue one of the younger men came up to me and said, You know, Jesus really got it right when he taught us to pray our father because we are all in this together we are all one family, one people. It s not just about me and its not just about you. It s about all of us. That s why we pray give us, and forgive us don t forget that its our father. Now, I never saw that particular young man again at lunchtime ministries which wasn t so unusual. But his message certainly was. It changed the way I saw the church and the way I pray the Lord s Prayer even to this day. 4

5 Who was that young man? Was he an angel? He may not have been angelic but he was certainly a messenger! Now please note that contrary to wonderful paintings of angels, in these stories the messengers did not have wings or halos. And no bells were rung. But they did signal God s presence just where Jesus promised it would be among those in need. What about you? Have you encountered an angel? What was their message? if we want to get in touch with the holy, the spiritual, the presence of God in life, we need not get in touch with angels as if they were the source. We just need to turn up where angels turn up, and then simply do what angels do worship and witness to the God of life, and to the One who is our meeting place with God. Like the song says Calling all Angels, calling all Angels Walk me through this one, don't leave me alone Who knows, if we heed the call to be angel-messengers, it might come to pass that when we show up somewhere, people will find us to be sure signals of God's presence too. 5

Cancer, Friend or Foe Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW

It Is Written Script: 1368 Cancer, Friend or Foe Page 1 Cancer, Friend or Foe Program No. 1368 SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW There are some moments in your life that you never forget, things you know are going