Christ Church Cathedral Fredericton, NB

"Between heaven and earth - angels" Genesis, Revelation, John

A sermon by Dean Keith Joyce

¹⁰ Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. ¹²And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³And the LORD stood beside him and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; ¹⁴and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." ¹⁶Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place--and I did not know it!" ¹⁷And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Revelation 12:7-12 [NRSV]

⁷ And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, ⁸but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹The 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.

¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming,

"Now have come the salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Messiah,

for the accuser of our comradesc has been thrown down,

who accuses them day and night before our God.

¹¹ But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony,

for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.

¹² Rejoice then, you heavens

and those who dwell in them!

But woe to the earth and the sea,

for the devil has come down to you

with great wrath,

because he knows that his time is short!"

John 1:47-51 [NRSV]

⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." ⁴⁹Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" ⁵⁰Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." ⁵¹And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Do we in our day and age believe in angels? My guess is that we would have some who do and some who don't and many who don't think about it one way or the other.

If life is cut and dry and all real things are those that one can explain or understand, then one would not likely hold a positive view on the existence of angels.

The word angel comes from the Greek word angelos which denotes someone who is a "messenger." When you take the whole sweep of scripture, we see they are God's messengers or ambassadors. They belong to God's heavenly court and service. Their role in heaven is to worship and praise God (Revelation 4:5). They are devoted to God's will (Psalm 103:20) and in so doing they view his face (Matthew 18:10). They are created beings (Psalm 148:2, 5).

Angels are involved in the divine work of reconciliation and therefore they declare God's word (Luke 1:26-27) and do his work (Matthew 28:2). Angels were present at both Christ's birth and death, and at his ascension (Acts 1:1). Angels are spoken of at the time of Jesus' temptations (Mark 1:12) and at his agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43).

Are there bad angels? We need to say "yes" to that. We have the passage from Revelation which speaks of a war in heaven, which I find inconceivable. How a war in heaven even began I cannot tell you

This leads me to realise that there is a great deal of the mysterious in the ways of God. That God is both known and hidden go together, not in contradiction of each other but in a complimentary way. This brings us the knowledge of God, and also it instills within us a yearning for the unknown, for that which we need to take by faith and in trust of God. If everything was known about God then He would not be God. God would be something of our own making. But we so often overlook the mystery of God in the drive to explain, to justify, to understand without reservation. The Christian life and the life of the Church are not boxed up into tidy packages and systems that once we have them figured out we are on our way. Again, that would be our doing and not God's. We need always remember the words of Isaiah:

"⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." [Isaiah 55:8-9, NRSV]

It's like the scientists who decided they no longer needed God. Off went one of them, to inform God he was now redundant. So God invited him to a compete in an act of creation. God invited the scientist to go first. The scientist then bent down, to pick up some earth. As he was doing that, he heard God say, "Oh no you don't. Get your own dirt."

While we know something about angels we don't know it all. This is even more so with God himself.

The second point is simply that angels highlight the connection between heaven and earth. This is illustrated in Jacob's vision and in Jesus' promise to Nathaniel. The ascending and descending of angels indicates that there is a connection between heaven and the earth we live on. Especially in Christ there is a most significant connection between heaven and earth. Angels are not simply some strange beings that have nothing to do with the created order. There are many examples of how angels have come to people, most often with a message or a word. We don't know why they don't appear to all people. Not everyone gets to see an angel in God's work in their lives.

My parents told me once of a strange occurrence when they lived in China. A group of missionaries was travelling in a particularly dangerous part of China, yet they had to camp for the night. At some point in the night they woke and saw some strange figures standing in a circle around them. Upon getting to their destination, their hosts asked them if they had had any trouble. They said, no, they hadn't but they had experienced a strange sight in the night. And they explained about these strange figures they had seen. Their hosts asked them what time it was that this had happened. Upon comparing notes, they discovered that their hosts had been mysteriously wakened in the night to pray for the travellers, at that very same time. Furthermore, it was the same number of people who had prayed as there had been of these strange figures in the night. Were these figures angels?

Like the event that I told the children about, why an angel helped the apostles then and yet did not prevent Stephen from being martyred we don't know. Again, we cannot fathom fully the ways of God. In the particular promise of Jesus to Nathaniel, the angels make the connection between heaven and earth on him who is the Son of Man, Jesus himself. It points to the unique significance of Jesus as the Saviour of the world

As we began, so we end with that paradox of God being both known, approachable, accessible and yet still unknown, with much of Him enshrouded in life-giving mystery. And though still mysterious, God is no less full of love for you and for me.

Jesus did say,

"²⁸Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." [Matthew 11:28-30, NRSV]

And even more significantly, Jesus said,

"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. .....¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me." [John 14:9b, 11a, NRSV]

Yet we also come to these words from Scripture, in Paul's letter to the Romans,

"³³ O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable

his ways! ³⁴ "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?" ³⁵ "Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" ³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen." [Romans 11:33-36, NRSV]

Despite all this we do wonder about the reality of angels. We do often struggle with the known and unknown things of God, and we do not always allow Jesus to be the one who truly reveals God to us. Perhaps that's because we want to do it by ourselves, and sort it all out on our own. So I will end with this slightly whimsical, earthy, yet potentially true description of those special beings that connect heaven with earth and who do the work of God in this world.

Angels are:

Like the little old lady who returned~ your wallet yesterday.

Like the taxi driver who told you that your eyes

~ light up the world, when you smile. Like the small child who showed you ~ the wonder in simple things. Like the poor man who offered to ~ share his lunch with you. Like the rich man who showed you that it ~ really is all possible, if only you believe.

Like the stranger who just happened to come along, ~ when you had lost your way.

Like the friend who touched your heart, ~ when you didn't think you had one to touch.

Angels come in all sizes and shapes,~ all ages and skin types. Some with freckles, some with dimples, ~ some with wrinkles, some without.

They come disguised as friends, enemies, ~ teachers, students, lovers and fools. They don't take life too seriously, ~ they travel light.

They leave no forwarding address,

~ they ask nothing in return.

They are hard to find when your eyes are closed, But ~ they are everywhere you look, when you choose to see.

(from WHAT DO ANGELS LOOK LIKE?)