by Dr. Graham Standish
Luke 1:26-38
November 29, 2009
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
So what do you make of the idea of angels? Are they real? Are they a figment of over-religious imaginations? Have you ever seen an angel, or do you know someone who has?
Frankly, I’ve never seen an angel, but I’ve met a number of people who swear that they’ve experienced something, or someone, that can only be called an angel. I’m fairly sure you have, too. So the question is, what are we supposed to do with these experiences?
We Presbyterians are a fairly rational bunch, which is both to our credit and our detriment. Typically in the Presbyterian tradition, and in our larger Reformed tradition (this is a tradition that comes out of Switzerland, and includes Congregationalist, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Disciples of Christ, Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the Christian Church denominations), we don’t do much with angels. Our tradition is one born of the Enlightenment, which means that we like our religion to be logical and reasonable, focusing on what is knowable and explainable. So you often don’t hear Presbyterians talking about angels, which is too bad. Unfortunately, we Presbyterians by nature don’t tend to gravitate toward unexplained spiritual phenomena, which means that we shy away from supporting the idea that angels exist and are active in the world today. So, traditionally Presbyterians don’t know what to do with angels.
But there is something about us Presbyterians that should get us talking about angels. We may be a rational bunch, but we’re also supposed to be a scriptural bunch. We’re supposed to be people who try to live our lives according to what the Bible teaches. This means that we should at least be open to the possibility of angels, and especially of angels working in our lives. So, I thought it might be kind of fun this morning to talk about angels, about the tradition of angels, and about people’s experiences of angels. Then I’ll let you decide what you should believe about angels.
Let me start with the tradition of angels. Who or what are they? According to tradition (which means that these beliefs aren’t necessarily found in the Bible) angels are “messengers” of God. The word angel literally means “messenger.” They are the first created beings of God, and their role is to serve God. Their role is to oversee God’s creation, and to be messengers of God to us humans in a way that protects us and leads us to God. They car for humans and do what they can to bring humans to God.
In fact, according to tradition, it is the calling to care about humans that caused Satan to become a fallen angel. The belief is that Satan was among the greatest of all the angels, but he considered humans to be vermin who were unworthy of God’s attention. Satan did not want to serve humans, but instead wanted to drive God away from humans. This is the foundation of the Book of Job. In it, Satan approaches God and says that the only reason humans even care about God is that God blesses humans so much. He challenged God, saying that if God took everything away from humans then humans would ignore God. So Satan is given permission to do whatever he wants to Job, one of God’s most faithful people, without killing him.
According to tradition, there are seven archangels, which means that they are among the most important angels. Among these, only two are mentioned by name in the Bible. The first one is Gabriel. He is the lead angel, and always appears as a messenger, proclaiming God’s will. He (or she—there really isn’t a gender to the angels, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I keep referring to Gabriel as “he.”) is first mentioned when he appears to Daniel to explain a dream that Daniel had just had. Gabriel also appears to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, at John’s conception, as well as to Mary and Joseph. In fact, according to Islamic belief, it is the angel Gabriel who appears to Mohammed and dictated the Koran to him. Gabriel is the main messenger of God.
Gabriel also mentions the angel Michael to Daniel, saying that Michael had been left to bring down the king of Persia and the Persian Empire, thus allowing the Israelites to eventually return to Israel. Michael, as you already know if you saw the film, Michael, is a warrior angel. He is a protector of the faithful, doing battle with evil forces and with Satan.
While there are names to all seven archangels, most come from tradition, not the Bible, although one more is mentioned in scripture,… depending on which scripture you are citing. You may already know this, but Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians have several books of scripture in their Bibles that are not included in Protestant Bibles. We call that scripture the Apocrypha. In one of those books, Tobit, another archangel appears who is named Raphael. Raphael is considered an angel of healing. Other than these, no others are named.
There is also a belief in much of both Jewish and Christian tradition that each person has a guardian angel, an angel assigned to each of us whose mission it is to keep us safe and connected with God and God’s love. These are the angels whom many people swear they’ve experienced. Do they exist? I don’t know, but let me tell you a story about several experiences, and I’ll let you decide.
Arlene Dulski had an experience several years ago that made her wonder about angels. It was Christmas Eve and she was trying to decide whether or not to attend the midnight mass at her church. She was having a very hard time. Her husband was in the hospital with complications from a brain tumor, which left her with her eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son to look after. Also, she was pregnant. She didn’t want to go to the service, but her kids begged her to go. Finally she agreed.
Driving to the church, the only open parking spot was six blocks from the church. The weather was bitter cold, the road icy. They barely made it on time and found three remaining seats in the back. Ten minutes in, both kids fell asleep. Shaking her head, she began to worry. Her son was a deep sleeper. In her condition she couldnʼt carry him and drag her daughter six blocks up the icy street back to her car.
At the end of the service, the parishioners filed by to leave, but she stayed sitting, about to cry. Then she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. It was a tall man, with the kindest eyes sheʼd ever seen. “Are you in trouble?” he asked. She felt so comfortable that she told him her dilemma. In one sweeping gesture, he lifted her son on his shoulder and helped her daughter up with his other arm. They walked in a quiet group to her car.
“I couldnʼt have done this without you,” she said, turning around after she had secured the kids in their seat belts. But her words disappeared in the night air. The snowy street was deserted. No footprints except her daughterʼs and hers (adapted from “The Man at Midnight Mass,” Guideposts Magazine, http://www.guideposts.com/print/30563).
Was the man an angel? What the man actually there? What had happened?
Back in 1961 and 1962, Edward Beckwell had a series of experiences that left him wondering about angels. It began when he bought a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. As he and his wife were setting up the tree up, he noticed that something made of black plastic was tied to the trunk of the tree. Carefully undoing the twine, and then unwrapping the plastic, he found in it a note from a young boy, Egbert McGraw, from either Legere or Lagare, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia (it was hard to tell from the handwriting which said the town and either N.B. or N.S.). The note asked whomever got it to ask Santa to bring him a pair of skates that would fit an 8 year-old boy.
He gave the note to his wife, but she just dismissed it out of hand, saying, “Right! Like we can get skates for every 8 year-old boy in Canada.” But Ed felt differently. He wanted to help the boy. The first step, after Christmas day, was to find out where the boy lived. Ed didn’t even know where to start. He scanned maps of both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but couldn’t find a town of Legere or Lagare. After spending the morning trying to do figure it out, he took a break and went to his local diner for a cup of coffee.
The owner, Sid, looked at Ed as he sat at the counter, and said, “Ed, you look irritated.” Ed said, “I am. I’m trying to figure out where a kid I’m hoping to send skates to in Canada lives, but I’m at a loss.” Sid said, “Why don’t you talk to the guy at the end of the counter. He came in this morning saying that his job is to help people, and he can’t find anyone to help.” Ed approached the man, an impeccably dressed man with a unique lapel pin that was a white feather tipped in gold. The man listened to Ed and said with a smile, “That’s a simple problem to fix. Go to the post office. They’ll help you.” So off Ed went, and within thirty minutes the man at the post office had figured out both the province and the town, and even contacted the local post office and got an address for the McGraw family.
The next day, Ed went looking for skates, but it was obvious that all the stores had sold out of kids skates before Christmas. No matter where he went they were out of kid’s skates. Frustrated again, he went to diner for a cup of coffee. To his surprise he saw the same man with the feather lapel pin. He told the man his problem, and the man said, “Go to the Sears in town, they’ll have them.” Ed explained that he had already tried the Sears, but the man was insistent. Ed went back, talked to the same salesman, who said that he was sure they were still out, but he’d go back and check. Within minutes he returned carrying a box of kid’s skates. He said, “I don’t know how I missed this earlier, but I think these are the size you want. They were sitting on a shelf all by themselves.” So, off Ed went to send the skates to Egbert McGraw.
Several weeks after sending the skates, he received a very nice thank you letter, and thus began a correspondence between Egbert and Ed. That summer, Ed and his wife even managed to visit Egbert in New Brunswick, where he found that Egbert didn’t even speak English, and that it was Egbert’s grandmother who had been translating for Egbert. Ed and his wife spent time with them, and even became the hit of the town as he gave the kids of the town a ride around in his convertible, with Egbert always sitting in the front seat, smiling.
The years passed by, and Ed and Egbert lost touch. One day, Ed was sitting in his house reading, and he heard a knock on the door. Answering it, he saw a very tall young man with two little girls. The man said, in a French accent,” Hi, I’m Egbert McGraw. We used to write back-and-forth when I was a child.” Ed was all smiles, and he was so excited to see the children. He asked Egbert how he had found him. Egbert said, “I was in Windsor, Ontario for another matter, and knew that you lived somewhere here in the Detroit area. I brought my children over to see if we could find you. We were sitting in a park, and I was trying to figure out what to do when a man came up to me and said that I looked troubled. I told him that I was looking for you, and he said, “I know Ed. Here’s how you get there.” With that he gave me directions. And he also gave me this envelope to give you when I saw you. Ed opened it up, and in it was a card with a picture of a feather with a gold tip.
So do angels exist? Were the people in these stories angels or just something else? Personally, I don’t know, but one thing I’ve learned over the years is never to dismiss people’s experiences of the supernatural, especially if they are experiences that make their lives better.
I believe that the world we see and know is just a fraction of all that exists in God’s realm, and so I don’t have to experience angels to believe that others have. I also don’t have to see angels to believe that they have been active in my life, because my life is so blessed I know that something out there looks over me. Ultimately, the thing I’ve learned about angels and the spiritual realm is that if we are open, something special works in our lives to guard us, guide us, and lead us ever God-ward. This is what I believe in.
Amen.
