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A Sermon by The Reverend Yvonne McLean tssf
Nelson Cathedral
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Readings
Genesis 28:10 - 17
Revelation 12:7 - 12a
May my words be true to your word
and our hearts open to hear you,
In Jesus’ name.
Amen
"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven."
Genesis 28:17
What inspiring words, what a meaningful place to begin
on such an auspicious day.
Yesterday and today we have had much to celebrate.
Many hundreds of people have come through the gates of this Cathedral,
a cathedral which by its existence brought into being the city of Nelson.
This is the house of God and we are the gates to heaven - well I hope that
the good news preached here and the presence of God′s Holy Spirit become
gates for all people to enter into God′s presence.
And our readings, one from Genesis and one from Revelation are very apt too,
The beginning and the end of the Bible,
The Alpha and the Omega,
God with us from start to finish.
As we look back to our beginnings as a cathedral 150 years ago, and forward
to the future, secure as a house of God I trust we can all say:
"How awesome is this place!"
These are the readings set down for the feast of St Michael and All Angels.
It is good to celebrate our own special day today as well as day which has
for many centuries belonged to our church heritage.
Both our readings are about the active presence of God,
and both contain angels.
Angels play an important part in our biblical history
but their position in the church has varied from century to century.
In 1897 Ellen White wrote:
Could the veil be lifted, we would see that angels of God are around us to
preserve us from unseen dangers. Thousands of times has their care been
especially manifested for us in our warfare with the agencies of Satan.
Ellen White felt that God′s angels were with her, unseen.
But by 1975 Rev. Billy Graham, noted evangelist, said this:
When I decided to preach a sermon on angels, I found practically nothing
in my library...I soon discovered that little had been written on the
subject in this century.
He also added:
I have never heard anyone preach a
sermon on angels.
I think things have changed quite a bit since then.
For one thing there′s been quite a few TV programmes involving angels,
although of late I would say there are more about ghosts and spirits.
What do you think of when I speak of Angels?
and more particularly of St Michael?
For many, Angels seem to come to the fore at Christmas time,
brightly lit, like stars placed on the top of the Christmas tree.
They are there to bring glad tidings to the shepherds
and they appear twice in Joseph′s dreams.
In fact the biblical image of an angel is primarily as a messenger,
which is the Greek definition of the word Angel.
Angels supposedly have an immortal spirit and are limited in knowledge and
power. They appear frequently in the Bible, often in critical roles,
e.g., visiting Abraham and Lot (Gen. 18; 19), wrestling with Jacob (Gen.
32.24-32), and guiding Tobit (Tobit 5).
The Bible also speaks of guardian angels, protecting individuals or nations
(Dan. 10.10-21; Mat. 18.10).
In the Gospels an angel announced the Incarnation to the Virgin Mary (Luke
1), and an angel at the empty tomb revealed the Resurrection (Mat. 28.1-7).
Heralds of earthly and resurrected life.
They are messengers of God′s word to us, providing guidance
and also guarding those who have offered their lives in service to God.
Roman Catholics and the Orthodox both venerate angels,
and there is even a feast of Guardian Angels on Oct. 2.
But also in my studies I read that:
"Protestants have generally abandoned the veneration of angels."
When I
googled for St Michael and All Angels, there were pages and pages of
sites for churches named after St Michael and All Angels.
Presumably this puts them on a par with the human saints!
Though to me angels are in quite a different category.
Our reading from Revelation shows us that there can be fallen angels as
well as heavenly messengers, but I presume that a churches named after St
Michael and All Angels would not be following these.
About St Michael I read:
St Michael is an Archangel prominent in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim
traditions.
In the Bible and early Jewish literature, Michael is one of the angels of
God′s presence. He is depicted as a warrior-prince leading the celestial
armies against wicked forces and as Israel′s guardian angel. He is also the
intermediary between God and Moses on Mt Sinai. Michael also confronts the
devil over Moses′ right of proper burial. In Christian tradition he is the
angel with the sword.
So what about us today?
What can we learn from our Bible readings?
Jacob 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.
And then Jacob heard the Lord speak to him.
Jacob saw God standing next to him and learned about God′s promises of land,
descendants and his ongoing presence:
Genesis 28:15
"Know 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."
This dream was obviously God-given and it was certainly vivid and memorable.
Some people will tell you that they don′t dream. Experts tell us that we all
enter sleep conducive to dreaming at regular intervals throughout the night.
Our brain activity can be monitored to show that we are in fact dreaming.
We can train ourselves to remember our dreams, but interpreting our dreams
can be much harder. It is something done with prayer and God′s help.
I have several books about the place of dreams in our spiritual lives.
Whatever the full interpretation of Jacob′s dream we can all see that a
ladder between heaven and earth, with angels ascending and descending, is
all about the link between us and God.
God wants to communicate with us, to be part of our lives and it is a two
way process - God to us and us to God.
Our reading from Revelation concerns St Michael and his angel warriors.
Here the angels are more in their role of defenders, or guardian angels
and not as messengers.
They are making a stand against evil and it is very clear whose side they
are on.
They fought against the dragon 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."
Evil is defeated, there is victory.
It would appear that angels, like people, are also capable of rebellion,
they too can choose which side they are on.
When we think of angels we do not usually think of armies of angels,
but even Jesus referred to this in Matthew 26:53
"Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send
me more than twelve legions of angels?"
12,000 angels!
But Jesus did not choose the way of battle.
Victory was won through Jesus′ surrender to the cross.
Death was defeated once and for all,
not through aggression but through obedience.
And yet the book of Revelation is full of battle scenes!
But it is only through the blood of the lamb, Jesus′ sacrifice, that the war
is won.
So what about angels today?
Have you had any encounters with God′s angels as messengers or guardians?
Here′s one account:
In April 1998, a series of tornadoes ripped through the southern part of
the United States. A day after one of the Storms had hit a TV program "All
Things Considered" aired a story about a congregation called the "Church of
the Open Door". Their church had been destroyed the day previous. Terrified
children had been in a choir rehearsal at the time of the storm. When the
pastor saw the storm coming, he quickly gathered all the children in the
churches main hallway. There they huddled together as the winds ripped the
church apart.
In an effort to calm the children′s fears, the pastor had led them in
singing, "Jesus loves the little children." Although some of the children
were hurt, miraculously no one was killed. The most penetrating part of the
broadcast was the report of a little girl who said, "While we were singing,
I saw angels holding up the hallway. But the winds were so strong that the
angels shouted, "We need help!" and some more angels came to help. " That
little girl will never forget what she saw, and she knows that angels are
watching over the little children, and that they are precious in Jesus
sight."
Now you may scoff but there are many more stories like this around.
I have two books called "God′s Mysterious Ways" and in those books are many
stories of God assisting people, through what appears to be the work of
angels.
Those who work in hospitals and hospices where people are close to death
have also recounted many incidences where angels have appeared to their
patients.
Now I haven′t experienced angels first hand,
but I have received God′s guidance through dreams and had a vision of a
heraldic angel.
And there′s been quite a few times in my life when I′ve sent up prayers of
thanks for some near misses on the road, enough to make me feel that God
does protect and guard us.
I believe that God′s presence, whether through his Holy Spirit or the work
of angels, can be experienced in all places and at all times.
God wants to communicate with us.
God wants us to be aware of his hand on our lives, guiding and protecting.
So I come back to our opening verses:
"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven."
Yes, this is God′s awesome house, but so are we.
St Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19
"Do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?"
And St Peter in 1 Peter 1:12 (this morning′s reading)
"you also, like
living stones, are being built into a spiritual house."
God is in this place and God is in our lives through the work of the Holy
Spirit, speaking to us in our dreams, communicating to us God′s presence
with us
and God′s love for us.
I believe angels are still ascending and descending from heaven,
acting both as God′s messengers and our guardians!
Let us pray:
May God be present in our lives, our families and our places of worship.
May God′s spirit fill his Holy Temple
and bless us both as his and church as individuals,
and may God′s messengers continue to inspire us with God′s word
and guard us against all perils and danger,
This I pray, in Jesus′ name.
Amen.
The Reverend Yvonne McLean tssf
This sermon was written and delivered by The Reverend Yvonne McLean tssf at Nelson Cathedral, 28 September 2008 at 6pm
