Posts Tagged ‘Genesis 28:10-17’
Point Together – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels
Today we remember angels. Mysteriously other, these outside, beyond, heavenly beings worship before God’s throne, fight evil, and come bearing messages. Ascending and descending, when seen, angels catch our attention. We ask in today’s collect that they “may help and defend us on earth.” We are not alone. Angels help us. They provide and protect. Glimpsing them reminds and reassures us.
When Jacob was afraid, he received a dream. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder connecting heaven and earth and heard God speaking to him. God, who had seemed beyond and absent, broke through to be present in voice and with the sight of angels. Read More
How Much More – Br. Lain Wilson
Br. Lain Wilson
Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, transferred
Preached at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Issaquah, Washington
Genesis 28:10-17
Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51
On behalf of my brother Jamie Nelson and the rest of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, I am delighted to be here with you this morning. I am particularly honored to be given the hospitality of your pulpit on this day, the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, your patronal feast day.
When I was very young, maybe four or five years old, a family friend told me about an experience she had had. One of her sons had died as a young man years before. She told me that, while she was grieving her loss one day at home, a young man appeared, offering reassurance that her son was in a good place, was home with God, and that she didn’t need to grieve anymore. Read More
Feast of the Imagination – Br. James Koester
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St. Michael and All Angels
Genesis 28:10-17
Revelation 12:7-12
In my experience you are likely to get one of several reactions from people when your mention angels. One is the eye rolling, tossing of the head, I don’t believe you fall for the nonsense, reaction. Another is the new age, crystals and angels with flouncy long dresses and magic wands, reaction. But there is another reaction, and it probably won’t surprise you when I say, it’s the one I fall into.
For me, and for others, angels are not a pre-scientific, pre-rational, pre-modern way of understanding or thinking. Nor are they about whimsy, fantasy, and magic. For me, angels are about the imagination. Father Michael Himes, a Roman Catholic priest and Boston College theologian, defines the imagination as a “creative faculty,” which has “the capacity to embody the abstract in the concrete.”[1] Imagination then is not about “escaping from reality.” Instead, imagination is “precisely about making things real.”[2]
We have all watched children at play and have been captivated by how they can make real, and present, a world unseen. Their play is not an escape from the immediate constraints, weights, and fractures of human life,[3] into some kind of fantasy. It is a way, in a sense, through the wardrobe door into another world, which is just as real as this one. In a way then, angels are doorkeepers who help by ushering us through the door, from one world into the other. Read More
Heaven Opened – Br. Luke Ditewig
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St. Michael & All Angels
Genesis 28:10-17
Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51
Today we remember angels, mysteriously other. These outside, beyond, heavenly beings worship before God’s throne, fight evil, and come bearing messages.
When he was afraid, Jacob received a dream. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder connecting heaven and earth and heard God speaking to him. God who had seemed beyond and absent broke through to be present in voice and with the sight of angels.
Jacob woke from his dream and said: “Surely the Lord is in this place. … How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is gate of heaven.” So Jacob made a pillar, poured oil on it and called the place Bethel, the house of God. Read More
The Ministry of Angels – Br. David Vryhof
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Genesis 28:10-17 – Revelation 12:7-12 – John 1:47-51
How do we speak of things that we sense are true, but which lie beyond our ability to see or touch or know? How can we, with our limited language and concepts, begin to describe the spiritual world which we sense is all around us? What can we say of unseen and mystical realities that do not lend themselves to observation or analysis? Read More