Posts Tagged ‘Revelation 12:7-12’
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
On Messengers Seen and Unseen – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
Saint Michael and All Angels
Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51
“We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.”
In the Nicene Creed, we affirm our faith and trust in God our Creator in these terms. As the earth all around us proceeds from a divine source, so too does heaven: the nearer presence of God to which we are invited for eternity. As the beings and things around us manifest to our senses constitute the “material expression of God’s love,” so too do those unseen beings of the same created order share a mysterious role in God’s unfolding plan for us, albeit one hidden from our natural senses.
This, in a nutshell, is the theological ground of our celebration today: The feast of St. Michael and All Angels. We prayed in today’s collect, “Grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment may they help and defend us here on earth.” Angels – and angel simply means “messenger” – act as mediators between earth and heaven, the seen and the unseen. The angels point us to the perennial question: “How is God present in the world? And what is our response to that presence?”
The ministries of angels may seem too fanciful or abstract a place for the modern mind to begin, so we can turn first to the ministrations of everyday creatures. Read More
A Feast of Strength – Br. James Koester
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St. Michael and All Angels
Revelation 12:7-12
I don’t know when it began, perhaps the first time someone put an angel on the top of a Christmas tree. Delicate, covered in lace and flounce, sometimes with a magic wand, they may be beautiful, but they have little in common with the angels of scripture, or the iconographic tradition through the ages. These angels as ornaments are likely to shatter with one tap, or smash into tiny pieces unless handled with care and caution. Not so the angels we hear of today. Armed for battle with sword, shield, helmet and staff, clothed in armor, these, dare I say it, muscled and chiseled messengers from God, as icons depict them, are far from the delicate beings hopping on toadstools, dancing on pins, or decorating trees. These are the angels engaged in the cosmic struggle between good and evil. These are the angels of Genesis, Revelation, and John. 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