A
Sermon preached at Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Weare for the Feast of St.
Michael and All Angels (edited for the blog)
October 2014
By
the Rev. Keith Patterson
I
first learned about angels as a first grader at Our Lady of Lourdes School in
Buffalo, New York. We began each day of
school at 8:00 AM in church. The
Sisters would give “the evil eye” to latecomers signaled by the creaking of the
big oak swinging doors. Mass was still
said in Latin. Churches back then
smelled like churches. They smelled of
beeswax, incense, and Murphy’s oil soap.
When
we returned to our classrooms, the first subject taught was religion. It was probably on the Feast of St. Michael
and All Angels that I heard a story about a war in heaven. I learned that there was a very important
angel - an archangel whose name was Michael. Michael
the Archangel was dressed like a knight with shining armor and a sharp
sword. St. Michael the archangel and all
the other angels in heaven were fighting a dragon. The dragon I was told was Satan, the devil.
Sister
Mary of the Passion (yes that was her religious name) showed the double first
and second grade class a picture of St. Michael standing over a dragon that was
a scary shade of green. The dragon did
not have a dragon’s face but that of a man with horns. Now that I think of it, the picture might
have been of a devil with wings.
Then
I learned that God gave each of us an angel.
That was certainly news to me! I
was not sure that I could believe this.
This sounded like one of those fairy tales that was read to me at
bedtime. Sister showed the class another picture - this one of two
small children, a boy and a girl. They
were out picking flowers near the edge of a cliff. Behind them was a large lady with wings. The “lady” was an angel. The angel was reaching out to the little girl
near the edge of the cliff to keep her from falling. I was afraid of heights back then. Who would want to pick flowers next to a
cliff? The story half scared me and
half-filled me with wonder. Sister told
us that there was a guardian angel watching over each of us right at that
moment. The guardian angel was to
protect us from the devil and keep us from doing things that might hurt
us. Even though I had questions about
this being real or not part of me wanted to believe.
The
six year old child buried somewhere inside of the 57 year old man still wants to
believe in angels too. He needs to believe in
angels. Part of him, and I think part
of you, wants to believe that God loves his creation so much that he can spare
a few of the angels that sing praises to him all the time to watch over
us.
I
need to believe the fantastic story about Jacob having a dream of angels going
up and down a ladder between heaven and earth.
I want to believe that there is always a part of heaven here on earth
because of angels. I want to believe
that heaven is to be found in a flower, or the face of a smiling child. I need to believe those chance encounters
with strangers are really angels in disguise.
I want to believe in angels like the ones in “Touched by An Angel.” I want an angel, like Monica who can show up
and tell me not to be afraid and God loves you.
An angel loving and tough like Della Reese’s Tess telling me to get off
my butt and back to God’s work.
I
need to believe that God would care enough to send angels to watch over Jesus
when he spent forty days and nights in the desert. That angels were with Jesus right up to his
death on the cross; that angels were present on Easter morning.
If
I can imagine the world in all its greatness surely I, surely you, can believe in angels.
I need to know in the words of an African-American Christmas song that:
All
night, all day
Angels
watching over me, my Lord
All
night, all day
Angels
watching over me.
Amen.
Lovely
ReplyDelete