In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. He came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." She was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now, you will conceive and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. Now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
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How many people here believe in angels? There are, of course, many kinds of angels. Have you noticed that there is a lot of interest in angels today? There is some question as to whether or not belief in angels is a sign of spiritual confusion, or spiritual awakening. Believing in angels is not part of the articles of belief of Christianity. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament had to contend with the beliefs of a cult devoted to angels as the superior divine beings.
Angels are mentioned several times in the Christmas narratives of Luke and Matthew - an angel coming to Zechariah, to Mary, to Joseph - and then again when Jesus is about two years old and Joseph takes them into Egypt. Obviously this was important enough to mention.
Angels are depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible, and the Quran. Both the Hebrew and Greek words originally mean messenger; they can refer to a human messenger such as a prophet or priest, or to a supernatural messenger, the "Mal'akh YHWH," who is either a messenger from God, an aspect of God (such as the Logos), or God as the messenger.
There are also the cherubim and seraphim (the chayot in Ezekiel's vision and the Seraphim of Isaiah). However, while cherubim and seraphim have wings in the Bible, no angel is mentioned as having wings.
The original word from which all the others come is “angello” which means "to bear a message, announce, bring news of". The Greek philosopher Philo identifies the angel as the immaterial voice of God. According to Aristotle, just as there is a First Mover, God, so, too, must there be spiritual secondary movers
The Bible uses the terms “mal'akh Elohim; messenger of God”, “mal'akh YHWH; messenger of the Lord”.
Gabriel (translation: the strength of God), performs acts of justice and power
Raphael (translation: God Heals), God's healing force
Uriel (translation: God is my light), leads us to destiny
Satan (translation: the adversary), brings people's sins before them in the heavenly court
Chayot HaKodesh (translation: living beings)
I have never seen an angel, to the best of my knowledge, although I believe I have encountered one. What I do know about angels is the mention in Scripture, pictures and drawings, literary depictions of angels, movies. Up until recently, there was little talk about angels, except at Christmas where they suddenly proliferate in scripture and hymn and Christmas card art. I really do not like the way angels are depicted.
C.S. Lewis, who wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia”, was one of the foremost Christian authors, and critics of the church. Lewis said that angels, along with much of Christian thought and symbol have been made sweet and unoffensive, soft and comfortable, so we don’t have to really grapple with what they actually were.
I believe angels are messengers of God, not Santa's elves here to help us attain our wishes. Nor do I believe they are around to protect us or watch over us somehow. I believe angels are messengers of God who bring both the mystery and meaning of God's power, presence, and purpose into the actuality and reality of our limited dimension of existence and being. Angels bring messages of great things to come - they are not soft, fluffy and white. They mean there is something of earth-shattering change about to happen.
Then there’s the star. Whatever it was - a comet, or an exploding or imploding body deep in space, it was seen as a portent of something great. We don’t know for sure if it was even there. Biblical scholarship tells us that if there were Magi, they came along a couple of years later, when Jesus and is family were living in Egypt, waiting for Herod to die. Yet in our Christmas narrative the star has been put in there right with the angels. Well, the star wasn’t an angel - but it was certainly something cosmic. The event of whatever caused it was violent and cosmic. It was not a sweetly shining, twinkling star that just kind of sat there serenely every night. This was another event big enough to make people afraid - and I am sure some of the more superstitious people were. The star - a cosmic ball of gas - or a comet of ice and rock - was a huge event which caused a whole number of people to leave their homes and their comforts, and go looking, no matter how long it took.
There is an old saying, "After the ecstasy is the dishes." What happened afterwards seemed so ordinary. There was a birth. There was a child to be raised. There was cleaning and meals and washing, and all the needs of life and work. Angels are not mentioned much after the shepherds returned to the fields. They went back to being shepherds; back in their ordinary fields. The magi had to go back home, back to their ordinary lives. And It was into such a world of ordinary needs and deeds that the most extraordinary event occurred. Jesus was born into an ordinary world, ate the same ordinary food as everyone else around him - yet the birth was important enough that it was announced by a cosmic event of some kind, and a being which started off saying “Don’t be afraid.”
So let’s put the angels and the stars back into Christmas. Because that’s how life is, isn’t it? There are these great cosmic events, and then we go back to being ordinary people living in an ordinary world. Let’s see the angels for exactly what they were - beings which commanded fear at the sight of them - which brought messages of life-changing events.. Let’s look again at what we call a star - a violent and frightening cosmic event in the universe which served as a portent of a birth which would change the lives of people everywhere. Amen.
Sources:
1. Angels and Stars - a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota December 2005
2. The Messenger, the Mystery, and the Meaning by DG Bradley, 1996.
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