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| “A Job for Angels” Matthew 1: 18-25 I got to meet Mikhail Gorbachev once. I went to Moscow with a group of clergy in 1992 to experience the first free Easter after the fall of Communism, then a week later the first free May Day on Red Square. In between we didn’t have much to do so on Wednesday we phoned Gorbachev’s office and asked his secretary if he would like to meet with a dozen American clergy – he said come on over. We sat around a big table supplied with ample supplies of Pepsi and Gorbachev came in with his interpreter. He was charming and casual and we felt comfortable to let our questions turn from politics to religion. We had read somewhere that he had been baptized as an infant. How did that work as the leader of an officially atheistic country? He laughed. He said it was his grandmother’s doing and he was angry about it at first, not because of the baptism but because of the name. In the Orthodox Church the Christening is the official naming ritual. His parents had named him Victor, but when he was baptized his grandmother named him Mikhail instead. He said he always resented that because he thought Victor was such a powerful name, suitable for a political reformer. Then he added, “Then I found out what Mikhail meant, and that was okay too.” Mikhail, Michael, means “messenger of God.” For the past few weeks the sermons have been about the major characters of Advent, John the Baptist and Mary the mother of Jesus. But the real major players in the Christmas saga are the angels, the messengers of God. Angels appear to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and to Mary, and to shepherds on the plains outside Bethlehem. And in the lesson for today, to Joseph – their primary function is as messengers of God. They generally speak while people are sleeping because that’s the only time we are quiet enough to pay attention. Sometimes the deliver singing telegrams like to the shepherds on Christmas Eve. We tend to treat angels as fairy tale characters like lepricons, fairies, and minehune, (That’s the Hawaiian version of the lepricon. When you are taking your sox out of the dryer and one is missing, the minehume took it.) But angels figure prominently throughout the Bible and not just as mischief makers, or fat little naked babies with wings. So, loose the wings and the halos. The only angels that are described as having wings are the cherubim and seraphim who are specifically designed as attendants to the throne of God. And halos were the invention of artists so you could tell the divine characters from the mere mortals. In the real world, you can’t tell. That’s why the Bible says some people have entertained angels unaware. And angels don’t play harps. If they have anything in their hands it is likely to be a sword, because sometimes the message they bring from God is one of judgment and it needs some reinforcement. In the book of Numbers the angel that confronts Balaam is holding a sword, and he says, “Behold, I have come to withstand you because your way is perverse before God.” (Numbers 22: 32) Maybe that’s why the first words angels generally speak are, “Don’t be afraid.” They can be fearsome personages. And whenever gender is identified in the Bible, angels are men. Sorry about that. But, what ever their gender identification, they have to be tough because they have tough assignments, not only as messengers but as guardians. The psalmist makes this promise, “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” (Psalm 91: 9-12) One of the haunting pictures from my childhood was one that hung in my grandmother’s house above the feather bed where I slept. It was of two small frightened children crossing a treacherous foot-bridge with an angel hovering above them, a guardian angel. It’s not a job for wimps. Imagine how much more complicated it has become since the invention of cars and freeways. Scott peck says that it’s the very definition of grace, the fact that you get out on the freeway hurtling a two ton piece of steel down the concrete at 80 MPH along with a few hundred others, some talking on cell phones, putting on make-up, reading the paper or catching a quick nap, and most of the time you get home without a scratch. It’s a true miracle, the work of angels. Not the wimpy, pastel angels that artists paint – Arnold Swartzeneggar type angels – Terminator II type angels – wild angels. There is a country song about that. Between the
perfect world and the bottom line It must have
been hard, it must have been tough, There are some
nights when I wake up from a dream The angel in the scripture lesson for today had his work cut out for him. Last Sunday we read the story of the angel making the announcement to Mary. That was a piece of angel food cake compared to this. This angel had to convince Joseph – engaged to be married to a young woman who is supposed to be a virgin, and she turns up pregnant? I would love to have been in the room when that conversation went down. But, angels are professional messengers and Joseph was convinced. You add his faith to that of Mary and it’s not hard to see how spirituality and trust in God ran deep in that baby boy. Mikhail Gorbachev said he saw himself as a messenger of God moving the Soviet Union to a place where it could finally emerge to its proper place on the world stage. He was well named by his grandmother because that’s what angels do. So on this last Sunday in the season of Advent when angels have played such a prominent role, this question. Do you ever hear the whisper of angel voices? If you don’t, could it be because you’re not ever quiet enough? If God has dispatched an angel to bring you a message, what do you imagine that message would be? Maybe you haven’t heard it because you haven’t wanted too. Or maybe you have heard it – just now – in between breaths – there in the silence between heart beats. People can get really squirrelly this time of year – the extra pressure makes us edgy. Extended family issues seem to always present at Christmas, financial pressure, lots of parties you feel obligated to attend. What a good time to call on the angels God has assigned to you. They are just waiting to protect you, guide you and lift you up. There are times
at night when I wake up from a dream,
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