Angels, Angels Everywhere!

As you may have noticed, today’s theme is all about angels. I want to thank Elsie for the wonderful work she did in gathering all that angel artwork for the bulletin. And I also want to thank everyone who brought in angels to grace the fellowship hall. The angel spirit is alive & well at Trinity!

While we especially think about them at Christmas time, angels really are everywhere in our culture – in art & literature, songs & movies – especially movies. And, as with so many other things, we tend to see angels as reflections of ourselves: we assign human characteristics to them. For example, Cary Grant as the angel Dudley becomes too fond of The Bishop’s Wife. Nickolas Cage even falls from heaven to be with the woman he loves in City of Angels. Then there’s John Travolta as the beer-drinking, chain-smoking, sugar guzzling angel in the movie Michael. And who can forget “Angels in the Outfield”? And then there’s my personal favorite, Clarence the bumbling clockmaker, trying to “earn his wings” in It’s a Wonderful Life.

There’s no end to the variety of ways we depict angels. But what do we really know about them, from a biblical perspective? Let’s go back to the source material – let’s look at what the scriptures have to say about angels.

It’s important to remember here that Christianity is built on a foundation of Judaism. It’s why the Old Testament takes up so much room in the Bible. It’s where we spiritually came from. And much of our familiarity with angels comes from Jewish writings and tradition. In fact, the names of the two best-known “types” of angels – the Cherubim and Seraphim – those are Hebrew names. We’ll come back to them a little later on.

But before I go any further, I have to thank Laura for all the work she did on this. I asked her to research angels in the Bible, and boy, did she do that: she produced stacks and stacks of biblical references to angels, far more information than I could ever cover here. So, in a very real sense, in helping me prepare for this discussion, she really was my angel.

I have to say that, since this is the anniversary of the night we met 30 years ago. So I really do have to say she’s my angel… I better if I know what's good for me...

But what do we really know about angels? The word angel is derived from Latin, Greek & Hebrew, and it means “messenger.” But that doesn’t equate to just being a celestial mailman – as we shall see, they’re much more than God’s postal service. Angels are spiritual beings of immense power, as we shall see - they exist solely for the purpose of praising God and carrying out His will.

A question one might ask is: “When were angels created?” After all, God created all things, so when did He create the angels?

The creation story in Genesis does not mention angels. This is not an oversight – the creation story deals primarily with the physical world, and God’s relationship with us. The origin of angels is not really germane to that story.

But we do know that when Adam & Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:24 tells us “… he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, Cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” So angels were already in existence then.

Moreover, when Job questions God’s actions in Job 38, God has some questions of his own for Job. God asks him, “Where were you when I created the earth?...How was its foundation poured, and who set the cornerstone, while the morning stars sang …, and all the angels shouted praise?”

So from Job we can conclude that the angels were already there, when the earth was created. So angels have been with us for a very long time. They first appear very early in the Bible. And they appear often.

I’ve read that there the word “angel” appears 500 times in the Bible. Now, some of these references are metaphorical, as in 1st Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love…” And Jesus himself referred to them at his arrest in Gethsemane. In Matthew 26:53, Jesus said “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” But beyond the references to angels, there are 79 actual stories of interactions with angels in the Bible, so angels are clearly an important part of the Scriptures, and mentioned too often to ignore.

So what do angels really look like? Apparently, in their natural, spiritual form, they can be terrifying. Why else would they routinely say, “Fear not - Be not afraid”? Those were their words to Zacharias, and to the shepherds in the fields at Christ’s birth. And also to Mary and Joseph. As a matter of fact, angels seem to spend a fair amount of time telling people not to be afraid. So their appearance, at times, can be quite unsettling. But they seem to be really good at getting your attention when they want to.