Sunday September 29th is St. Michael and All Angels Sunday. It is a Sunday that we set aside to remember the gift that God gives us in his creating angels. The Christian church has celebrated this remembrance since the 5th century when the construction of St. Michael’s church somewhere near Rome was completed and dedicated.
We don’t celebrate this day every year since September 29 sometimes falls during the week but when it is on a Sunday we observe this day. This happens every 6 or 7 years. If you think about it that is not very often considering the roll that angels play throughout the whole of scripture.
Beginning in Genesis we hear of the angel who guards the entrance to the Garden of Eden. But in Job 38:4-7 we are told they “sang together” when God was creating the world.
In the Passover The Angel of The Lord struck down the first born in all homes where the blood of the lamb was not on the doorposts.
In Isaiah 6 we see into the throne room of God and the angels are saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” and an angel takes a coal from the altar of the Lord and cleanses Isaiah absolving him of all his sin. God desires to forgive mankind of all his sins and cleanse them.
Angels help Israel in battle, but they are also sent to punish Israel by destroying Jerusalem in 1 Chronicles 21.
The angels are also most memorably present when Jesus is born. “Glory to God in the highest” they sang to the shepherds. God is present, Immanuel! God is in the flesh present with his people! This is why we echo the angel’s words at Christmas in hymns like “Angels We Have Heard On High.” We sing the song they did showing that Christ is still present.
In Revelation 5:11-12,
“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
The angels rejoice and praise God when he is present in the flesh of Jesus, when he is creating and when he is forgiving sins. This is why we sing these same songs in our liturgy.
If you’ve ever wondered where our liturgy comes from just open your Bible. Not only do we use the words of scripture, but we also use the songs of angels to teach what is happening in real time. We sing the “Holy, holy, holy” to teach us that God is present and absolving us of our sins. This is the Sanctus (Sanctus is Latin for ‘holy’) part of the liturgy.
We sing the Gloria in Excelsis in the worship service as the angels did announcing that Christ, God in the flesh is with us.
As Isaiah was brought into the presence of God at his throne and he hears the “Holy, holy, holy” and his sins were forgiven and he was cleansed, so at the communion liturgy we sing this as we come into the flesh and blood presence of Christ under the bread and wine. Just as Isaiah’s sins were atoned for on his tongue by the burning coal, so are our sins forgiven when the body and blood of Jesus touches our tongue.
St. Michael and All Angels is a great celebration to remember that our Lutheran liturgy (it’s really not Lutheran because our liturgy predates Lutheranism by over a 1000 years) clearly and rightly communicates the gospel in the same way and with the same words that the angels did. Why would we listen to and follow their example?
Simply put, the angels always see God’s face according to Jesus. The angels have seen God in action. The angels have heard all the words and all the languages, and this is how they articulate the message of the gospel.
But remember, it isn’t just that our liturgy comes from the Bible, but that our liturgy teaches you exactly what is happening in real time by using the context of the story of the salvation of mankind from the very beginning. 1 Peter 1:20-21:
“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
When we come to church it is no informal occasion. In Hebrews 12 we find that we come into the presence of angels and join our song with them, Hebrews 12:22-24
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
As we continue into the month of October and the night hours grow longer, remember we have THE Light of the World. His angels guard us in that light and protect us from darkness with his word of testimony and the blood of the Lamb.
See you on Sunday!
In Christ,
Pastor Ottmers