St. Michael and All Angels
Matthew 18:1-10; Revelation 12:7-12

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

September 29th is St. Michael and All Angels Day in the church year. And so this weekend we take time to rejoice in the angels, the spirit creatures of the heavenly realm, the holy ones of the Lord who do His bidding. Angels are the heavenly army of God, the Lord of hosts. Angels are the messengers of God's goodness, who preached the good news of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds in Bethlehem and who announced the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to the women on Easter morning. Angels are the protectors of God's people, as it is written, "He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways." And angels will gather all the nations together on the Last Day and sort out the believers from the unbelievers for the final judgment.

People today have this way of looking at angels that either makes too much of them or too little of them. Either they wind up practically worshiping the angels instead of God-talking and praying to them-or they glibly dismiss them as a childish fantasy along the lines of Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. So angels can pose something of a problem for us.

First there is the problem of the consumerization of the angels, turning the sacred and holy into the cute and comfortable and entertaining. Either they're depicted as chubby cherubs with harps, floating on the clouds with delirious smiles on their faces, or as delicate winged women in flowing robes, or as entertaining characters with special powers in movies and TV shows. But none of those bear any resemblance to reality. Pop culture angels are usually a far cry from the frightfully impressive, powerful, masculine angelic beings that Isaiah, Ezekiel, and St. John saw, a sight that left them flat on their faces in holy fear. In fact, whenever an angel makes a visible appearance in the Bible, the first words out of his mouth are "fear not."

Another mistaken notion about angels in our popular culture is that we become angels when we die. That's what a lot of the angel lapel pins and trinkets are about. But we don't become angels. We do become "like the angels" in the sense that we will not be married in the world to come, and our faces, like theirs, will be forever turned toward God. But human beings don't become angels, and angels do not become human beings. The only divine being that has become human is God Himself. God became Man in Jesus Christ so that through Christ we might share in His divine nature. God didn't become Man in Jesus so that we could become angels. God became Man so that our humanity might be restored and redeemed and raised in the flesh to share in His glory, where we will live forever in God's presence with the angels.

And then there are those who don't believe in the existence of angels at all. This is the problem of rationalism, this notion that our minds are the final judge of what is true. If we can't see, smell, or touch it, if scientists at leading universities have not conclusively studied it, then it isn't real, or at least it isn't worth bothering much about. And so it tends to go with the angels. You ordinarily can't see them. You usually don't notice the work of the angels. The angels don't want to be noticed, nor do they want to be the greatest. "Not us, but the Lord," they say, with faces turned toward Him. That's where they also want us to be pointed.

Believing in the existence of angels may seem a little bit childlike. But Jesus reminds us today that when it comes to heavenly things, that is good. He says, "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." A little child receives everything in trust. We adults are always questioning everything and asserting our rights and our opinions. And so we need to turn, to repent and humble ourselves like a little child and trust in our heavenly Father, that He is good and merciful through Christ His Son, and that what He says is true. That is what faith is about: to believe His Word and keep it simply because He said so, to be nothing but given to by God. That is what defines greatness in the kingdom of heaven. It is only with the humility and wonder of a child that we can rejoice in the angels or any of the gifts of God.

To doubt the angels is to doubt the Lord of the angels. To fail to take seriously their existence is also to fail to take seriously that there is a real spiritual battle going on in this world. For remember, there are some angels who turned their faces away from the Lord, who wanted to do their own thing and serve themselves, namely the devil and his demons. They wanted to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In the reading from Revelation today we are given a picture of what happened when Michael and his angels waged war against them. "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." That's good news in a sense-for no longer can the devil accuse us before God in heaven. But it is bad news for the earth. The devil and his demons are loose, and they know that their time is short.

The devil prowls about like a roaring lion, the Scriptures say, looking for someone to devour. He wants to gobble you up with his lie that you don't have to be little, like a child. You can make yourself big, be like God, grab what is not given you. The work of the devil is to take your eyes from the Lord, where the angels are turned, and turn your eyes to yourselves, to your own wisdom and thinking and spirituality. The devil and his demons are the source of all sorts of false religion. For instance, appearing as angels of light, they are the beginning of both Islam and Mormonism. Both of those religions trace their beginning to an angelic being appearing to them and giving them some new revelation. Of course, St. Paul reminds us in Galatians, "If anyone, or even an angel from heaven, preaches to you a gospel other than what we preached to you, let him be accursed." For ultimately the goal of the devil is to get you to believe some other gospel than what we confess in this place, to get you to accept all religions as equally valid and equally true-whatever he can do to turn you away from Christ the crucified, the only-begotten Son of God. For only through Him can anyone be saved. He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Amazingly enough, that truth of Christ is the very weapon that St. Michael and all the angels fight with; it's not raw power but the words of God that they use. For it is written, "They overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Even the angels don't conquer by their own strength, but by the strength of Christ. What gives the angels their strength is the same as what strengthens us: the blood of the Lamb of God and His powerful Word.

Satan is cast out of heaven and defeated by the holy cross of Jesus. For the power of Satan is sin and death. But Jesus overcame those enemies of ours by dying in our place. All the power of sin to condemn you, all the hellish judgment you deserve as a result of your sin, Jesus took and suffered to death, shedding His blood on your behalf as the Passover lamb. By the cross you are forgiven. Satan's weapon of sin has been destroyed. And therefore the devil's weapon of death is also conquered. For Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, triumphing over the grave and opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Death no longer has power over you because in Christ you have the Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That word of the Gospel of Christ the crucified is the power by which St. Michael and the angels cast Satan out of heaven. And it is that same Gospel by which Satan is defeated and cast away from us as well. By the Word of the Lamb of God, the devil is felled and defeated.

But don't become complacent or lazy in your faith. For the devil is going down swinging. The victory is won by Christ, but there are a few final skirmishes yet to be fought until the end comes when the devil and the demons and all who reject Christ are cast into the lake of fire. Satan will try again and again to make you stumble and fall with him. So be sober and watchful. The prayers in the Small Catechism are helpful in this regard. First we pray in them for God's care and keeping at the beginning of the day, and then for the forgiveness of our sins at the close of the day. Finally, trusting in Jesus' promise both morning and evening, we lay claim to His gift of the angels by praying: "Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me." You can go about your daily work joyfully, and you can go to sleep in good cheer, because of the angels who do the Lord's bidding, for you.

That is the confidence that Jesus gives you, to live your life free from fear, free from the condemnation of the Law, free from the accusation of the devil, free from every threat. Whether you live or die, you are guarded by the angels who always behold the face of God.

Which means you are never alone. Even when you feel abandoned, isolated, unprotected, vulnerable, you are never apart from the Lord. "The Lord of hosts is with us." He is wherever His little ones of every age who believe in Him go. And with Him are His hosts of angels who are sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. Those hosts of angels are here now-Michael, Gabriel, and all the rest. For they dwell in the presence of Christ, and Christ is here among us in His words and in the Sacrament. We worship with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.

I suppose in that sense, our attendance numbers are really inaccurate. Maybe I should just put down "100,000+" in next week's bulletin. Our voices join with theirs in singing "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory." We are in the company of the angels, more than we can count.

The angels rejoiced on the day of your Baptism. They rejoice whenever you confess your sin and receive Jesus' forgiveness, becoming as a little child before the Lord. They are delighted that you are here in Church today. They point you to the body and blood of the Lamb on the altar. They watch over you at the Lord's command. They will gather you to Abraham's bosom when you die. They will keep you safe until the Day of our Lord Jesus, the Day when He comes with His angels to raise you bodily from the dead and give you eternal life. And then you too will behold the face of your heavenly Father, with the angels.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit