Angels, Faith, & Imagination
Preacher: The Rev. Heidi Haverkamp
Preached on: October 2nd, 2011
Audio:
No recordingScripture Text:
John 1:47-51, Genesis 28:10-17
Sermon:
I switched the lessons for today with the lessons for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, which is September 29. I spent the week banging my head against the wall with the Old Testament and gospel reading for today, the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost and I just couldn’t find anything in myself to preach to you about those passages. I suppose I could’ve just turned to the other New Testament passage, but when I came across the lessons for St. Michael and All Angels this Thursday during my morning prayer practice, I found that I wanted to share them with you.
The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels is one of the old feasts of the church that now seems like something out of Lord of the Rings or a fairy tale. It’s one of the few days of the church year when we get a reading with a dragon! Maybe that’s why I like it. It reminds us that imagination is as much a part of faith as belief or knowledge or behavior. Sometimes we need our imagination to help us see what we can’t with our eyes or our logical minds. Nathanael was sitting under a fig tree, minding his own business, when a man came up to him… and who knew who he was! And Nathanael’s imagination was able to make the leap, without ever having heard of Jesus – this is from the very first chapter of John, before anyone really knows who this Jesus might be – and Nathanael somehow knows, right away, who this is, standing before him.
Sometimes our imagination can help us understand the world better than evidence or reality or logic. When I look at the icon on the front of the bulletin this week, I see an angel in armor, trampling down a dragon. But I also see the power of God at work in the world, trampling down evil.
Or, a friend of mind collects children’s books about God and of bible stories, because they approach faith with more imagination than any adult books she can find.
Sometimes, instead of making a list, or doing research, or talking out loud, I need listen to music to help myself figure out a problem or a feeling I’m having.
Jacob was traveling alone and probably feeling scared, when he fell asleep and had a dream where he saw a long ladder, stretching between heaven and earth, with angels walking up and down. He heard God speaking to him in the dream, and that vision was what sustained him so that he could make his journey and then make the journey of his whole life.
The word “angel” comes from the Greek word for “messenger.” The most important thing about an angel, according to the bible anyway, isn’t that it’s cute, or good, or pretty, or angelic (!), but that it’s some kind of messenger from God. Big white puffy wings are very much optional. Angels have gotten this popular culture coating that masks their biblical fierceness and power. For instance, the word “cherub” comes from the word “cherubim,” which in the Bible aren’t little baby angels at all; they’re more like monsters: creatures with four wings, four faces, and lots of eyes. Seraphim are another kind of angel; their name means “burning ones” and they have six wings. But those are just two kinds of angels you can find descriptions for in the Bible. And again, the operative word isn’t “wings” or how many of them there are, but that an angel is a being of some kind that bridges the distance between human beings of God. They can be in human form, or nonhuman form. They can be visible or invisible. Whether or not you believe in angels, I imagine you believe that there are ways that human beings apprehend the presence of God. That there are ways we sense we are in the presence of something holy. Sometimes that presence is comforting and beautiful, and sometimes it’s fearsome and awe-inspiring.
Angels are messengers and they are also protectors. People speak of their guardian angel. In the book of Revelation, Michael and an army of angels fight Satan as a dragon. The angel of death in Exodus passes over Egypt and takes the lives of their eldest sons. In the Christian tradition, angels fight evil on behalf of humans and carry swords and spears.
How do we talk about the things we know but can’t see, what we can feel but can’t touch? Christians have always felt that good and helpful spirits in some way attend us. Maybe they are beings with their own names and characteristics, or maybe those descriptions are symbols for our imagination. I don’t know. But I do think that being aware of the ways we feel God’s presence in our daily lives is important. Many people have told me that they’ve been in the presence of an angel, sometimes in a time of great personal pain or trial, and sometimes just in the course of everyday life. Maybe you’re one of those people. Maybe you’ve felt comforted by the presence of an angel, or maybe like most people in the bible, you’ve been spooked. (The first words of an angel are usually, “Don’t be afraid.”) Maybe like me, you’re not sure you’ve ever felt anything like that.
Halloween is coming and I hope this sermon doesn’t sound like a bunch of superstition or hocus pocus. I guess I want you to leave here aware and alert to how holy messengers may be at work in your own life, whether it’s every day or once in a great while or just once in your lifetime. I want you to be aware that angels in the bible aren’t usually blonde with wings, but strange creatures with wings, eyes, and fire, seeking justice and righteousness and not just peace and comfort. I want you to believe that your imagination can be as important to your faith as your mind or your heart.
Like Nathanael, it may be that your imagination that can stretch out to meet Christ in ways your rational mind just can’t. Or that like Jacob, sometimes by falling asleep you may see and understand more of what God has in mind for you than by staying awake. Stories of angels remind us that God is always reaching toward us, that the holy is all around us, and that we creatures of God are supported and protected in ways we may not always understand.
Amen.
