Trinity 15 (29 September 2019)
Prof Patricia Broadfoot
John 1.47-51, Revelation 12.7-12
St Michael and All Angels, Wickwar
Today is the feast of St Michael and All Angels. I wonder what you think about angels? Or indeed if you think about them at all! They don’t seem to be a very fashionable subject these days.
What do we know about angels?
They are often depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between God and heaven or humanity. Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out tasks on behalf of God.
The New Testament includes many interactions and conversations between angels and humans. For instance, three separate cases of angelic interaction deal with the births of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. In Luke 1:11, an angel appears to Zechariah to inform him that he will have a child despite his old age, thus proclaiming the birth of John the Baptist. In Luke 1:26 the Archangel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary in the Annunciation to foretell the birth of Jesus. Angels then proclaim his birth in the Adoration of the Shepherds in Luke 2:10. According to Matthew 4:11, after Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, "...the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him." In Luke 22:43 an angel comforts Jesus during the agony in the garden. In Matthew 28:5 an angel speaks at the empty tomb, following the Resurrection and the rolling back of the stone by angels.
Today, we are thinking specifically about Archangel Michael. In the passage we read from the Book of Revelation, St Michael is taken to be the heavenly representative of the people of God. In metaphorical language the passage gives us a picture of the fight between good and evil, evil which, as we believe, has been ‘conquered by the blood of the lamb ... and by the witness of the martyrs who were faithful ‘even in the face of death’. So from verse 10:
Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Messiah
But I think it’s important too, to think about the last few words of the passage:
But woe to the earth and the sea,
for the devil has come down to you
with great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short!
Why do I dwell on this vision from Revelation? Not just because it’s the Festival of St Michael, but rather because it seems to me to have a particular pertinence today.
We are living through a time of great political upheaval in our own country. But there is another, even more fundamental conflict, going on, a conflict that we are all becoming increasingly aware of – the battle to ensure the future of our planet and of God’s wonderful creation in the face of the depredations being wreaked on the natural world by humanity’s greed and carelessness. The teenage campaigner, Greta Thunberg, recently told the United Nations Assembly, what is becoming increasingly clear to all of us from scientific reports. That our planet is heading for disaster unless we act quickly and comprehensively to address our CO2 emissions and change our lifestyles radically.
As well as the specific Festival of St Michael and All Angels we are in the season designated within the Anglican Church as ‘Creationtide’. (1st of September to 4th of October) the time when traditionally, we celebrate Harvest Festival. It is a time to consider the battle being fought by our wonderful creation.
Let us focus briefly on water. The Christian environmental charity, A Rocha, writes:
‘Water is life’ seems the best way to sum up what water means to humans and other creatures. Water makes up 70-90% of all living cells. We are born in water, we drink it, wash in it, use it for transport, irrigation, recreation, food gathering and hydro-electric power. Water has a central place in all of the world’s major religions (in the Bible there are over 500 references to water – more than to worship or prayer!). Freshwater ecosystems cover only 1% of the earth’s surface but are home to 12% of all animal species. Over the last century, human demand for fresh water has grown at double the rate of population growth. It’s predicted that two-thirds of the world’s population will experience water stress by 2025. In the Bible, water is a powerful symbol for the life that God’s spirit brings. Water is also portrayed as an agent – God cares for all creatures by providing them with water (e.g. Psalm 104:10-16). Thus, God’s coming kingdom is a place of abundant clean water – the desert blooms (Isaiah 35) and a life-giving river flows through God’s city (Revelation 22).
More generally, in her 1960’s book, Silent Spring, Rachel Carson paints an apocalyptic vision of the future, a silent spring where no birds sing and children, stricken with illness, no longer play. The book is a critique of humanity’s arrogance expressed in three ways: man’s attempt to subdue and control nature; man’s indifference to nature and failure to recognise man’s survival is wholly dependent on it, and finally, man’s belief nature exists only to serve man.
As Albert Schweitzer has said, ‘Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.’
We can remind ourselves that the Anglican Communion has five ‘Marks of Mission’ often abbreviated to TELL – TEACH – TEND – TRANSFORM – TREASURE.
The 5th Mark of Mission is: To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.
There can be no doubt about our responsibility. The 85 million Anglicans worldwide in over 165 countries share a common home and a common commitment to care for our God given earth. But many of our sisters and brothers are already dramatically affected by climate change. Our futures are interconnected, and we need each other.
In the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby:
As people of faith, we must not just state our beliefs – we must live them out...The ethical crisis of climate change is an opportunity to find purpose and joy, and to respond to our Creator’s charge. Reducing the causes of climate change is essential to the life of faith. It is a way to love our neighbour and to steward the gift of creation.
He cites the Archbishop of the Congo and Bishop of Kindu:
A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.
Let us get back to the angels. At the beginning I said that one of the roles of angels is carrying out tasks on behalf of God. We don’t have to be divine to be ‘angels’. We all know ordinary human beings who we would describe as ‘angels’ because they are such wonderful people. I believe we are being called urgently as people of God to become ‘creation angels’, people who recognise our responsibility for God’s creation; people who fight for justice for all God’s people in the face of such unprecedented threat to their livelihoods. The Diocese of Gloucester has made a commitment to supporting individual churches on the road to becoming carbon -neutral, as well as a number of other commitments such as a substantial tree-planting campaign.
The message of Creationtide is that as Christians we are called ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’
There is a lot we can do here and now. As St Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, so we too must fight; as individuals, as churches and as a benefice we are being called to be the angels that do God’s will, angels that fight to sustain the wonderful world that God has given us.