The vast majority of Christian art gives us angels that are just a little too sweet for my taste. You have cherubs which look like chubby little babies with wings. You have angels with halos and harps sitting on clouds talking about what it used to be like when they were humans. And yet the Bible describes angels as fierce and holy beings. When a cherub is described in the Bible it is with a flaming sword, it is a part of a heavenly army. There are Seraphim in the Bible which have six wings and surround the throne of God. There are heavenly beings described in the Bible that don’t have human form. Whenever angels appear the first words out of their mouths are “do not be afraid” which tells me that those who come in contact with them have much to be afraid for. I’m not sure I’d want to come in contact with an angel. The terror that people experience when they come in contact with them would probably be a bit too much for me. And worse, if an angel appeared to me, this angel would probably have a message for me; a message from God. And there’s something intimidating about hearing from God in such a direct and obvious way.
So no, I’d much rather just listen and hear God the regular ways, through scripture, prayer, Christian community and church. No angels for me, thank you.
But there is something powerful about the idea of receiving a message from an angel. There is something powerful about having that direct connection to God. So, if God did choose to speak to me through an angel, I know I would be terrified. I know that I would freak out. But I also know that I would be changed, I would be made new, and I would have to follow whatever message the angel gave me.
I. Messengers from God
This advent season we are talking about what it means to believe. We have focused on belief in God and his promises. We have reminded ourselves that belief is more than just accepting a group of facts about him as being true. Belief is trusting God. It is changing the way you live because you trust God. It is accepting his word and his promises at face value. Belief is living the life of trust, the life of hope, the life of love. Belief is trusting God to work not only in this world but work in you and through you.
Today, as we prepare for Christmas this coming Saturday, I want to talk about one of the staples of the Christmas story: the angels. There’s something about angels that captures the imagination: the wings, the radiance, having been in God’s very presence. There’s something spectacular about them, and the Christmas story is one of the places where they are most obvious in the Bible. And it just wouldn’t be complete without a couple angels in it.
But before we begin to talk about the angels and the shepherds, I need to do something which I don’t like to do. I’m going to talk about language, and I’m going to ruin a word for you. And it’s an important word, too. What do you think of when I say the word angel? I already described some of the things that go with our ideas of angels: wings, halos, harps, white robes, radiance and glory. But technically, we need to look at what an angel is as described in the Bible, and we will discover that many of these things melt away. At its most basic, an angel is a messenger from God. That is what the word means, and whenever the heavenly host are described in the Bible as angels they are bringing a message from God. The appearance of the heavenly host in the Bible are too many to list, but lets look at a couple examples. In Genesis 3 we see Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden after disobeying the only command the God has given them. And we all know that angels are set up at the edges of the garden to keep them out with flaming swords, right? Well, these heavenly beings are not bringing a message so they are not referred to as angels in Genesis 3, but as Cherubim. Abraham is visited by angels regularly throughout his life, sometimes they have messages for him, sometimes it is the Lord himself who appears to Abraham. But more often than not, these heavenly messengers are called angels by the Bible. In Genesis 19 angels come to Sodom to rescue Lot from the destruction that will appear. Here again they are bringing a message so they are referred to as angels. Some of the prophets saw angels throughout their ministries and were given messages from God by them, others saw up into heaven and saw God sitting on the throne with heavenly beings serving him there, they were referred to as Cherubim and Seraphim. In the Christmas story we come across angels a number of times. Gabriel (described as an angel) appears to Zechariah to tell him about his coming son. Gabriel also comes to Mary and we are told that an angel appears to Joseph as well (we aren’t told whether this is Gabriel also). An angel comes to tell the shepherds about Jesus’ birth and an angel warns Joseph to flee to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. Notice that each of these angels brought a message from God. At the resurrection, we see angels share the news with the disciples at the gravesite: letting the world know that he has risen. And when Jesus ascends into heaven, angels tell the disciples to disperse.
Angels are messengers. If we truly believe the Bible, we believe that there are heavenly beings. There is no question of that. But the word angel really shouldn’t be the catch-all phrase to talk about them. Instead, we should refer to them as the heavenly host or heavenly beings or something.
What’s the point of this distinction? Why am I spending so much energy on this? Because we let ourselves get caught up in the messenger instead of listening to the message. The heavenly host aren’t the important thing. What is important is the message they bring. They make this clear again and again. So whenever you are reading your Bible and it mentions angels, look for a message from God. Instead of focusing on the miracle of seeing an angel… focus on the miracle of the message that the angel brings. This changes our reading of the Bible. In Matthew 4, when Jesus is tempted, we are told that after the devil failed and left Jesus, angels came and attended him. I always took this to mean that heavenly being came and offered comfort and strength after a grueling fast and a difficult bout with the devil. I pictured the angels like the trainers in a boxing match who came up to him afterward and bandaged his wounds. No, they are referred to as angels here, they are bringing Jesus a message from God. We aren’t told what this message is, but we know there is one. Even Jesus needed to hear a message from God some times, and when he did, God sent his messengers, angels.
But here, in the scripture we read this morning, we have probably one of the most famous stories of angels that we find in the Bible. Here we have a group of shepherds hanging out in their fields at night, watching over their sheep. And an angel appears. So, let us focus not on the fact that angels are appearing and instead let us look at what it is that the angel is saying: “Do not be afraid.” He needs to get that out of the way first of all. “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” The angel is sharing the message from God with a group of shepherds. Now shepherds were not the most reliable people of the day, they were probably given to boredom and were definitely known for making up stories. So a group of shepherds going around telling people what they had heard probably were dismissed by most people as being outlandish. But that doesn’t make what they shared any less real. It doesn’t make the message that they received any less important. God chose, at the birth of Jesus, to share this information with a group of shepherds. Someone needed to celebrate this wonderful even in the life of the world. God becoming man, Jesus being born was too important to just slip by without any fanfare. But at the same time there was a humility in the way the Jesus was born that cannot be denied, so God sent his heavenly beings to be angels, messengers, to these shepherds. And the outcast celebrated at the birth of Jesus.
II. Praising God
There is something else that happens when we play this semantics game, when we pay attention to what the Bible is calling the heavenly beings as they show up on earth. It helps us understand what was going on on Christmas night a bit better. These shepherds were out in their fields and a single angel comes and gives them a message. But then a great company of the heavenly host appear with the angel, and they begin praising God. They aren’t called angels at this point. They aren’t bringing a message from God. They’re just there praising God, and the shepherds have the opportunity to see this. This gathering of heavenly beings is not a show. It is not a concert. The heavenly choir did not practice and prepare for their big night where they would be presenting a concert to a group of shepherds. No, what is happening here is that the heavenly host are praising God through song, something that happens quite regularly throughout the Bible, and the shepherds are just getting the opportunity to see it. The shepherds have been invited to a heavenly worship service. The shepherds are getting a taste of the joy of heaven, they are experiencing something that is real, that is unrehearsed, that is a part of heavenly celebration. The heavenly host celebrated when Jesus was born. They partied. They sang. They knew something big was going on and they responded by praising God. The angels were singing their praise songs and the shepherds were excited by the opportunity to listen.
And the shepherds felt the need to follow up on the message that they had been given. They felt the need to see this thing that the angel had told them about. They went to meet the baby king, the Messiah, lying in a manger.
Now verse 15 sorta messes with the semantics by referring to them all as angels after they had left, but even if they weren’t specifically sharing a message, even if they were just celebrating, the fact that the shepherds could see them allowed a message to be made known through them. Our worship services aren’t evangelistic in nature. They aren’t designed to get people to know Christ. They are designed for those who already know God to worship, praise and pray to him. They are designed so that those who know God can learn about how to better follow him. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have the ability to reach out to those who need to hear God’s message.
III. Being God’s Messengers
My confirmation students and I were talking about the resurrection last Sunday and we talked about the fact that we aren’t going to be turning into angels when we died. We aren’t going to get wings and harps and little halos over our heads. We aren’t going to sit around on clouds all day wearing togas made of white sheets. We don’t go from being earthly beings to heavenly beings. We remain as human beings. We will have physical bodies, resurrected bodies, but they will be different, they will be glorious. But in explaining this to my Confirmation class, I made a grave error, for I told them that we would not, could not, be angels. I was wrong. You see, we are all called to be angels at times. And we don’t need to wait until we die to do this. We are called as God’s people to share the message of God with those around us. We are called as God’s people to be angels. And I think we are given a good example in the story of the Christmas night as to how to do this. The angels didn’t go to kings, they didn’t go to businessmen, they didn’t come to the innkeeper or priests or anyone important. They came to outcasts, they came to the working men out in the fields. These are the people they shared their message with. We are called to do the same. We are called to share the message that God gives us with those who are outcast, those who need to hear the message. We aren’t ordered to go to those who will be believed, we aren’t ordered to go to the important people. Sometimes, as God’s messengers, we are called to go to those who we do not see as important, to those who will never be believed. God cares about the outcast. God cares about those who need him. And yet, these are the people we want nothing to do with. But these are the kind of people the angels came to at the birth of Jesus.
Throughout his life, Jesus continued to surprise those who he came in contact with because he didn’t pay attention to the rules that the world had set up. He spent time with prostitutes and tax collectors. He ate with sinners. Good people aren’t supposed to do this, but Jesus did anyway. This is such an important part of Jesus’ ministry that it cannot be underestimated. And it is something that began at his birth as God’s messengers came to outcasts to share with them the good news of Jesus’ birth.
Are we going to be God’s messengers? Are we going to learn from the message of the angels? Are we going to share God’s good news with all those around us who need to hear it? So, today I ask you to believe in angels, to believe in God’s messengers. And more than that, believe that you can be one of God’s messengers. You can share his word with the world around you, in the most unlikely of places. He will give you the message. He will give you the strength. Be a messenger with the Good News of what God has done for you, of what God has done for this world. Amen.
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