Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
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We don't get to preach all that often here at Holy Cross Monastery. With seven or eight or more brothers preaching on Sundays and major feasts, opportunities are limited. But here I am again assigned to preach on this feast of Saint Michael and all Angels. It turns out that I've preached on this feast at least three times in the last decade or so. What more is there to say? I've looked at all our past sermons for this feast which are on our monastery website, including three by me, and all these sermons are interesting and provocative. It's very tempting to want to lift one and just read it. And that would be fine…except that was then and this is now. The world has changed and we have changed, and once again we have to ask what angels have to do with us today.
Probably most of us aren’t aware of it, but we are in what is called in church circles the Season of Creation. This is an annual observance for Christians endorsed by the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch and Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the World Council of Churches and many other church bodies inviting us to focus our attention on the created order and the many environmental crises we face, particularly the climate crisis, and to reflect on what it means for us as people of faith to care for creation. The observance began on September 1st, which is the first day of the church year for the Eastern Orthodox Christians, and concludes this Friday on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi who for us Western Christians--indeed for all Christians--draws our hearts and minds to reflect upon our embeddedness in creation.
The theme for this year’s Season of Creation is “To
hope and act with Creation.” The brief official
publicity for this year’s observance reads:
“In the letter of Paul the apostle to the
Romans, the biblical image pictures the Earth as a Mother, groaning as in
childbirth (Rom 8:22). Francis of Assisi understood this when he referred to
the Earth as our sister and our mother in his Canticle of Creatures. The times
we live in show that we are not relating to the Earth as a gift from our
Creator, but rather as a resource to be used.
“And yet, there is hope and the
expectation for a better future. To hope in a biblical context does not mean to
stand still and quiet, but rather groaning, crying, and actively striving for
new life amidst the struggles. Just as in childbirth, we go through a period of
intense pain, but new life springs forth.”
I admit that I have been slow to catch the import of all this while many of our brothers and sisters, particularly the younger ones, have been painfully aware of how we have abused and damaged our mother earth and how that abuse and damage threatens our own existence, the existence of a people made in the image of God. For me it has been the reality of climate change which impacting us so directly that is bringing me and many others to awareness, but of course the issues go beyond climate. Maybe my reluctance has something to do with what Al Gore called an inconvenient truth: that as we become aware, we realize sooner or later-- some of us much later--that we must act and that this will mean change, change in the way we live, change in the way we consume, change in the way we relate to each other and to the whole created order. Yes, in our foundational story we are given stewardship of the world. But stewardship does not mean exploitation, especially not for personal gain. Nor can it be bought at the expense of distant and powerless others. It means rather a gentle tending with mutual respect and the sharing of burdens.
There is so much to be done in this arena, and the threats that we face are so grave, that it is easy to lose hope, to feel that that we simply can't make the necessary adjustments to our lives, nor can we convince those who wield power to make those hard and costly choices. And we labor as if it were all up to us; that we must bear this burden alone, and that there is no help outside of us. It is of course accurate to say that the demands and the responsibilities are very great, and we must, each of us, begin to come to terms with them. But we are not alone in this. And here's where the angels come in.
Whatever they are, the angels represent powers greater than ourselves who work for good, who defend and protect, who serve, who promote the divine purpose, furthering God’s dream not simply for us but and for the entire universe. The angels fight for right, they are hidden messengers who both warn and encourage, who seek the good of God's creation. And they are with us in this emerging task of responsible stewardship, a task which oftentimes seems impossible. Their message to us is: “This is possible. And we are there to help.”
Over the last weeks we have been reading the Book of Job at morning prayer. There's a wonderful passage towards the end where God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind and asks: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. …On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7) These morning stars, these heavenly beings, have long been understood to be angels who comprise a kind of chorus encouraging God on in the primal process of creation. I like to think that they have a similar role to play today in overseeing that same creation, making sure that we don't mess it up hopelessly, that we don’t make an end of it or destroy it and ourselves. Perhaps today our invitation is to call on the angels to help us in the work creation care, calling on their aid as we begin, however haltingly, to hope and act with Creation and not over against it. That in a nutshell is my message for the feast of Saint Michael and all Angels in this year of our Lord 2024.
I conclude with two quotations which I find helpful.
The first is from the Anglican Church of Canada’s resource for feast days
titled For All the Saints. It says of today’s feast:
Many good and faithful
Christians find it difficult to accept the existence of angels; for them,
angels have no more reality in fact than unicorns, griffins, or the phoenix. It
may be true that the existence of angels is not one of the things in which
Christians must believe if they want to be saved. Yet whenever Christians say
the Nicene Creed, they confess that God has created “all that is, seen and
unseen.” Entertaining the possibility of angels may be one way of acknowledging
the sheer diversity of life, visible and invisible, that God has ordained in
creation.
The second quote is a little grittier. It comes from
the conclusion of a sermon our late beloved Brother Andrew Colquhoun preached
here in 2011 on this very feast. Never one to mince words, Andrew says:
“Maybe I’m verging too far on superstition.
“But I
don’t care. If you don’t believe in the angels, then for Christ’s sake become
one. Become a healer, and a proclaimer; become a warrior against hunger
and hopelessness and evil. Be a Light Bearer in the darkness around us.
“Do that
for Love’s sake and believe me, you will find yourself on the side of the
Angels…you will be Messengers of God, bearers of good tidings, protectors and
lovers of God and God’s people. And the angels will rejoice!
“That’s
probably good enough!”
You
bet it is, Andrew. You bet it is.
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