Angels, Help Us

Text: Revelation 12:12
Date: St. Michael and All Angels + 9/29/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, and all His angels with Him (Matt 25:31).

“This feast commemorating the angels has been placed in the church’s calendar…for the sake of all Christians, so that they might train themselves to think about the beloved angels and thank God for appointing these mighty lords to be his servants for us.”[1] So began Martin Luther in a sermon on this day in 1532. We do not think about the angels or preach about them very often, unless, that is, you pray Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers each ending with the words, “Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.” But though we rarely think about the angels we sing with them all the time in the Divine Service! We sing their Christmas song in the Gloria in Excelsis, “Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” And we sing with them and all the company of heaven every Sunday in the words first heard by the prophet Isaiah, the eternal Sanctus, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.” In our day we have even added the Dignus es from the book of Revelation, “Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain,” “This is the feast of victory for our God.” So let us consider God’s angels on this day that we may be the more assured of our deliverance from the attacks and onslaughts of the devil and, with all the angels, more clearly and “always see the face of [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matt 18:10).

The angels are created, living beings with personalities and even, in some cases we know of, with names: Michael, Gabriel, and from the apocrypha, Raphael. More like us creatures than like God the Creator, the angels are not omnipresent but local beings (being in only one place at a time). They have intelligence and will but do not have physical bodies. (They think humans are “cool,” as we have both soul or spirit and participate in the physical creation.)

To sharpen our understanding let us consider the all-too-common false idea regarding the souls of our human Christian relatives and friends who have gone before us through the gate of death and the grave. For some reason, probably part of the grieving over death, you often hear people say of their departed father, mother, brother, sister, friend or coworker, “I know that he or she is looking down on us now.” This is nothing but assigning to the departed soul a sort of omniscience that is the sole attribute of God Himself. The Bible is very clear that, first, the souls of unbelievers are kept in prison, a place of punishment (1 Pet 3:19-20). But secondly, the souls of believers are in God’s hand, dwelling with Christ in Paradise. Most importantly the Bible assures us that the blissful state of the faithful departed is not ruined by any knowledge of particular things or happenings in this sinful world anymore as it says in Isaiah 63, “though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us” (Is 63:16). This is also why though we are told that the saints in heaven pray for the Church, we do not pray or think to communicate with them, much less they with us as with so-called patron saints. As our Lord said in His story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, “between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us” (Luke 16:26).

That being said, the question for us today is this. If the saints, the faithful departed are blissfully unaware of any happenings on earth, how can we explain the involvement of the angels? For they are appearing all over the place in Holy Scripture having interactions with God’s people to this day. As we heard in today’s Second Reading, some of the angels fell away from God into sin. The good angels are those who remained “very good” as God declared at Creation, and are now confirmed in the good that they can no longer sin and fall away. It is because of (as we say) their constant “beatific vision of God” that they can interact with Christians in time, on earth quite unaffected by our sin other than of the attacks of “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world [who was] thrown down to the earth” (Rev 12:9). It is against him that they fight for us and guard us (Ps 91:11), unless, that is, God withdraws their presence at times for His own purpose of drawing us closer to Him in repentance and faith. And, we know, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

Today our Lord says, “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” But you, dear Christian, do not be afraid, for God sends His angels to ward off danger to body and soul in this life, in this “good fight” of faith. He sends His angels to serve the children, the dying and the church at worship. Therefore our prayer today is in the words of the hymn, “Angels, help us to adore Him” (LSB 793).

They respond by always pointing us to Jesus. For it is because of His holy life—“and the angels were ministering to him” (Mark 1:13)—and it is by His sacrificial death and mighty resurrection—“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5-6); it is by your holy baptism into His death and resurrection; it is by the Word constantly in your faithful hearing; it is by His body and blood touching your mouth; it is because you belong to Christ that you are surrounded by the mighty angels of God, protecting you from all harm, rejoicing in your repentance and faith, leading you in reverent worship around God’s throne and, finally, gently carrying you to be with the Lord at your last day.

Lord, let at last Thine angels come,
To Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home,
That I may die unfearing. (LSB 708)

Ye watchers and ye holy ones,

Bright seraphs, cherubim, and thrones,
Raise the glad strain: “Alleluia!”
Cry out, dominions, princedoms, pow’rs,
Virtues, archangels, angels’ choirs: “Alleluia!” (LSB 670)

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, and all His angels with Him.