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). Continue reading “Angels, Help Us”
