The Rumour of Angels
Michaelmas: 29th September, 2000
Dr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
St Michael and All Angels.
Years ago Peter Berger's "Rumour of Angels" was a catchy title for a book from a sociologist, amidst a climate of general scepticism about the whole proposition of angels. Somewhat along that line, my dictionary of quotations tells me that JBS Haldane observed somewhat wickedly that
An angel whose muscles developed no more power weight for weight than those of an eagle or a pigeon would require a breast projecting for about four feet to house the muscles engaged in working its wings, while to economise in weight, its legs would have to be reduced to mere stilts.
This awful image will come as a great disappointment to those of us who have been raised on the glowing Victorian stained glass representations of figures such as the Archangel Michael. There is a fine one in St Matthew's Albury and also in Trinity College Chapel, Melbourne. Normally one could expect square jawed, clear eyed, and strongly built blond handsomeness and uprightness. A thoroughly good friend to have on side. A worthy emissary of the Almighty. An obvious force for good in that perennial battle.
A recent bestselling novel reworked the theme of angelic intervention in a remarkable and powerfully disturbing way. That angel, at least in appearance, was in the Victorian school.
Most of the churches I have served in have given considerable attention to the place and ministry of angels. St Peter's has a very considerable number praising God with Our Lady in the Lady Chapel, or standing guard with wings outstretched. St John's Toorak's Angel Chapel is full of them, in both wood and mosaic. Of course, no nativity scene or play anywhere is complete without several.
And whatever they might be thought to look like, the belief in angels is amply attested to in the Bible. There are many of them. They have things to do. They are certainly said to surround God in Heaven where they offer praise and do God's will. Their song accompanied the Lord's birth; they ministered to him in the wilderness. They were there at the passion and the resurrection. They were available as reinforcements. They will assist at the Second Coming. In popular understanding as well, there are some vestigial thoughts about individual watchful guardian angels.
St Michael specifically has a warrior image, either as the helper of Christian armies in their battles or as a helper for individual Christians at the time of death. He is represented with a sword standing over or fighting a dragon, as in Rev 12. In the Roman Church these days on September 29th, Michael gets third billing after Gabriel and Raphael, perhaps because of their somewhat more irenicassociations.
At All Saints' tide we rejoice and reflect on the communion of saints, the whole company of heaven that is there to populate our spiritual awareness, to encourage, to inspire and to guide. On this day, St Michael and All Angels, we also celebrate that sense of company and companionship at even more levels of meaning and understanding.
These creatures are not human; they are also not divine. Even the concept stretches the credulity quite a deal. Even with, or perhaps really because of the extraordinary level of medieval speculation about them, they are difficult to take on board intellectually. But just as for instance the image of the heavenly streets paved with gold can be understood to be an indication and illustration of God's most wonderful glory reflected in what was round about, so equally the idea of angels as messengers, worshippers, active forces in the created order working to do God's will and working to help the rest of us in the same tasks, can be understood as an indication and illustration of God's most wonderful and active reaching out to the whole of Creation. The ultimate expression of this truth was to be found in the birth of Jesus, the Christ.
So angels are important.
The idea of angels has something to say to us about community and companionship, about shared vision and varied tasks, about our not being alone either in responding to God or in facing the challenges of life.
The Scriptures tell us the story of the people of God through many centuries. The children of Israel, even the prophets who from time to time felt very exposed, the disciples, the first generation of followers of the Way - they were none of them alone. It is a corporate vision. People together, gifts together, life together, new life together. And this stretches over the generations and the centuries. The intruding into this of yet more levels of community and companionship going into other levels of meaning and the created order is not so breathtaking. We are not alone.
Christians have fallen badly when too much emphasis has been placed on the individual at the expense of the community of faith. Yes, it is the individual who must at some stage turn to Christ - the baptismal response "I turn to Christ", but it is together that "We believe..." The follower of the Lord is called to do so in the company and with the support and help of others. That includes, we believe the saints and yes even the angels of God. In common speech we have probably all declared at least one or two wonderful people in our lives to be angels. The prevailing response at work there is very often gratitude. That is also a level of appreciation and understanding that is not to be dismissed.
So today is the patronal festival for the Sisters of the Church. The name of St Michael has been spread across many countries for schools and houses and convents. This community found comfort and strength in the idea of that warrior companion. There are certainly some houses of Sisters right at this time who could do with all the help that they can get, from St Michael or an other source, as they stand in considerable physical danger. But they are not alone.
A sense of standing together with a common purpose and in a common vision of both what is and what might be, is at the heart of community life, of life together.
Now as we move into this new century, many thinking Christians are being challenged to consider again the varied ways that life together as Christians may be expressed. We are faced with the self-evident truth that for many perhaps even most in our contemporary society, the old established ways of the institutional Church are found wanting, are being discarded. The suburban church on the side street, the well tended country church, the grand cathedral may increasingly have the smell of genteel decay about them. These places of great beauty and much-loved can yet speak of protective inward looking rather than outward reaching. They can speak more of the values, attitudes and limitations of those who look after them than the One who is worshipped and followed.
We live in times when so much is under challenge. There are therefore likely to be emerging a whole new variety of ways that Christians, and more generally those who are seeking to develop the spiritual dimension of their lives, will be seeking to live this out. Places and styles of worship and response and service will emerge that are different. Some places and ways that have served well for several centuries will find their task complete. The torch though will be handed on. The idea of God, the idea of community response to the fact of God, the idea of wishing to gather in love and gratitude with others of a like mind to love and serve the Lord will continue.
Religious communities are one such response. Through the best part of the whole of our history they have formed and reformed. Very large, very small, urban, rural, contemplative, active. The re-establishment of religious orders in the Anglican Communion in the 19th and 20th centuries was very much a faith-filled response to this call, this urge. Some parish churches at their best also expressed a most apparent sense of community. In the years to come there will be yet other ways explored and tried. They may be different. There may not be habits or vows of celibacy. They may well be right on the edge of the Christian Church and yet signs of a searching and radical commitment to the claims of our God on God's creation.
And they will not be alone.
They may even be entertaining angels, unawares.
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