Is there an angel watching over me?

Rev. John Newton
Psalm 8:3-5; Revelation 5:11-13; Luke 15:10
1 October 1995 (Trinity 16)

"Is there an angel watching over me?" This is one of the questions which were submitted to us over the summer when we asked what were some of the questions which, if you had the opportunity, you would like to put before God. For some reason angels have become a hot topic in our society today. Everywhere you go, you are apt to see magazine articles, coffee table books, wall hangings and prints depicting angels. We read of people who claim to have seen angels and hear them interviewed on radio and television talk shows.

But who are the angels? What do they do? Are they really those blonde-haired creatures with long, white robes and feathered wings, who hover in the clouds plucking idly at their harp strings? Or are we talking about something different? Can we even believe in angels? Perhaps we should put them in the same category as the extra-terrestrial visitors in those fuzzy photographs in the tabloids, snapped for the most part (it seems to me) by cross-eyed hog farmers in Minnesota. I have to admit that my training in the sciences leaves me somewhat skeptical about UFOs and such. Yet my faith as a Christian leads me to approach the subject of angels with a degree of reverence.

The reason for this is that, unlike extra-terrestrials, angels are not only the subjects of TV talk shows and tabloid headlines. Their existence has been traditionally acknowledged by Christian believers down through the centuries. Thus 29 September is recognized as the feast of St Michael and All Angels and is a "red letter day" or major festival in the calendar of our Anglican Communion. More significantly, angels are to be found on numerous occasions in the Bible. And so in this morning's sermon, it is my intention not to indulge in speculation about angelic beings, but to examine what the Scriptures have to tell us about them.

Some basic cautions

It is important to begin our discussion of angels, I believe, with at least three qualifications. My computer informs me that the word "angel" occurs in 305 times throughout the whole of the Bible. To place this in the wider context of the whole of Scripture, the words "wise" and "wisdom" occur 404 times, "just" and "justice" occur 527 times and "love" 551 times. This suggests that angels are not a subject of primary importance to the biblical authors. Yes, they acknowledge their existence, but these authors are far from preoccupied with them. Their concerns are much more with issues of truth and integrity, mercy and faithfulness. Their central concern is to help people like you and me into a relationship with God that brings meaning to our daily lives.

It is helpful also to recognize that the word for "angel" both in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and in the Greek of the New really means no more than "messenger". As such, it does not necessarily have any supernatural implications. Thus, when John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to inquire whether he really was the Messiah, the word in Greek is angelloi - "angels". Jesus used the same word of John the Baptist himself when he referred to him as the messenger (angellos) whom God sent to prepare the way for him.
The third thing is that angels are not always as easily identified in the Bible as one might think. There are times when it is difficult to discern whether we are in the presence of an angel or of God himself. On other occasions, it seems that angels are hardly distinguishable from human beings. (But that should not surprise us, since the Bible tells us that God has made us but little lower than the angels and crowned us with glory and honour.) Take, for example, the occasion in the story of Abraham when the patriarch received three visitors outside his tent by the oaks of Mamre. They are described initially as "men". Yet it is evident that these were not mere mortals. Abraham treated them with a deference and a respect which were far beyond the ordinary. And they came to him with a message that was clearly divine: "About this time next year your wife Sarah will have a son." (Remember that Sarah was reputed to be more than eighty years of age.) Even more strangely, as the incident draws to a close, one of th visitors is described no longer as a man, but as "the Lord" - that is, "Yahweh", the name which belongs to God alone. Later it is these three "men" who bring down destruction on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Or what about that strange occurrence in the life of Jacob, as he attempted to gather the strength to cross the River Jabbok to meet with his vengeful brother Esau? There he wrestled with one whom the Bible describes as a "man" from dusk till dawn. In the course of the fight he dislocated Jacob's hip and it was only as he stood breathless and in pain that Jacob recognized that his opponent was no mortal. Indeed he named the place where it happened Peniel (which means "face of God") "because", he said, "I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared." In both of these accounts the Bible leaves us with the lingering question, "With whom (or perhaps more accurately, 'with what') did these men meet? Were they men or angels or God himself?" The answer is not easy to discern. And if the Bible is not clear on the subject of angels, it suggests that we must be careful about being dogmatic on the subject ourselves.

The role of angels

This having been said, angels can be found in the Bible fulfilling four general roles: bearing the message of God, protecting the people of God, implementing the judgement of God and offering worship to God. We have already seen how the three angels (if that is in fact what they were) brought to Abraham the message that Sarah was going to give birth. This was to be the fulfilment of the long-awaited promise of God that Abraham was to be the father of a nation whose people would be as numerous as the stars of the sky.

In the New Testament it was an angel who brought to Mary the news that she was to be the mother of God's anointed servant, the Messiah. Later it was angels who announced to the shepherds in the fields that the Saviour-King had been born and that they would curiously find him asleep in a cattle trough. It was angels who related the good news to the women at the empty tomb on the first Easter morning, that Jesus had been raised from death. And it was angels (although once again the Bible describes them only as men) who stood by the disciples as Jesus parted from them for the last time, and who said to them, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Angels, then, as we have seen that the very word implies, are message bearers. Secondly, they are found protecting the people of God. Some of you may be familiar with the story of Joshua, who succeeded Moses in bringing the people of Israel into the land which God had promised to them. At one point Joshua stood beneath the impregnable fortress-city of Jericho. He knew it was critical for his armies to take this city, yet he had no idea how to do it. As he walked in puzzlement, he saw a man in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. The imposing figure was none other than the commander of the Lord's armies - all the hosts of heaven - and as Joshua fell in reverence before him he discovered that it was he, and not the armies of Israel, who would bring Jericho into their hands.

Or are you familiar with the story of the prophet Elisha's servant, who got up early one morning to see that the entire city had been surrounded by the horses and chariots and armies of a hostile foe? In a panic he ran to his master and reported what he had seen. Elisha replied by assuring him, "Don't be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who ar ewith them." Then he prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes that he may see." When the servant looked this time, he was amazed to see that the hills were filled with horses and chariots of fire.

A third role which the Bible assigns to angels is that of executing the judgement of God. In the Book of Revelation John is given a vision of seven angels who are commissioned to pour out seven bowls of God's wrath upon the earth. And in the gospels Jesus himself warns, "The Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done."

Fourthly, we find the angels engaged in the worship of God. The Book of Job speaks lyrically of the morning stars singing together and all the angels shouting for joy at the creation. The psalms call upon the angels and all the heavenly host to praise the Lord. Of course the greatest vision of the worship of the angels is given to us in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation.

There with John we hear the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. ... In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!" So inspiring is their song that all creation joins in with them to sing, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!"

A greater thought

Where does all this discussion of angels lead us? I have to admit that for one thing we still have not answered the original question, "Is there an angel watching over me?" Certainly the Bible speaks of angels watching over the churches. And Jesus assures us that little children have their angels in heaven.

It may be a comforting thought for many to sense that they have a guardian angel. Yet the Bible gives us a far greater thought. That is that God himself is watching over you and that God has planned a destiny for you that is greater even than what he has planned for his heavenly beings. The promise to you and to me is that, if we open our lives to Christ, one day we shall with the angels see him in all his heavenly splendour. And even more wonderfully we shall be made like him. We shall share in his unimaginable glory. Right now we are a little lower than the angels. One day we shall surpass them in glory as the brilliance of the sun surpasses the glow of a tiny candle.

That is why Jesus tells us that "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents". For it is as we turn from ourselves and from our sin and turn to God that that process of transformation begins in us. As we think about angels this morning, may it help our minds to dwell on what is far more important: that we may know the God who created all this is, visible and invisible, and that with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven we may offer our praise to him, offer ourselves to him in worship and in trust.

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