i-Llan: 29th September 2024 – angels

The feast of Michaelmas prompts thoughts about angels

Some links mentioned in the podcast
text of i-Llan for Easter 2024

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Which angels are mentioned by name in the Bible?
Michael, the warrior, and Gabriel, the messenger, are named in the Bible.
Raphael and Uriel are mentioned in the apocrypha.
The Bible also names Satan, the angel who rebelled and is also known as Lucifer, the light-bearer.St Michael's Victory over the Devil
 The picture shows part of St Michael's Victory over the Devil, the 1958 bronze sculpture by Jacob Epstein at Coventry Cathedral. St Michael holds his spear upright, not pointing at his captive with aggression, or intention of revenge.

Some angelic stories

• The banishment from Eden – Genesis 3. 24
• Abraham’s visitors (as in the Rublev icon) – Genesis 18
• Jacob’s ladder – Genesis 28. 10-17
• Balaam and his donkey – Numbers 22
• A protective ring around the prophet Elisha – 2 Kings 6. 17

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Transcript

Welcome to i-Llan, a podcast connecting faith, life and Scripture. This episode is about angels.

How do you picture angels? I imagine wings are a given, and probably a white garment.

When I searched for an image, I was surprised to find the pictures were mostly female. Yet in the Bible, when angels manifest in human form, they do so as men (if gender is even mentioned). 

The idea of angels, spiritual beings who communicate with God and humans, has been taken up in New Age philosophies, and there is a lot that I would be cautious about. But, belief in angels is common to all the Abrahamic faiths and, while I avoid becoming preoccupied, I do take them seriously.
 Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1. 14) 

29th September is the feast of Michaelmas, St Michael and all Angels, which prompts me to offer some thoughts about angels.

First, angels are messengers. The greek, angelos, means a messenger, and the word ‘evangelist’ derives from that. From early in the Bible there are stories of angels sent to humans with messages from God. We are most familiar with Gabriel sent to Mary with the invitation to become Jesus’s mother (Luke 1. 26 - 38), and the angels who appeared to the shepherds at Bethlehem to announce Jesus’s birth (Luke 2. 8 - 20). Angels tell the grieving women at Jesus’s tomb that ‘He is not here, but has risen’ (Luke 24. 5).

I see no reason why angels should not still bring messages, though we may not recognise them as angels. Equally, we, too, can be evangelists carrying the message of God’s love and care.

Second, angels protect. Michael, one of the archangels mentioned in the Bible, leads the angelic armies.
And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven (Revelation 12. 7-8). 

Angels are formidable.
 He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire (Hebrews 1. 7).
 They appear as protective guardians in particular situations (see the list below), while the book of Daniel describes Michael as the protector of the people of Israel (Daniel 12. 1). But Jesus also suggests that children each have their own ‘guardian angel’, when he says,
 ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven (Matthew 18.10).
I imagine that such angels are gentle as well as strong. As Jesus warns, we, too, have a role in protecting and guarding the vulnerable.

Do we lose our personal guardian angel as we grow up? I don’t know. But I do know that there have been times when I have been amazingly protected, and I still ask God to send his angels to guard and guide me in a difficult situation or a long journey. 

Third, angels praise God. Think of the skies of Bethlehem at that first Christmas, filled with ‘a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!”’ (Luke 2. 13, 14). Or Isaiah’s vision in the Temple of angels calling to one another, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isaiah 6. 3). When I am worshipping, particularly when I am with others in church, I am joining in with that praise which is continually offered in the realms of heaven. As the hymn says,
Angels, help us to adore him.
 Ye behold him face to face.

Finally, a word about death. I have been at funerals where it’s suggested we become angels when we die. To be pedantic, Jesus said we become ‘like angels’. I understand this to mean we retain our spiritual existence. But, as I wrote at Easter I think my ‘resurrection body’ will be something that is identifiably human and recognisably me. 

Angels are spiritual beings. We can be aware of their existence without having to label or define. I am not going to get caught up in pointless discussions about ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin’. But I am happy to celebrate them, and to be grateful that God, in his mercy, gives us spiritual helpers as well as human ones. And I take heed that salvation does not come from angels but from Jesus
who for a little while was made lower than the angels, [and is] now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2. 9)