at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

Well, we’ve been talking about angels this morning, and here are some quotes from children about angels:

Five year old Gregory says “I only know the names of two angels: Hark and Harold.”

Henry, age 8, says “My guardian angel helps me with math, but he’s not much good for science.”

Mitchell, who is 7, has it all figured out: “Angels work for God and watch over kids when God has to go do something else.”

Angels are perhaps the most visible part of our religion in American culture. Everywhere you turn, you see angels: not just angel pins and angel earrings, but also angel pictures, angel figurines, TV shows on angels, and books on angels. In fact, Amazon.com lists almost half a million books with angels in the title.

Nearly all spiritual traditions believe that spirits can come to teach and help and guard us. Some experience angels as an external reality, like the angels that come to the shepherds in the field. Some experience angels as an internal reality, a sense of presence or an inner insight. Angels come in many forms, or they can come disguised. The point is, God is saying to us, “I’m here; I’m present in your life.”

This is the time of year where angels come out in full force – on Christmas cards, on top of the Christmas tree, in our manger scenes, in our Christmas pageants.

It is said that in America, more people believe in angels than in God. Perhaps a commercialized, saccharine and soothing angel is more appealing than God, who just might transform your life.

But angels do not take the place of God. It is important to remember that it is not the angels themselves who are important, but the messages they bring from God. Throughout scripture, angels are God’s messengers.

That is certainly true in the Christmas story. In this morning’s lesson from the Gospel of Luke, an angel comes to old Zechariah and says, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah… your wife will bear you a son and you will name him John…” John, who serves as a forerunner to Jesus, a son who becomes known as John the Baptist.

An angel comes to a young maiden named Mary, saying “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”

An angel comes to Joseph in a dream and says, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”

An angel comes to the shepherds in the field, saying “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy.”

Do you notice that every time an angel shows up in the Christmas story, so do the words “Do not be afraid”? That’s because in scripture, angels are not the fluffy, cherubic, and non-threatening entities that our culture has reduced them to. Indeed, the angel encounters in the Christmas story are fairly terrifying; that is why the angel says, “Do not be afraid.” And those words don’t just calm fears; they also bring hope. Don’t be afraid. God is with you. Everything will be alright.

Angels bring hope into our lives. Hope – that’s what we celebrate on this first Sunday of Advent.

And in scripture, angels don’t come just in dreams or in flashes of light; and they don’t appear just in the Christmas story.

In the Old Testament, the Lord appears to Abraham as a man who tells him that he and his wife Abraham will have a son [Genesis 18:1-15].

In the Gospel of Mark [16:1-4], on the first Easter morning when the women enter the empty tomb, they see a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and – as people usually are when they encounter an angel – they are alarmed.

And the author of Hebrews tells us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that, some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

And for us, we just might find angels if we go looking for them.

I want to share with you a couple of stories, and then I’m going to ask you if you have ever had an angel experience.

Here’s the first story:¹

A two-year-old boy falls into the deep end of pool at his house. His mother, who cannot swim, is on the other side and has to run around the pool to get to where he is. As she prepares to jump in – remember, she can’t swim – she hears a calm voice in her right ear saying, “Don’t go in the water.” She listens to the voice, and instead of jumping into the pool, she gets on her knees and leans down, reaching into the water. She is able to grab her son by his hair and pull him up out of the water. He is scared, but fine. The mom looks around to see who it was who whispered in her ear, but she sees no one, and she is convinced that the words have come from an angel. There is no doubt in her mind that if she had gone into the water that day, both she and her son would have drowned.

Here’s another story:

A 23- year-old man must undergo reconstructive surgery on his face due to cancer he had when he was a boy. The surgery has never been done before, and the surgeon doesn’t know what the outcome will be.

After the surgery, the doctor comes into the waiting room to see the parents and begins to weep. “Someone was moving my hands,” says the surgeon, and they all begin to cry, because they all know they have experienced God through an angel.

One more story:

A grandmother takes her toddler grandson shopping. As she is loading her parcels into the car, her grandson gets away and begins to run off through the parking lot. He is just about to step off the curb into the path of an oncoming truck when an elderly gentleman appears from nowhere, scoops him up and places him in the arms of the grandmother. She holds the little boy tightly for a moment and then looks up to thank the man, but he has vanished. The woman is convinced that the man was really an angel.

So how about you? Do any of you have any angel stories?…

Angels are not just confined to the Christmas story or the holy scriptures. They don’t always have wings and come in a flash of light. Angels are God’s messengers, and that’s what we can be to others, being with others in their time of need, reaching out with a helping hand, calming people’s fears, and bringing hope.

One last story: A family returns from the Christmas pageant, and as the little girl heads off to bed, she stops to open a window and look out. Her dad says, “Why did you open that window. Don’t you know the furnace is on? Our heating bill is going to go sky high.” The child responds, “But Daddy, I thought I heard the angels singing.” “I don’t hear any angels and you don’t either,” responds Dad. “Now go to bed this minute.” The little girl pauses and then turns toward her father. “Daddy, you have to listen with your heart if you want to hear the angels singing.”

On this Advent Sunday of Hope, as we begin our journey toward Bethlehem, let us listen with our hearts for the angels’ song. May we remember that we can be conduits of God’s hope, God’s love, and God’s message. During this season, if you go looking for angels, remember that it could be someone as ordinary as you or me, through whom God does extraordinary things. Amen.

¹ All stories are from www.thoughts-about-god.com/angels