Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John
Bless
the bed that I lie on
Four
corners to my bed
Four
angels there be spread
One
to watch and one to pray
And
two to bear my soul away
In
the bedtime prayers of my childhood there seemed little difference
between the evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – and the
shining guardian angels whom I was certain were my overnight
companions....
I
loved those angels, believed in them implicitly – and still, as
this feast day of St Michael and All Angels approaches, I find myself
dreaming happily of wondrous golden beings whose presence reassures
me that all is well with the world.
In
that I guess I'm in good company. Angels are hugely popular today.
Gift shops can rely on selling any number of angel trinkets...books
of angel stories walk off the shelves at a time when public interest
in more mainstream expressions of faith seems at a very low ebb.
People LIKE the idea of heavenly beings charged with taking care of
us....a reassurance that we are not on our own in a hostile universe.
But,
you know, the Biblical experience of angels is very very different.
Often
their arrival seems to be anything but reassuring – and perhaps
that's why every angelic appearance in the New Testament opens with
the words
“Don't
be afraid”
Annunciation,
Ressurrection, Ascension...
Heaven
in all its dazzling splendour breaks into our world. Time is
interrupted by eternity
It's
alarming stuff right enough – even before we've discovered quite
what it is that the angel has to say.
Just
think of the most famous angelic appearance of all.....Gabriel's
mission to Mary.
Imagine
yourself as that teenage girl, minding her own business in an obscure
corner of the Roman Empire.
Hear
those words spoken to you.
“Do
not be afraid Mary – for you have found favour with God. You will
bear a son”
BEAR
A SON!
Me?!?!
No
wonder Gabriel feels the need to begin the conversation by speaking
reassurance.
“Do
not be afraid...”
Words that suggest that he knows he
has already lost that particular battle!
And
só often that's how it seems.
Angels
break into our world as messengers of heaven – and their tidings
turn the world upside down.
Like
a stone dropped into a pond, their messages ripple outwards, touching
and changing many lives in ways we could never imagine.
Jacob
is at a pretty low ebb when he has his vision of angels
He
has cheated his brother out of his birthright, run away from home and
is sleeping rough
He's
not on retreat, attending to his soul. He's on the run. He's scared,
and he's tired. Since he has a stone for his pillow it may not be
surprising that his sleep is disturbed.....but his vision is one that
sums up the ceaseless activity of angels as they act as go-betweens
constantly carrying messages between our world and heaven.
Jacob
sees
a
stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and
the angels of God were ascending and descending on it
That's
the vision – and then Jacob hears his own good news.......that God
has a plan for him, - even fraudulent, fearful Jacob - and will not
forsake him til that plan has become a reality.
Angels
prepare us to hear of God's plans
They
appear at times and in situations that may seem most unpromising...as
agents and messengers of God's good news.
And
their words and their presence awakens us to a truth that we all
forget
Jacob
put it this way
“Surely
the Lord is in this place and I knew it not”
Angels
alert us to God at work in our world...they point towards God's
actions, his plans, his presence
Good
news then....
Which
brings me to one more thing.....their name ANGEL means messanger but
it shares its roots with another message of good news – EVANGELISM
Perhaps
my childhood self wasn't that far out in confusing the saints and the
angels of that poem!
And
perhaps that's where we come in
We
are not, surely, to be content to be passive recipients of the Good
News the angels bring...
Like
them, we have a calling to point out those surprising places where
God is at work in our world só that others too may see and celebrate
And,
for ourselves, having noted God at work we are to join in the
ceaseless chorus of praise that resounds throughout creation
Evermore
praising thee and saying “Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee O Lord most
high”
1 comment:
Thanks for highlighting the 'angel' in 'evangelism'.
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