Sermon: St. Michael and All Angels - 2018

29 September 2018

Text: Matt 18:1-11 (Dan 10:10-14, 12:1-3; Rev 12:7-12)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

We have been in a state of war since mankind’s fall into sin in the Garden of Eden.  This is more obvious at some times than at other times.  

It’s pretty obvious for us here and now.  Our country is divided worse than it has been at any time.  Suspicion, division, and hatred are everywhere to be found.  The Christian Church is seeing fault lines that we haven’t seen in five hundred or even a thousand years.  Even such united church bodies as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy seem headed for schism as internal civil wars rage concerning matters of human sexuality and marriage and the place of the Word of God in the modern world.

There are times when it seems like faithful Christians are a shrinking remnant increasingly vulnerable to the hatred and violence of the enemies of the cross of Christ.  And nobody seems to be in the crosshairs more than children, as little ones are increasingly targeted by the perverted and the deviant.

It is no coincidence that Jesus, when asked “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” points to a small child.  Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Our Blessed Lord elaborates that children humble themselves.  We also know that children are filled with trust.  Children are quick to love.  Children – even very young infants – can and do “believe in” Jesus.  You heard our Lord say it in His own words: “these little ones who believe in me.”  The problem isn’t that infants are too young to believe, the problem is that we are often too old to believe.  As we grow, we lose that humility, and think we know better than God.  We think we can outsmart God by our technology.  We think that we can fool God with sophistry and pseudoscience.  We think that we can pull the wool over God’s eyes by means of our cleverness.  And some adults even think that they will get away with abusing children because they can overpower and intimidate the little ones.  

Our Lord says, “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”  

This is a grave warning for those who make war on the children of God – especially the little ones – those who abuse their authority, whether given through church or state.  For those who lead the little ones astray are not only the perverted pastors and bishops and even cardinals and popes who aid and abet evil, but also those who lead the children astray by false teachings about the origin of the world and the denial of the reality that we are created male and female.

This very hour, Christian schools in Canada are being threatened with losing their accreditation if they uphold the Biblical and Christian doctrine of marriage.  

There is indeed a war going on, and the very children that Jesus holds up as examples for us are targeted – even to the point of the current ongoing worldwide holocaust of the slaughter of the unborn.

Jesus says, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin!  For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!”  Jesus tells us figuratively that it is better to remove a rotten body part than let it infect the entire body.  This is true for the human body, and it is true for the Body of Christ, that is, the church.

Our Lord again warns us not to “despise one of these little ones” saying that “their angels always see the face” of the Father.  Angels indeed watch over the children of God, and especially the little ones.  For they are targets of evil, of the devil, of the secular world, and of our rotten culture.  Angels are the pure spirits created by God, charged with divine protection.  Who knows what might befall us were angels not there to protect us, serve us, and look out for those whom they are called to watch?

The Archangel Michael bears the name that means “Who is like God?”  He is a warrior who fights not flesh and blood but makes war in the spiritual realm.  St. John speaks in the Revelation of the vision of St. Michael the Archangel “and his angels fighting against the dragon.”  The dragon is defeated, and thrown down.  This dragon is indeed “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.”

Indeed, without this explanation of the deceptive power of the devil, we may wonder how it is that it seems that the entire world has gone mad, believing in nonsense, and forcing such “beliefs” on normal people at the point of the sword.  Satan is the “deceiver of the whole world.”  He is the father of lies and the devourer of children.  He is the spoiler of that which is good and just and innocent, and the defiler of that which is holy.  Satan mocks Christ and His bride, the Church.  Satan seeks the weakest and most vulnerable to victimize. 

But, dear friends, empowered by our Lord’s victory upon the cross, Michael and his forces defeat Satan and his demons.  And St. John sees the vision and hears the “loud voice in heaven” saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”

Indeed, dear friends, the false accusations of Satan cannot withstand the truth of the Lamb.  For “they have conquered [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

The angelic hosts prevail against the demon hordes because the Lamb has prevailed at the cross.  Jesus won the battle for all the children of God, vindicating the little ones who believe in Him, by shedding His blood as a sacrifice, by dying as the atonement of “our brothers” and indeed of all the world, and by rising again as the Conqueror by whose conquests we are more than conquerors.

And behind the scenes, unseen by us, is St. Michael and His angelic hosts.  The war rages on, and yet, the war has already been won.  So take heart, dear brothers and sisters, even when it seems like our culture and country, our church and state, all seem to be on a crash-course to nowhere fast.  Remember the words of the prophet Daniel: “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation until that time.  But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.  And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

Let us give praise to our Lord and God for His watchers and His holy ones, for angels and archangels, for St. Michael and for all of those pure spirits who minister, who protect and serve the little ones, and whose faces always see the face of the Father.  Let us declare victory in Christ and in the cross even as we continue to battle evil here in time, awaiting that time when time shall be no more, our warfare ended, our enemy being no more.  

Thanks be to God!  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.