Sermon: Michaelmas - 2019

29 September 2019

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

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Today is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.  It is also known as Michaelmas.  Unfortunately, it’s not one of the most popular feasts of the Church, but in our day, it needs to be.

First of all, we don’t consider the angels enough.  These spirits minister to us and to our churches without ceasing, and are yet almost always unseen.  Maybe we’re a little embarrassed to admit to our unbelieving friends that we believe in angels.  

There are other unfortunate things about our relationship to the angels.  One is that we sometimes hear people describe our dead relatives as becoming angels, like the schmaltzy Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  When a child dies, we sometimes describe the little one whom has been called home “an angel” – unintentionally degrading him as something less than a human being created in God’s image.

Then there are the depictions of angels as little naked babies or pale womanish beings who look weak.  Clearly, such artists have never cracked open a bible.  A more accurate depiction of the angels and their works is the famous statue of St. Michael the Archangel as a muscular warrior holding a spear to the throat of the ugly dragon (representing Satan) at his feet.

We have things so easy in our country that we forget that we are at war.  We forget that there are demons that are seeking to devour us by separating us from Jesus.  Our World War II era ancestors were tough.  Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers stormed the beaches while they were teenagers.  Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers temporarily gave up their scarves and gloves and took up power tools in factories working long hours to contribute to the war effort.  Today, our young people need safe spaces because someone might disagree with them in a college classroom.

Spiritually, we have become similarly weak.  But worse yet, dear friends, we don’t even know it.  When we let other things take priority over the Word of God and the Sacrament of the Altar, we are becoming spiritually weak, ripe for the temptation of the devil and his evil angels.  When we stop praying, stop reading and studying the scriptures, and when we allow the world to shape us and mold us through hours and hours of devouring entertainment, we are taking the bait.  As the famous book title says, we are entertaining ourselves to death.

Michaelmas reminds us that we are at war.  And this war is largely unseen except through the eyes of faith.  And the stakes of this war are eternal – for us and for our children.  

And children are special targets of the evil one.  In our Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us that the “greatest in the kingdom of heaven” are little children.  For they humble themselves and are willing to be dependent.  We are instructed to “turn and become like children.”  And children are especially beloved by our Father in heaven.  Jesus says: “See to it that you do not despise one of these little ones.  For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.  For the Son of Man came to save the lost.”

We live in a culture that hates children and hates families.  People with large families are especially hated.  They are seen as selfish destroyers of the planet.  Abortion clinics are praised by politicians and celebrities for cutting back the surplus population (which is supposedly good for the environment and mother earth).  It is also good for feminism, for motherhood is seen as a curse upon womanhood.  Men are trained to see children as a nuisance, as infringements on the ability to buy motorcycles and beer and to pour money into the man-cave.

And children are being trafficked and enslaved around the world.  There are many, many global elites – loved and admired even by Christian people – who are part of this worldwide movement to abuse children.  It is diabolical and the height of evil.  Jesus Himself says the most vile of our human race are such as these: “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.”  Even churches are willing to protect such predators.  It is a sobering and frightening thought.

I was recently debating someone who argued that Jesus was the villain for making the millstone comment, since He was apparently advocating “murder” of such people.

Dear friends, we are very far along in this war.  The contempt for children – as well as for God’s children – is in the open.  Even in our public libraries, places where children were once protected, and books were available to educate and edify these little ones – now these places are being used by perverts to sexualize and groom our little ones, even as some of these people are convicted sexual predators.  And this behavior is not just tolerated, dear friends, it is celebrated and encouraged by our debased and degraded culture.

If you and your family are not rushing to the altar each and every week to be strengthened, you are setting yourself up to be victims of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature.  Like our great-grandfathers and –grandmothers, we need to face this war head on and not pretend that it isn’t there.

And forwarding sentimental Jesus-stories on Facebook is only making you weaker and giving you a false sense of security.  You need Christ – not a cartoon parody.  You need the warrior Christ, the one whose blood was splattered by the nails and spear at the cross, for this is where Satan was defeated.  The cross is what empowers St. Michael to slay the dragon, and empowers you, dear brothers and sisters, to resist the relentless assaults of the evil one.

You need to adopt the mindset of the warrior.  You worship a God who took flesh so as to make war on the devil.  Jesus is not a Precious Moments figurine, but rather the epic and heroic figure of the Crucified King who lays down His life defeating the enemy of His people.  And we who follow Jesus, do just that, dear friends: we follow Him.  We take up our cross.  As our Epistle speaks of Christians: “And 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.

Which of you parents would not die for your children?  That is not difficult.  What is difficult is living for your children: making them go to Church, leading them in prayer, seeing to it that they are equipped for battle, teaching them, setting the example.  Warriors are made through discipline, training, and learning to serve their brothers and sisters in battle instead of thinking only of themselves and their comfort.  

We live in times of trial, not unlike the early Christians who had to choose between the world and their faith – and sometimes had to prove those decisions by laying down their lives.  St. John speaks to us, dear friends, to us today when he says: “But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short.”

Similarly, Daniel speaks to us concerning what the angel spoke to him: “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.”

Dear friends, we need to pray that the Lord will defend us by His grace and through the ministry of the angels.  It is not an accident that our Small Catechism includes the two little morning and evening prayers that Lutheran families have prayed together and parents have taught their children to pray in the morning and evening.  Both of these prayers include the line: “Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me,” and these prayers are to be prayed twice daily.

Let us look to Jesus and the cross, and let us pray for our Father in heaven to defend His little ones by means of St. Michael and the holy angels.  Let us come to grips with who these angels are, and why they are fighting.  Let us adopt their warrior mindset, just as our heroic ancestors rose to the occasion in times of war and in times of peace.  

Let us steel ourselves for battle by Word and Sacrament, and by prayer.  Let us continually pray, “Let Your holy angel be with us, that the evil foe may have no power over us.”  Amen.

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