If you had to pick two people from your congregation that best look like angels, whom would you choose? Two young girls or two burly men? My guess is that we would choose the girls rather than men who look like bouncers! There is an ambiguity about angels. Portrayed in various forms in the media, popularised as cuddly cherubs like Raphael’s two angels looking upward at the bottom of the painting ‘Sistine Madonna’, commonly associated with words such as ‘heavenly’ and ‘wings’, angels are nevertheless often vague and confusing.
If you search the Bible you certainly come up with material about angels but there are no pictures or diagrams or links to a streaming video from around the heavenly throne so things are not crystal clear regarding angels. Angels are clearly messengers, they bring messages to people, but there can be ambiguity because, at times, the phrase ‘angel of the Lord’ implies that the Lord himself is present and speaking (Judges 6). Angels are invisible, not readily seen, though a donkey doesn’t seem to have too much difficulty and if they’re carrying anything then it might be swords or some weapon! For Adam and Eve, it was a consequence of their action (Genesis 3), for Barak it would have been disastrous (Numbers 22) as it was for the Egyptians (Exodus 12) and the Assyrians (2 Kings 19). However for Elisha’s servant, the fact angels were armed was comforting (2 King 6) as it was for Joshua (Joshua 5).
The Bible gives us glimpses of the heavenly realm filled with heavenly creatures – we have a sense of different beings (maybe a little like an alien gallery in Star Wars or Star Trek) – but we’re not sure if they are all angels. We have a sense of hierarchy and order – archangels are mentioned – and there’s a military quality to them which seems ambiguous since they are serving the most powerful being of all. Why does an omnipotent God – by definition no one is more powerful or even close to him in power and might – or an omnipresent God – need angels? And then there’s the matter of good and bad which is also ambiguous because we’re not given much information except that there are clean spirits (angels) and unclean spirits (demons). The Bible simply doesn’t answer all the questions we could ask.
But the Church has taken up the matter of angels in its teaching and remembrances as it should because the Bible speaks about them. Feasts developed early in Eastern Christendom. In the West, things really don’t begin moving until after Constantine (and now we’re in the 4th century). September 29 as the day commemorating Michael representing all angels (and there is another ambiguity in affixing the title ‘Saint’ here) doesn’t come into being until the 5th century and the dedication of a basilica on the Via Salaria (6 miles from Rome) but this is not introduced to the whole church until the Council of Mainz in 813. King Ethelred established this feast in England in 1019 and it’s not until the English Reformation that the phrase ‘and all angels’ is added. I would suggest that this development over time reflects the ambiguity surrounding the topic otherwise it would have been established more clearly more quickly.
Angels are creatures who raise questions for us – in that sense they are ambiguous – but you can be clear about a few things – if you meet one, don’t bow down but turn shoulder to shoulder and face the Lord of lords and worship the Lamb who was slain so that you could live with Jesus now and forever. Whatever angels do, their message is about God and they point out Jesus. We thank God that he, in his wisdom, provides angels to help us worship – think of the angel songs we sing in the liturgy – but we thank God even more and praise him together with the angels for his Son, Jesus, who has defeated the power of evil and death and Satan to have the last word about anything!
GS