Job 19:23-27a
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
Luke 20:27(28-33)34-38
Psalm 17 or 17:1-8
There is an office in my company that I call "Angel" Headquarters! There are china angels sitting on window sills, pictures of angels on the walls and the staff person herself wears an angel every day on her dress.
Across from her office are two individuals - one a man and a woman. The gentleman wears an angel lapel on his jacket and the woman wears angels (an angel pin) on her blouse or dress everyday.
It seems to me that we are surrounded by angels. There are special angel websites and there are television programs with angels in them, most notably, Touched By An Angel in which the angels take on human form and they are involved in helping people out of trying and difficult situations or to face the truth about themselves and their lives, and to do the right thing.
I didn't even mention books about angels. There are hundreds of them too. Hallmark shops have sections devoted to angels.
Why do you think the secular culture has become so fascinated with angels? Many times too it seems that people who don't believe in God are enamored with angels.
I believe all of us are in need of a source of strength and support. Angels provide some comfort and some feeling of security. But what does the word angel mean? Angel - coming from the Greek word - angelos - means "messenger."
The tradition we inherit understand angels in scripture as not just messengers but as messengers from God: angels who can be visible or invisible and take human and non human form. So to be like an angel is not to chub out, put on a loin cloth and sprout wings. To be like an angel is to be a messenger. Then what, it might be fair to ask, is the message? There's good news and bad news. The good news is that the message is "Good News. The bad news usually starts off, "FEAR NOT." If we check out scriptural encounters with angels - nine times out of ten it starts with an angel trying to calm the fears of the human half of the conversation - they are not usually met with an enthusiastic individual jumping up and down in eager anticipation of how God intends to turn their life upside down! Because when you recognize the messenger as an angel - when God enters your life - your life is going to change. And the most common reaction to change is not enthusiasm - it's FEAR!
We receive these messages all the time - when we have to change careers, move, marry, cope with sickness and death. It's scary to face these challenges of deep seated changes in our lives. But Jesus tells us in today's Gospel that "Those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry or are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
This is the Good News - the message of the resurrection that God promises us. The Sadducees tried to trick Jesus because they didn't believe in the resurrection. He was way ahead of them by talking about the "new" life.
Today's lessons are filled with certainty and hope -
*" I will call upon you for you will answer me" - writes the psalmist.
*"The Lord is faithful - he will sustain you and guard you from the evil one," promises Paul.
*"I know that my Redeemer lives," proclaims Job. And soon it will be Advent, and we will listen once again as the angel says "Fear Not" to the young woman from Nazareth - and we will hear once again how she refused to be scared to death - but dared to choose life. Dared to be the bearer of life that would end death for all time.
And this is the message we need to bring to a broken world, namely, that Christ died for us and that He loves us.
*We need to be human angels speaking the words "Fear Not" to someone who needs to hear them.
*We need to be messengers of hope especially to visitors and newcomers to our church in these times of anxiety and fear.
*We need to be messengers of peace in this time of violence and revenge.
*We need to be angels to each other - we rely more than ever on a community of faith to help us stand fast.
*And we need to be angels to those outside our walls and our tradition - to act as angels - as messengers of God's promise of an abundant life in a world that seems to have settled for the Gospel according to Hallmark or the Gospel according to Oprah rather than the rock of Job's Redeemer.
I believe there are angels both here and with us today who are telling us "Fear Not" as we venture into the future because of the promise that God is already there waiting for us.
And I'd like to close with this short thought for the week for us by Luciano de Crescenzo:
" We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly by embracing each other." Won't you embrace your neighbor and bring those in your life messages of hope and love? It's up to you and me to do just that ! Amen.