December 24, 2009

Undelivered/ Snowed Out Christmas Eve Message 2009 Unity of the Lakes

Sermon: “Angels we have heard, kings we have seen…”

Texts: Luke 2:1-19, Matthew 2:1-12 (See below for full NRSV texts)

How many of you believe in angels? Oh, don’t worry, This isn’t Peter Pan. An angel won’t drop dead if you state your disbelief in them. So…seriously….how many people believe there are supernatural beings, which we call angels, who interact in some way with God and humanity? Let’s see a show of hands…

As many of you know, I have a show on Unity-FM, our internet radio network. It’s called “Let’s Talk About It.” I invite guest panelists from all sorts of religious backgrounds. I have had a Catholic nun and a Baha’i and a Sikh. Last week, I invited the angel people…. [ ]

Angels are everywhere this time of the year. Christmas carols echo with their choruses; cards and packages display their images; sacred scripture of Judaism, Christianity and Islam testify to their reality. But are there really, really such things as angels? No humbug intended, but have you ever seen one? Why is it that some otherwise rational people, who would never affirm the existence of demons, have no problem believing in angels? My distinguished panel took a close look at angelology to get a “New Angles on the Angels” on Let's Talk about It. The program was broadcast Friday the 18th of December, but it repeats several times this month, and you can find all my shows archived at the Unity-FM website.

Sooo…..what’s all this annual seasonal brouhaha about angels? In the Bible, God is often seen as distant, like a king on his throne. Not always. There are images of God as the loving father, too. But the king-on-the-throne business seems to get more play. A king doesn’t leave his palace to dabble in the daily affairs of ordinary men and women. He sends messengers to do that, and that is precisely what the word which is usually translated “angel” means in Hebrew. The word is mal’akh, and although the Old Testament book of Malachi is really the book of the messenger. The great Medieval Jewish theologian Moses Maimonides defined angels as “totally disembodied minds…which emanate from God and are the intermediaries between God and all the bodies [objects] here in this world.” Only two angels are given specific names in the Hebrew Bible—Michael and Gabriel—and only in book of Daniel.

Early Christians at first simply appropriated Jewish ideas about angels as messengers. Then the Christian view of angels changed from the angel as a messenger of God to a manifestation of God himself. As time went by, other names were assigned to individual angelic messengers like Raphael, Uriel and Sataniel. Actually, Sataniel—from whom we get the name Satan—started as a good guy, God’s inspector general in Hebrew thought. Check out the books of Job and Zechariah. Sataniel only became “the devil” after several Christian revisions of the storyline, borrowed heavily from Persian, Greek and Roman religion.

By the fifth century, angels had morphed into their traditional characteristics in theology and art—angelic wings and a softer, more feminine look; sometimes in Greek-style armor, more usually in gently flowing robes. A hierarchy of angels and archangels was also created by medieval theologians with too much free time.

So, what about the angels we have heard on high? Messengers, of course, directly drawn from Hebrew mythology. They appear to announce the birth of…well, listen to their own words, faithfully recorded by Luke, who was not an eyewitness:

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,

“Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

“Do not be afraid…”

Right. Just ignore this army of supernatural beings floating here in the sky overhead and the heavenly light radiating from us to the illuminate the countryside…I wonder how you and I would respond to that? If we were out under the winter sky somewhere in the country and a great light shined upon you and a loud voice spoke from above—well, I’d assume it was a UFO and I’d run for cover. Unless they seemed nice, then I’d come out of hiding to ask for a ride on their starship.


There is a deep significance in this scene. Look at the audience the angels chose to address. The birth of the messiah is announced as “news of great joy for all the people” and the listeners are ordinary working folks, not the wealthy, the educated elite, or the politically or spiritually powerful. This is a significant statement from the pen of Luke. Jesus was not born for the privileged few; he came for “all the people.” Even the angels are jazzed about the possibilities:

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

But there is another first Christmas story in the Bible that shows the message of Jesus is not just a way to comfort for the powerless. If Luke’s nativity scene shows the importance of Jesus to the common people, Matthew’s story of the first Noel reaches into the center of earthly power.

Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

Notice how the scene shifts? No longer are we looking at peasants on the hillsides, shivering in the cold night. No longer is the messiah announced as “good news and great joy for all the people…” of the world. Now we stand in the court of the king, listening to wealthy, powerful men of a distant land who have come looking for a messiah who is the newborn King of the Jews. King Herod calls his “chief priests and scribes” together in the war room of the palace; the governmental and religious leadership meets in emergency session to determine how to respond to the crisis.

The visitors were not really described by as kings in Matthew’s gospel. The word used is magi, which corresponds with Zoroastrian priest. Zoroaster (also, Zarathustra) was a Persian prophet who lived in the 6th century B.C.E. His followers today, who live mostly in India, are called Parsis because of their Persian connection. Zoroaster taught monotheism to his followers and gave the world the concept of a power of evil, an adversary to God who struggled against the good. He also spoke of heavenly signs that would accompany the beginning of a new spiritual era to come. It makes sense that the wise men would come from the East, seeking an earthly manifestation of these prophecies when the signs were right in the heavens. None of this has any known historical basis, but it makes a great story.

What we have in the magi and their visit to Herod is the confrontation of worldly power by the incarnation of Jesus in Bethlehem. If Jesus is the promised one, what does that say to rulers and politicians? If Jesus brings a message of peace and hope, where does the power reside—in God, or wise men, or inspired utterance? Does the authority to declare what is truth and falsehood necessarily come from established power, a fact taken for granted in times of absolute rulers?

Jesus born for the poor people; Jesus born for the wealthy, the powerful, and the highly educated. Does this not suggest that God speaks to all levels of human society in a manner commensurate with the listener’s ability to comprehend? Does this not further suggest that all social and political and economic strata need the message of hope and love which the birth of the Christ child conveys?

This Christmas when looking to the sky, or listening to the news media, remember…remember…remember…Jesus was born for the poor shepherds on a cold winter’s night that was so deep…and also for King of Orient, and Occident, and the democratically elected regimes of today. His birth proclaims hope: there are higher standards than expedience. His birth proclaims Divine Order: despite appearances to the contrary, God is working in through and as the people of every nation and race and religion, to bring world peace and good will. This Christmas is a good time to allow yourself the luxury of optimism, to believe all is well, to expect the best, to believe with your whole heart that humanity is destined to solve its petty squabbles and move forward as one united species to explore the Cosmos.

Look to the heavens…listen for the angels….watch for the star…

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Matthew's Nativity

1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6 "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.' " 7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.


Luke's Nativity

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!" 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.