Let Your Holy Angel Be With Me

St. Michael and All Angels

September 29, 2024

Luke 10:17-20

 “Let Your Holy Angel Be With Me”

Confirmation class is underway once again here at St. John’s. As young people go through this two-year discipleship process, our goal is to help them reaffirm for themselves in the Rite of Confirmation the Baptismal vows that their parents and sponsors once made for them. Just this morning, Confirmands and adult leaders returned from an overnight retreat at Camp Mar-Lu-Ridge. Although a little bleary-eyed, they are here in worship with us this morning. Over the two years of Confirmation, we go through the six chief parts of Christian doctrine in Luther’s Small Catechism. This year, we will be focusing on the three articles of the Apostles’ Creed together with the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Within the catechism are Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers, which are a very good way to begin and end each day. As the catechism states: “In the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross [in remembrance of your Baptism] and say: ‘In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Then, kneeling or standing, repeat the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. If you choose, you may also say this little prayer…” Commending ourselves into the Lord’s keeping when we awake and when we sleep, each prayer ends with these words: “Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.” Based on the closing words of Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers, and rising up from the appointed Scripture lessons, especially the Gospel lesson, today’s message is entitled, “Let Your Holy Angel Be With Me.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake. 

On the church’s calendar, September 29 is a day set aside to commemorate St. Michael and All Angels. It’s not like Christmas or Easter or Pentecost – one of the big days of the year. This is one of those lesser festivals that sometimes – maybe oftentimes – get overlooked in our life together. Today’s Scripture readings speak of Michael and the ministry of God’s angels. Following in the footsteps of Judaism, Christianity “speaks of an order of heavenly messengers, the angels, created by God to do his bidding and differing from humans by having a fully spiritual nature and no physical body. They are mentioned by Jesus as watching over children (Matthew 18:10) and rejoicing over penitent sinners (Luke 15:10), and there are numerous references to them in the Scriptures. Michael the archangel is mentioned in the books of Daniel (10:13ff; 12:1), Jude (9), and Revelation (12:7-9)… At the time of the Reformation the Lutherans and Anglicans retained the feast then called the Dedication of St. Michael, and expanded the commemoration to include not only Michael the Archangel but all the angels… Michael, whose name is popularly thought to mean “who is like God?”, is usually shown in art as youthful, strong, and clad in armor. He has been regarded as the helper of Christian armies and the protector of individual Christians against the devil, especially in the hour of death” (p. 368, Festivals and Commemorations: Handbook to the Calendar in Lutheran Book of Worship, by Philip H. Pfatteicher. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1980).

That’s the history and background, but why is this important. What’s the big deal about angels? We live in a world where evil abounds, and at times it seems to triumph over good. Where does it end? Will it end? There is most assuredly a spiritual dimension to what we see, and behind it all is the deceiver of the whole world, that ancient serpent, who is Satan. Satan is himself a fallen angel, as we heard in the Epistle lesson (Revelation 12:7-12). His mission is to deceive and destroy God’s creation, to subvert and undermine God’s gracious will and plan at every step. As C.S. Lewis has written: “There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan” (http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there_is_no_neutral_ground_in_the_universe-every/179250.html). Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel lesson remind us: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Satan has fallen like a flash of lightning. He has been thrown down and the victory has been won, even when it seems otherwise. Just before his death on the cross, Jesus cried out: “It is finished!” (John 19:30), and it was – Satan’s power was crushed, sin and death were defeated. It really was – and is – finished! For now, until Jesus comes again on that great and final day to make all things new, we walk by faith through the battle ground of this world. And as we walk by faith, we draw strength, encouragement and hope from one another, and especially from him who loves us and gave himself for us. We are sustained by the power of the One who has defeated the devil, and whose holy angel is with me, with you, and with each and every one of God’s children.

My little hometown has a weekly newspaper, and for many years, I subscribed to it. In one paper was a series of interviews with residents from the local nursing home, talking about life when they were young. I clipped out and kept one of these interviews because it tells an amazing story of a family who lived in the area at the beginning of the last century, so well over 100 years ago. The mother of the family gave birth to a sickly baby, and fearing that her child might not live, she gave instructions for the young woman helping her to baptize the infant. A day or so later, the child died. This was at a time when there were only unpaved dirt roads, and because this happened in the spring of the year, the roads were knee-deep in mud. The only way neighbors could get to the family’s home to pay their respects was to ride a horse or walk. The women sat upstairs where the child was laid out, and the men sat in the living room downstairs. It was a warm evening and the windows were open. Suddenly everyone in the house heard the most beautiful choir of children’s voice imaginable, and they sang for nearly an hour. The men downstairs wondered how those children got through the mud to sing upstairs. The women upstairs wondered how those children got through the mud to sing downstairs. As people left to go home, everyone asked one another who those children were. No one knew because no one had seen them. This conversation was repeated by all who were present that night, and it became apparent that they had heard a choir of angels.

The One whom the angels worship and serve is the same One whom we worship and serve. That is where the power for living is found. It comes from the life-giving Word of God as we read, mark, learn and inwardly digest this. It comes from reclaiming day-by-day our identity, purpose and meaning in life as God’s beloved children in the cleansing waters of holy Baptism.  It comes from receiving Christ’s true Body and Blood in his holy Supper. Perhaps it is here in the Lord’s Supper that we are especially connected with God’s special messengers, the angels. In the Sacrament of the Altar, the veil is parted and we are mysteriously linked with that other realm that we can now only imagine, and into which we now see only dimly. The ancient words of the liturgy of the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, remind us how intimate this connection is: “Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and singing…” We were created for this very thing: to sing with all creation, with all the universe, with St. Michael and all the angels, songs of praise and thanksgiving to our God that will never end.

“Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.” Amen.