Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From the Old Testament of the Day: At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. [Daniel 12.1a]

From the Epistle: And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. [Revelation 12.10]

From the Holy Gospel: "See 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." [Matthew 18.10]

Each year, the Church marks a turning point in the long Trinity season with the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. In fact, in many Christian, even Post-Christian, cultures, such as Europe, this Festival marks the beginning of the Fall Term in schools and colleges. On the Sunday after St. Michael & All Angels, the church calendar jumps to the 19^th Sunday after Trinity, no matter what the count has been of the Sundays after Trinity for the current year. And shortly in these Sundays after Michaelmas, the theme of the lessons turns to the "end times" for this present world and for the struggle against Satan that every Christian faces daily. The theme of the Trinity season Holy Gospels also now begin to turn the Christian mind from the Grace of God to the more narrow focus on the Gospel of God.

I.

The doctrine of angels is celebrated in the church because the doctrine of angels declares the truth. Angels exist! Angels exist as part of God creation. Every Sunday you confess the truth of the existence of angels when you proclaim that God the Father Almighty is the Maker of all things "visible and invisible." With the words, "therefore with angels and archangel and all the company of heaven," you mark the truth that angels clutter the space of this building during this service. And you declare the truth when you speak of "Guardian Angels" who serve to protect you, and who especially care for children. As Jesus declares in today’s Holy Gospel: "For I say to you that their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven."

The Scriptures declare and promise you that God has placed you in the care of guardian angels. The psalmist proclaims: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him."

Today, you heard Christ, in the Holy Gospel for this festival, clearly teaching that children are the special interest of guardian angels. And since Jesus is making the argument that, in God’s kingdom, we never cease to be children, that means that guardians angels serve all Christians, regardless of age. The Scriptures teach the reality of guardian angels, as the psalmist also declares: "He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." That is the grace of God for you, promising you His grace – His goodness and mercy – for your daily life, through the ministry of His angels.

II.

But, as wonderful, as important, as blessed as this promise is for all of God’s children, the equipment for your daily protection includes, yet goes beyond, God’s protection for you in this fallen world. That which causes us not to lose heart – that which focuses the mind most centrally on God’s promise for end-time Christians – goes beyond Grace; it goes to – it goes back to – the Gospel.

It goes back to the forgiveness of sins. In my ministry, on a number of occasions, I have heard it! Some of you have heard something similar to it! "Pastor, we know we are forgiven, can’t we get on with it by hearing what we do now that we’re forgiven?" No, we can’t! We can’t because we shouldn’t! When you are brought to stay, again and again, beneath the cross of Jesus, to stay again under the blood of the Savior, and when you are brought again to mark where sins are forgiven, there you find you life with God in this daily world of temptation and deceit. There and there only you find strength for daily living. And there and there only the Holy Spirit works on you – in you – to bring forth His fruits in your life. There and there only you hear the forgiveness of sins that continually assures you that your heavenly Father is reconciled to you and you to Him.

And so, in that reconciliation, you live in Christ, and so you lack nothing, and so His Spirit propels you into what Scripture describes as the life of faith and good works. Thus, being brought, continually in this life, from the Grace of God to the forgiveness found only in the Gospel of God, God Himself equips you, teaches you, and leads you onward, in daily Christian living, protected by angels.

III.

In the Old Testament for this Feast, God’s Word teaches you to look back into the lives and times of His Old Testament people to see how He works – this God of yours! And in the protection of your life as God’s elect in this world, God works through angels. This lesson introduces you to Michael, an archangel of the Lord, sent by Him to protect God’s people in a time when that people had come to think that all hope has been lost.

They are now in bondage, in Babylon. They have been put there because the Holy City has been conquered and Temple destroyed by the Babylonians. They have concluded that there is no future; their lot in life as believers on the one True God is to look backward! You hear the voice of this looking back, while in Babylon, in Psalm 137: "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there are captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of those songs of Zion!’"

They mourn because they see no way out, no way back! But they fail to see, as we fail to see, the angels! Indeed, they cannot be seen with the eyes; they must be seen with the "ears", in the promises of God. But, though unseen, they are present, and their ministry is dedicated to protecting God’s children in this life, that we may be led by them into the life to come.

Likewise, the message of the Epistle, from the Book of Revelation, assures you of the certainty that you can have in the ministry and protection of the angels. There, in the picture of St. Michael leading the remaining and loyal hosts of God against the rebellion instigated by the devil in their very ranks, you not only see how it is that Satan is thrown down, together with His minions, the devils that all the world now fills; you also say why the devil and his angels are so opposed to you! You, when fallen, are forgiven. They, when fallen, are rejected and condemned! No wonder that the evil forces in this world as very evil! Moreover, since the Epistle informs you that the devil realize that the remaining time is short, you also understand why they seem to be working overtime in your life.

But you also hear in the Epistle that St. Michael and the host of heavenly angels are dedicated to the protection of God’s elect! And they are good at it! So, on this observance of the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, you have God’s promise that you are under His grace at all times, and moreover, as His child in this sin-stained life, you have His promise that you are also under the forgiveness of sins. What more could you possible need for your life and your eternity?