Luke 1:26 - 38
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.
Angels appear frequently in the biblical story. They play a prominent role in the Nativity of Jesus, inviting Mary to participate in the birth of Jesus, assuring Joseph of the human-divine confluence of this pregnancy, and announcing the birth to shepherds and the ordinary people of the day.
Angels literally are messengers of God. They carry a message from God, speaking for God to the created order. As messengers, I believe they can take several forms. They may take the form of beings from another dimension, similar to what we envision when the word "angel" is mentioned.
They may have a very human form, and in fact, I believe humans could fulfill the function of an angelic messenger, carrying God's message to persons.
I also suspect that the created world served an angelic purpose, with animals and plant life carrying the message of God to people who pay attention to God's voice with a more attentive hearing. For some folks -- artists, poets and mystics, perhaps -- the created world is full of angelic messages from God.
The consistent thread in angelic appearances is that angels always carry a message from God. They represent God. They speak God's word. They announce what God is doing in the world. They open doors to a deeper understanding, a more grounded existence. They invite participation in this work of God.
In the moments when we wake up, when we see more clearly, in moments of illumination, we can believe that we have experienced some kind of angel presence.
Most always when angels arrive on the scene, the first words they speak are, "Don't be afraid." "Fear not." Why is that the common angelic greeting?
1. It could be the way angels looked. Some ancient art depicts angels as fearsome beings. Sometimes they carried flaming swords. They typically were not the cute, plump little cherubs we see on greeting cards. They were not fairy tale-type beings, but rather were strong, mighty and inspired awe. Their physical presence may have been terribly frightening.
2. Perhaps the angel presence stirred fear in humans because they represented the unseen dimension of existence, the realm that is typically kept behind the curtain, but then suddenly revealed to humans. As humans we live governed by our five senses. We are given to what we call the "real," almost blinded to whatever might be real that lies beyond our sight. I personally believe that we are surrounded by these angel presences, that they are around us all the time, but we are not practiced in noticing them. When we finally see them, we wet our pants, so to speak. We are unaccustomed to these visitations from this spiritual dimension. So we need to hear this message: "Fear not."
3. I believe there is a third, and most compelling, reason for angels to warn, "Don't be afraid," when they appear. The message brought by angels most always calls us to a shift in our thinking, a shift in how we see people, things, God and even ourselves. This shift is most often painful because it means that we must give up the old ways we have seen people, things, God and self. It means we must grow new ways of being in the world.
This shift from the old to the new can be terrible slow, messy and often painful. The angel voices are not soft and soothing, singing in the night. They are terrifying because they invite us to a different kind of living. They invite us to adjust our lives. They invite us to a different relationship with reality, a different relationship with God, others, the created world and our self.
Today I invite you to consider messages you have heard lately. Are there particular themes that have arisen in your work or school, through a song or a conversation, in reading a book or in an email from a friend? See if one or two messages come to the surface of your awareness right now.
What most excites you about that message?
What do you fear most about the message?
To what might God be inviting you through this particular message?
If you came up with some messages that you are hearing through these Advent days, I'll suggest that you have heard angel voices. You have heard from God. In a vast number of ways, God speaks through messengers. You and I are a part of that vast network, both as message-givers and message-receivers.
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