Michaelmas on Holy Ground

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Gainesville FL
September 29, 2010

The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels
Genesis 28:10-17
Psalm 103
Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51

Michaelmas on Holy Ground

God is always reaching out to us.

That’s the heart of our faith and the great theme of the Bible. Throughout the centuries, over and over, no matter how far we stray from the path, no matter how many times we reject God, God is always reaching out to us.

God is always reaching out to us, wanting to be friends with us, wanting to heal us, to guide us, and to strengthen us.

God uses everything at God’s disposal to reach out to us. God prods us through our consciences. God brings other people into our lives. God challenges us through prophetic voices. God feeds us through the Church and the sacraments. God inspires us through the beauty and wonder of the world.

Our tradition teaches us that God has also reached out us through the ministry of the mysterious, supernatural beings we call angels. Our tradition teaches us that the angels worship God in heaven and are also sent to us here on earth as messengers and defenders.

In today’s lesson from Genesis, we heard about a very early angelic appearance in Jacob’s powerfully vivid dream of the ladder between heaven and earth.

The angelic appearance helps Jacob to realize that he was asleep on holy ground. Jacob has a moment of extraordinary clarity and mindfulness. Jacob sees things as they really are. Jacob cries out, “Surely the LORD is in this place – and I did not know it!” “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

God used this angelic dream to reach out to the snoozing Jacob. God used this angelic dream to help Jacob see things as they really are, to recognize God’s presence not just at the top of the ladder in heaven, but right here and now on earth.

God is always reaching out to us. And God’s ultimate and definitive attempt to reach out to us is in Jesus of Nazareth. In Jesus, God reaches out to us by breaking down the barrier that separated us. In Jesus, we see what God is really like. In Jesus, we see what we are really like.

In today’s gospel lesson, like Jacob, Nathanael also has a moment of extraordinary mindfulness and clarity. Nathanael also sees things as they really are. Nathanael cries out to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

And then the Evangelist John quotes Jesus as saying, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Long ago Jacob recognized that God was reaching out to him and that he was on holy ground, right here on earth.

The Evangelist John draws upon the story of Jacob’s ladder to offer us an even greater moment of clarity and mindfulness. John wants us to recognize that Jesus is both the revelation and the dwelling of God.

In Jesus, God has reached out to us in the ultimate way by breaking down forever the barrier that separated God and humanity.

From the start, Christians have understood that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the victory has already been won – evil, fear and death are already defeated.

The angels should be able to enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

Unfortunately, from the start, Christians have also understood that evil, fear and death still stalk the earth; we have known that evil, fear and death still lurk in our hearts.

The victory is already won, but we’re not there yet.

Already but not yet.

So, our tradition teaches us that since we live in this “already, but not yet” time, the angels are still hard at work. And our patron, Michael, is one of the hardest working of all.

Michael, whose name means “Who is like God?” first appears in the Book of Daniel as the patron angel of Israel. Later, he appears in many non-biblical texts that were written after the Old Testament and before the New Testament. The mystics who wrote these texts saw Michael as both the leader of God’s army but also as a great healer.

In the vision of the Book of Revelation that we heard today, it’s Michael who leads the battle against Satan casting him and his demons out of heaven and down to earth.

So the author of Revelation writes, “Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

The victory is already won, but we’re not there yet.

We live in the “already, but not yet” time.

And it’s already, but not yet, here at St. Michael’s in Gainesville. God is still reaching out to us, wanting to be friends with us, wanting to heal us, to guide us, and to strengthen us.

God is still using everything at God’s disposal to reach out to us, including the angels, helping us to resist the powerful and very real evils of the world.

God is still using everything at God’s disposal to reach out to us, including the angels, helping us to have moments of clarity and mindfulness, so, like Jacob, we can wake up and see things as they really are, to realize that we are on holy ground.
And, in those moments of clarity and mindfulness, like Jacob, we can cry out: “Surely the LORD is in this place – and I did not know it!” “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

On this, our patronal feast, may God send St. Michael and all the angels to help us in this “already, but not yet” time. May God give us the gifts of clarity, mindfulness, healing and strength.

Amen.