Sermon for St. Michael and All Angels: With Angels and Archangels (2025)

We are standing on holy ground

And I know that there are angels all around

Let us praise Jesus now

We are standing in his presence

On holy ground

I often hear this song sung by the congregation that gathers at Open Cathedral on Sundays in the Civic Center by where I live. I remember singing it growing up; it’s one of the few songs in the Praise and Worship vein that I still remember. It’s never fallen out of popularity, and it’s the only song in that style that actually mentions angels.

John gives us a very different account of how the first disciples were called compared to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The day after his baptism, Jesus gets to work and calls his disciples. Andrew follows Jesus and tells his brother Simon. The next day, Jesus finds Philip, who then tells Nathanael and brings him to Jesus.

I find it interesting that John opens Jesus’ ministry with a skeptic. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (1:46) Nathanael asks. Jesus calls him “a genuine Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” Nathanael replies, “Uh, how do you know me?” Nathanael isn’t sure about this guy Philip is introducing him to. And Jesus uses Nathanael’s skepticism to teach us something about this Jesus whom we are just getting to know in this first chapter of John.

The presence of angels in both Genesis and John signifies God’s plans on earth. God reaffirms for Jacob the covenant made with Abraham and Isaac: “Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth... and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring.”

Jesus’ hearkening back to Jacob’s vision suggests that Nathanael isn’t going to witness a literal event where the heavens open and angels are ascending and descending. As we heard on Holy Cross Day, that Jesus would be raised up as Moses raised the image of the snake for the Israelites to be healed, Jesus draws on Israel’s ancient history to give us a clue. Just as the angels descended and ascended on the stairway to heaven in Jacob’s dream, Jesus is saying he is the ladder—the link between heaven and earth. Through Jesus, the disciples will come to see the glory of God and experience God’s revelation, a fulfillment of God’s promise to Jacob that we would all be blessed in his offspring by bringing us Jesus.

The angels are signifying Christ’s divinity in their descents and ascents upon him. The angels are revealing that heaven is open for us. That’s why we proclaim at every Eucharistic liturgy, “with angels and archangels,” because in the Eucharist we have a glimpse of that open heaven. They are praising God and thanking God with us. They are active in our baptism and the other sacraments, where heaven is open and Jesus is the ladder. They continue to ascend and descend on Jesus as we fulfill our baptismal covenant—being Jesus to others, seeing Jesus in others, and responding.

In praying with my guardian angel, I have often gotten the impression that my relationship with them might be akin to my relationship with my cats. Our wonderful furry companions have such limited understanding of life and the world around them. They can often sense when they might need to pay attention to us at times, but for the most part, they just glide through life unaware of all the work that goes into their well-being out of love. My cats are completely unaware of everything my partner and I are doing to keep them safe—the distractions to lure them away from eating a piece of onion on the floor, or not opening the window too wide so they don’t fall out, or the Prozac that ends up in one of their kibbles so they won’t have anxiety.

Like them, I think if I put on divine goggles that would allow me to see all that really goes on in keeping me safe, sane, and in right relationship with God and neighbor, my mind would probably blow. And for them, that’s the way it should be, as they do it out of love for us, showing God’s love for us. I think it’s okay for us to be blissfully unaware of all they do, because it’s hard enough for us to live into our baptismal covenant as it is. But we have their help. And whenever we see Jesus—either in the sacrament, in scripture, in the face of those who need ministering, or in the face of those who minister to us—angels are present, doing God’s will in the background, always pointing us to Jesus.