DESERT PALMS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Sun City West, Arizona

Angels Among Us

A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Dr. David S. Hodgson & The Rev. Linda J. Bailey

June 20, 2010

GENESIS 18:1-15

The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on--since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7 Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. 9 They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son. 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

Hebrews 13:1-2, 20-21

Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

            My text is taken from the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 13, Verse 2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Let us pray. Open the eyes of our souls, O God, that we may see things that are hidden from the world. Open the ears of our souls that we may hear the whispered sounds that come from you, O Lord. Open our hearts that your love may dwell within and accomplish its purpose through us. For all that you intend: Amen.

            I have been asked to preach a sermon about angels and I do so confidently, for throughout my life I have felt their presence. I have been grateful for their guidance; I have benefited from their encouragement and I have been blessed by their inspiration. Angels exist. Their personalities are all different, as are ours, so that we can learn to appreciate the distinctions between them. The tasks for which they come into our lives are specific, unique to every visitation. As we read in the Bible, they are the messengers of God. 

            Angels are beautiful and they are real. Hebrews, Chapter 2, Verse 7 tells us that we were created a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor. It’s what I call a cosmology of faith: a way of imaging the spirit world with God above, the angels between and all of us here below. I don’t know about you but I find that helpful, to know that they come from God. The problem we have is twofold. Number One: science cannot see them and, Number Two: society does not want them. Science cannot see them and society does not want them. 

            Angels work in that mystical dimension of life and absolutely delight in the mystery of their ways. They rejoice at being relevant in a realm of life that is beyond the reach of scientific method and inquiry. They are masters at the art of creating coincidence anonymously, and they rejoice in glory for all of the wonder and the amusement they awaken upon the earth. They dance among the stars and the Hubble telescope cannot see them. They walk with us upon the earth and leave no footprints in the sands of time. They exist, but science cannot find them.

            Society does not want them. Matthew describes a time when Jesus spoke of guardian angels for children. In the eighteenth chapter he says that every child who comes into the world has guardian angels who are not only able to be with children, but who also see the face of God everyday. I believe that is so. I’ve also come to suspect that children in their infancy are aware of them, relate to them and sometimes even consider them to be their imaginary friends. They are certainly not afraid of them. They feel comfortable with them.

            But something there is about our mortality that compels us to teach our children to leave their imaginary friends behind in childhood and concentrate their efforts on building relationships with other people in the temporal world, to deal with life as we know it in this realm. And so, they grow up without the awareness of their guardian angels, but I am certain they don’t go away. Every now and again in adulthood we do become aware of them. Society does acknowledge their existence, but only in the realm of make-believe or mythology or ancient legends. Society still allows us to talk about angels at Christmastime and at Easter time, for who better to announce the incarnation of God and the resurrection of Christ than messengers from heaven. 

            But try to talk about angels in terms of society and the day-to-day existence of human life, and society prefers to back away from it. Yet the Bible is filled with stories of angels interacting with human beings in life.  Perhaps the most telling is the one I just read to you from the Book of Genesis. It’s an incredible story because it not only happened to Abraham, but it leaves us wondering how often it actually happens to us in life. Abraham was sitting in front of his tent in the heat of the day when the Lord came to him as three mortals, three men; yet Abraham knew it was a visitation from the Lord, so much so that he bowed down and worshipped their arrival and offered hospitality to them. He knew he was being visited by special beings. In the course of that visitation one of them did what angels are meant to do, deliver a message. “Your wife Sarah will have a child by the time you return.”

            Abraham had been hoping for that all of his life, and he was almost one hundred years old. When Sarah heard the news from inside the tent she laughed to herself, quietly—in her heart she was too much of a hostess to ridicule her guests by laughing out loud—only to discover that these strange and mysterious guests could hear the sound of laughter in her heart. Why did she laugh? they asked. Is God not able to do what God has promised? When Sarah did conceive and bear a son she called him Isaac, which in Hebrew means laughter, because she laughed when she heard the news. 

            Yet we turn from that story and wonder how often in the midst of the commonplace God has actually walked into our lives and made an angelic performance or appearance. We turn from that scripture and wonder about the strangers who have wandered into our lives at the right time to accomplish some task for our development, and then moved on. We never need to hear from them again. Or those people who come along at the precise moment and say what we are ready to hear, as though for the first time, and it changes everything. We wonder how often in life the extraordinary actually appeared to us in the ordinary and we did not recognize it as a visitation from a messenger of God. 

Angels exist, and sometimes they are so clever in their work that they actually engage us to do their work, for sometimes we find ourselves being the messenger. For words of insight that have come from beyond us, or with desires to help which have been more miraculous than our wills could ever have intended and we decide, much to our surprise, that we have by some ineffable mystery done the work of angels here on earth. We live in a beautiful world on an amazing planet and there are angels among us.

            You know, I could talk a lot about angels but if I brought this sermon to a conclusion you would expect some resolution of the matter. It would seem too scientific and this sermon needs to end in mystery, so I’m going to stop halfway through. I’ve never preached half a sermon before, but what better time when they only had half a hymn in the hymnsing? I’m going to leave you dangling with a sense of mystery about the angels among us, and you can let it be said that you were here when I preached only half a sermon. Unless, you would like to finish it?

            Linda: I would like to offer some illustrations on the mystery of angels among us. Years ago my parents were hiking from Bear Lake to Emerald Lake in the Rocky Mountains. It was a beautiful, clear, crisp day; the air was cool. They could see squirrels running along the trail and every turn revealed breathtaking scenery. Finally, Emerald Lake came into view. They sat beside the lake for several hours enjoying its beauty and their time together. But when the time came for them to return to the trail back to their car, they stood up and my mom’s legs felt tired. She started to work her way down the trail but she slipped on the sandy path. She tried to get up but there was a sharp, piercing pain. She knew she couldn’t walk. There was no one in sight and they were trying to figure out what they could do, how they get back to the car, when suddenly two men came, sat with them and offered to help them.

            They came on either side of my mother and guided her along the path so she didn’t have to put pressure on her leg. As they were walking the men explained that they had been on their way up the mountain when they suddenly stopped and had a sense they would be needed, and so they headed in the direction where my parents were and where my mom had fallen. My mom asked them, “Where did your power come from?” and they said, “From God.” When they returned to the trailhead and back to the parking lot, they seated her by a log and they all sat together for a moment. The two young men offered a prayer and the laying on of hands. They prayed together as the two men put their hands on my mother’s injured ankle. 

            When the prayer was concluded she looked up to thank them and they were nowhere in sight. She had heard no footsteps; she looked in every direction and could not see anyone. Was that an encounter with angels? Some people would want to have scientific evidence, but my mom loves the mystery of it and so do I. I believe there are angels among us. She had been helped by angels.

            Years ago I was leaving the office to go to lunch on what was supposed to be just an ordinary day. I got in the car and went in the direction I usually headed, close to town, when I felt a sense in me to turn right and go a different way. I found myself driving clear across town to a restaurant where I had never been before, and a restaurant where I have never been since. I walked inside with some sense of urgency, and there I saw a friend who was waiting during her husband’s surgery. She was sitting there alone, trying to make it through the hours, and thinking deeply. We sat together and talked for a long time, and then the call came that all was well. 

            I’ve thought many times about that experience and what led me there. I believe that I was guided by angels. There are times when we are called upon to do the work of angels here below. Therefore, let us practice hospitality. As it says in our text today, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby, some have entertained angels unawares. Amen.