This day after St. Michael and All Angels, the news is depressing. Congress at loggerheads over trillions in spending, a possible government shutdown, Covid deaths and Covid deniers, Instagram doing psychological damage to young people, adult tantrums on planes, trains, and in restaurants… What help are angels?
Jesus: “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). New Testament scholar Dr. Jeffrey Gibbs believes “these little ones” refers first to the poor and outcast of society, but also applies to all believers in Jesus. He also notes this is the only biblical text that talks about “guardian angels” (Concordia Commentary). That’s helpful, but this dysfunctional news morning, what help are angels?
“In heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” N.T. Wright: “Heaven, in the Bible, is not a future destiny but the other, hidden, dimension of our ordinary life—God’s dimension, if you like” (Surprised by Hope, 151). That means our angels are not at some distant location in the universe, far, far away in someplace called “heaven.” They are right with you, just not seen. And what are these invisible creatures around us doing? They are looking at the face of God. Sit with that thought. While your senses bring troubling earthly things into your soul, “God’s dimension,” as Wright describes it, is all around you. “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). The eternal is around you here-and-now, and in your here-and-now your angels are looking at the face of God.
“Every breath of air and ray of light and heat, every beautiful prospect is, as it were, the skirts of their garments, the waving of the robes of those whose faces see God” (John Henry Newman, in For All the Saints, IV, 1359).
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