Terry Paul Choyce
July 8, 2007, Brunswick Street United Church
Today we have heard eight Bible references to angels, and there are many more than that we could have read. From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelations, which is a time span of several thousand years - or more, there were angels. In today's order of service we have quotes by Mother Teresa and by Pope John the 23rd, talking about how angels are with us, and help us. In Christianity, angels are a part of our history, and our present reality. So why are people so reluctant to accept that angels can be a part of their lives too?
We live in a scientific age. If something cannot be measured or weighed or seen with a microscope or telescope, then we have a hard time believing that it exists. I don't think anyone has ever weighed or dissected or done a chemical analysis on an angel. Therefore, if science can't verify them, they must not be real. Has anyone ever measured God? Has anyone photographed God? Is there anyone here who says there can be no God because there is no scientific proof of God? I don't think so. But I am sure there are a few people here that roll their eyes when angels are mentioned as entities that exist and interact with us today.
We are also a society that is paranoid about mental illness. If you hear voices, or see things that others don't, then there is a good chance you are schizophrenic. At best, you just have delusions of grandeur to think that a heavenly being would pay attention to you. If this is true there are many people in the Bible who are delusional or mentally unstable, including Jesus, Mary, Peter, and Paul. In my opinion, angels communicate with people who are spiritually open, or who have the gift of psychic ability. To be in direct communication with angels is a blessing and a privilege, not a psychotic disorder. Our society needs to lift the negative stigma of angels, and celebrate their presence among us.
Today there are thousands of books about angels. Here in NS you can go to several angel therapists, including Karen Forrest, who lives in Dartmouth. I had Karen on my radio show a few moths ago. She was in the military for 17 years, and she looks and lives like the most "normal" woman you've ever met. But in 2002 she had a spiritual awakening, which lead her to being able to see and talk to angels. She went to study with Doreen Virtue, who is a world-renown angel "expert," and has written many books and created a huge business with her angel products and workshops. Here is one of her books, The Lightworker's Way. Karen is now writing a book on people who have had angel experiences here in the Maritimes, and if you have had one, she would love to hear about it. (Her website is www.healingwordsof wisdom.com.) I've brought several books on angels with me, and you are welcome to look at them after the service.
Ambika Wauters wrote in The Angel Oracle that the purpose of angels is "to help us to realise that the Divine is in everyone and everything around us. They provide the spirit of love and protection which is vital to the nourishment of our souls....The more we choose love in our lives the more we align with the heavenly realms." Generally, angels do not communicate with us, unless we ask for their guidance, or if we are in extreme danger and they are able to intervene. All of these books, including the Bible, say that there are angels of all sorts and powers. They are with us, and around us, always. We cannot see them, just as we cannot see the Holy Spirit, yet all of us here believe in that.
So let us release our fear and resistance to believing in our personal angels. God has blessed us with these agents of love and grace to help us. Let us open our minds and our hearts to their existence and to their messages. Because what they are truly saying is that God loves us, and we are never alone. Our United Church Creed begins "We are not alone, we live in God's world." This is so true. And we live in it with the angels that are all around us.
Praise be the Lord
From Ambika Wauters:
The Angel of Glory helps us to celebrate the endless
opportunities for goodness and joy that exist in our lives.
It teaches us to be thankful for the beauty and simplicity of life.
It actually helps us to take the strain and struggle away from
our lives by seeing how simple things can be.
This angel tells us that life can be one long celebration
if we so choose. It sings praise to the glory of God's
wondrous creation. We can tune into this incantation of
beauty and joy any time we wish to open our hearts.
The splendours of life simply unfold before us. Life then
becomes a self-reflecting mirror of love when we see it
through eyes of gratitude... With our hearts open we are blessed;
the pleasure we receive in saying "thank-you" for life is the
ultimate acknowledgement of life itself. The joy of gratitude
nourishes our souls and gives the deepest feeling of grace.
Words of Wisdom by Pope John XX111:
An angel of Paradise, no less, is always beside me,
wrapped in everlasting ecstasy on his Lord.
So I am ever under the gaze of an angel who protects
and prays for me.
Prayer by Mother Teresa:
Holy Angels, our advocates, our brothers, our counsellors, our
defenders, our enlighteners, our friends, our guides, our helpers,
our intercessors --Join us in prayer.
From the Bible:
Genesis 28:10-20
Daniel 8:15-18
Zechariah 1:9-11
Luke 2:8-15
Psalm 91
Acts 12:5-15
Hebrews 2:1-8
Revelation 22:1-10
©Terry Paul Choyce. Used with permission from the author.
