"Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will."

With the bounty of the Lord's giving, there is always more. God has given us His Son and in Him we have the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. He has given us His Word along with Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper to deliver into our lives the gifts that He obtained for us at Calvary's cross. Yes, the Apostle says in Romans 8 "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" God gives us His Son, Jesus, as our Redeemer and He throws in the angels as well! Why in the world did God create the angels? The Book of Hebrews gives us the answer as it describes the angels as "ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation." In other words, God created these heavenly beings for our good. He uses them to minister to us in ways beyond our knowing. That is why the Church celebrates the day of St. Michael and All Angels. We do not worship the angels, that would offend them for they exist to give all praise, honor, and glory to Christ alone. But we do give thanks to God that in the largeness of His grace, He has given us His holy angels.

Our culture is both fascinated with angels and confused about angels. Many people know more about angels from the Gospel according to St. Hallmark than they do from the Scriptures. They picture angels as chubby little cherubs who buzz around on a spring day. They are seen as harmless little creatures of fantasy and imagination. Under the influence of New Age spiritualism, angels are portrayed as heavenly energies that can be harnessed and tapped to give us mystical powers and experiences.

But what do the Scriptures tell us about the ministry of the angels? Angels are used by God to proclaim His Word. He used the Angel Gabriel to bring the message to Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son who would grow up to be John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. That same angel would bring the Word to Mary announcing to her that she had been singled out by God to be the mother of this world's Savior. An angel would proclaim Jesus' resurrection on Easter morning. And angels would interpret the Lord's Ascension to the apostles forty days later. We also know from the Scriptures that God uses His angels to protect and order our lives in ways beyond our knowing. So in Psalm 91 we have this promise of our Heavenly Father: "For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you cast your foot against a stone." It is this passage of Scripture that leads us to pray as we do in the Catechism's morning and evening prayer that God would let His holy angel be with us that the evil foe may have no power over us.

Today we focus on the primary aspect of the ministry of angels, namely, that the angels were created to praise the Holy Trinity. Psalm 103 (from which the Introit for St. Michael and All Angels is taken) calls upon the angels to praise God: "Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word." That is what the angels do constantly. They worship God as in their heavenly songs they glory in the Lord who is their King and our Savior. We hear an example of their song in the Gloria in Excelsis, first sang by the angels over the plains of Bethlehem as they announced the birth of God's Son to the shepherds singing "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." We hear another example of their song in the Sanctus which comes from Isaiah 6. There they chant their liturgy back and forth to each other: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of your glory." That heavenly song of the angels has found a place in the Divine Service-we sing it every Sunday before coming to receive Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament.

The angels never tire of worshipping God. They are never bored with the liturgy but delight in praising the Lamb of God who was slain and now lives in glory everlasting. This is the worship we read about in the Book of Revelation where the angels cry out with the whole congregation of heaven saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, forever and ever!" The angels worship God in heaven with an unbroken song of praise. We are really learning from the angels how to worship here on earth. Our liturgy really echoes their heavenly anthems adoring Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who died to deliver us from our sins and was raised from the dead to give us life. That's what is happening here in this Divine Service. The Book of Hebrews describes it like this: "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." When we are gathered in God's name-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to receive His gifts in Word and Sacrament are in that heavenly Jerusalem. That is why in the Divine Service, the pastor says "With angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious name praising Thee. . ."

We are in the company of an innumerable company of angels when we come to hear God's Word and receive our Savior's body and blood. That should really give us a new perspective on what goes on in church. There is a story about an army chaplain who was regularly ridiculed for his Christian faith by the commanding officer. One day the commander walked by the chapel as the service was dismissing and noticed that only a handful of soldiers had attended. He thought that he would use the occasion of this poorly attended service to scoff the chaplain. He said "Well, chaplain, how many were in attendance today?" Without missing a beat the chaplain replied "Thousands upon thousands" referring to the fact that in addition to the few men who were in the pews, there were angels, and archangels, and the whole company of heaven. When we worship Jesus Christ we are always in a big congregation no matter how few people may be in the pews for we are worshipping with heaven!

Like Joshua in today's OT Reading, we are on holy ground! God is in this place to give us His gifts and surrounded by the angels we are here to receive His gifts in faith. That means our worship is God-centered, not man-centered. There are many today who think that the church should be like the world. They would argue that we should be just as casual and informal in church as we are in the world. They maintain that the music used in church should be the same kind of music that we hear in the world. All of these arguments fail to take into consideration the fact that in church, something is going on that is absolutely unique. It happens nowhere else. Here heaven and earth intersect as the Triune God comes to us to bless us with His own life. He comes in the preaching of the Gospel and with His body and blood, to give us something that He never gave the angels: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The angels can only look on in wonder and awe while we sinful, human beings are treated as sons and daughters of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross for angels but for sinful people, for you and for me.

Learn from the angels how to praise God. Bless God that He surrounds us with His holy angels and that by the blood of His Son, He has redeemed us and given us a place in His heavenly kingdom. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.