by CCW | 2 October 2016 15:00
The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, also known as Michaelmas[1], celebrated Thursday past, reminds us that there is a cosmic dimension to the conflicts between good and evil. “There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels”. Here there be dragons? Who is this dragon? We are told that he is “that old serpent, called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world”. We are presented with the reality of finding ourselves in a moral universe where there are conflicts and tensions, battles between good and evil. It is a world which, perhaps, we know only too well (unless we have deceived ourselves).
But left at that we have simply a kind of fatalistic dualism in the idea of two equally powerful and opposing principles, good versus evil. Yet that is neither the lesson of Michaelmas nor the lesson in today’s readings. “The dragon fought and his angels”, but, more importantly, they “prevailed not” against Michael and his angels. There was war but there was also victory, the triumph of good over evil.
Michaelmas reminds us of the idea of evil as that which opposes the good, hence the concept of Satan, the devil, “that old serpent”, recalling us to the story of the Fall in The Book of Genesis as well as to the theme of deception. But the important point is that the power of the good outweighs all and every form of evil. In the Christian understanding, St. Michael and his angels defeat the dragon and his angels, not through any special force or merit of their own simply, but “by the blood of the lamb”, an obvious reference to Christ and his sacrifice, and “by the word of their testimony”, their witness to God in Christ, and by extension, our witness. There was war in heaven, not there is war. A major point of difference.
Yet Michaelmas also reminds us that the dragon and his angels have been “cast out into the earth”. Conflict and war are inescapably features of our world and disturbingly so. Who cannot be moved with indignation and outrage at the bombing of relief and aid convoys in Aleppo, Syria, to mention but one of many global atrocities? Is the world, then, the place of dualism between two equal but opposing forces? No. The radical idea of Michaelmas means that while there is no end of wars and conflicts between good and evil in the world, the good is always greater in principle and in truth. At issue is whether we are capable of grasping this thinking any more. Not the least of our problems lies in how we think about good and evil whether in relativistic terms which deny their reality or in dualistic terms which despair of the ultimate truth of the good and its power over all evil. Part of the problem for all of us has to do with our discernment about what is the good and what is evil in our world and in ourselves.
The Michaelmas lesson from Revelation identifies the dragon as the old serpent, as Satan, as the Devil. Another name, an angelic name for the prince of the fallen angels, the bad angels, is Lucifer. It means, literally, light-bearer. But Lucifer denies and refuses the vocation of his God-given being and creation, thereby defying God himself, the ultimate folly. Called to be the light-bearer, he turns his back on the light. He is darkness and the prince of darkness; the darkness of the denial of light and truth, the light and truth of God.
This imagery conveys to us, I think, the very realities of sin and evil but we must not make the mistake of externalizing this from ourselves with ‘the-devil-made-me-do-it’ kind of idea which essentially lets us off the hook in terms of being responsible for our “thoughts, words and deeds”. This is contrary to our Christian confession. Michaelmas reminds us of the cosmic dimension of good and evil and that our souls are very much part of that story.
The soul is the battlefield between good and evil. We all stand convicted or better yet, in the imagery of the Gospel, we all lie paralyzed, unable to move. Palsied limbs reflect a deeper paralysis of the soul which we see in the resistance and opposition of the scribes to Christ’s words of forgiveness to the one who was literally paralyzed. They say nothing but “Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” Therein lies the problem – our capacity to think evil in our hearts which leads, of course, to words and deeds of evil. Can we be surprised? It is all about refusing the good that is known in some sense as good.
Christ addresses that obduracy of the mind, that stubbornness of the soul, which remains closed to the possibilities of God’s grace at work in people’s lives, the kind of grace which is already evident in the action of those who brought their paralysed friend to Jesus. Yet the greater miracle lies precisely in the forgiveness of sins which Christ proclaims in the face of this evil and the joy or good cheer which accompanies it. “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” This is what Jesus wants us to know in the face of skeptical hostility and animosity. “Certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.” Here are the good words of Christ but they are called evil!
“But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) arise, take up thine bed and go unto thine house.” That you may know. The healing of the body merely serves as a demonstration of the greater power of the forgiveness of our sins. In a way, it is simply an object lesson.
There are things which Christ wants us to know so that by his grace we may will them in our lives. “Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds”, Paul says, which complements the claim of the Gospel, “that ye may know.” Know what? Know that Christ Jesus is the forgiveness of sins. That is the primary thing in relation to which everything else is subordinate.
It is wanted that we should “learn Christ.” Such learning is new life. In the midst of the barrenness of death, in the midst of the darkness in human hearts, there is hope and redemption; a healing of the soul, “Son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee”, and there is a kind of resurrection of the body, “Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house.”
But only if we learn Christ as to be found in him. Kindness, tender-heartedness, and the forgiving of one another are not simply matters of niceness; they are the motions of Christ’s grace in us flowing out of his forgiveness of our sins.
What does it mean to be kind to one another? It means to place one another in the presence of Christ seeking his mercy and forgiveness and healing grace for all our souls in disarray. Such is the meaning of our intercessory prayers. All because of what we know of the utter goodness of God in Christ.
We place ourselves and one another in the presence of Christ, knowing that he is the forgiveness of sins. We act out of what we have been given to know. Something of the power of the resurrection of Christ moves in us in acts of kindness and charity. There is something more beyond the barren fields of human lives, something more beyond the stone cold hardness of our hearts like tombs. We arise to walk in the paths which he has prepared for us but only if we are open to his presence and have learned what he would have us know. Only then are we in the company of Michael and all Angels.
Fr .David Curry
Trinity 19 in the Octave of Michaelmas
October 2nd, 2016
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2016/10/02/sermon-for-the-nineteenth-sunday-after-trinity-in-the-octave-of-michaelmas/
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