Greetings to the saints in Christ gathered at Ashley River Plantation on this the celebration of St. Michael and All Angels. Grace and peace to you from the God and Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I do wish that I were able to be with you this evening, but as it seems in this world of busy-ness, there is always something trying to pull us away and at times those other things succeed. As you gather together, I am traveling back from Washington DC. Please pray for my safe return.
It is amazing what impact visual memories have upon us. We can remember things from a very young age and so they imprint in our minds memories and histories of days gone by. A difficulty with such images from our youth however, is that our immaturity can get in the way of us remembering things accurately or understanding correctly what those images truly represent. We skew the truth to fit the images we remember. We put together the events in way that they fit with what we saw with out young eyes. Our limited experience interprets things in a certain way and we tend to remember them in that way despite even our later maturity and experience.
I recall an image from my travels some 20+ years ago that I didn’t understand at the time and that has come to be associated in my mind with this Feast Day - simply through circumstance, I suppose. But the image is one from the cathedral in Stockholm, Sweden. In that large building with so many Christians memorialized by plaques along the floors that marked the location of their burial, there loomed an image even greater for me than the fact that the saints were buried in the church. The image that stood tall was a carved statue of St. George slaying the dragon.
I had no idea who St. George was nor of the dragon which he slew. But at some point, I guess, I made a connection between that statue and the portion from the Apocalypse (The Revelation to St. John, chapter 12), which was previously read. That great battle in heaven as Michael and his angels (or army) fight against the dragon and his angels. I made the connection somewhere along the way that St. George slaying the dragon somehow had something to do with St Michael defeating the dragon in Revelation. Theses scenes are not one in the same, nor do they really have much in common other than there is a dragon being defeated, but I would have to say that the connection was made for me by my guide that allegorized the tale of St. George and the dragon to mean Gustavus Adolphus, the 17th century King of Sweden slaying one of his evil enemies. It could have been a Dane, a Pole, or even the Pope as Gustavus was seen as the Protestant’s savior during the Thirty Years’ War, or at least “The Lion of the North.”
But in any case, it is the mythical image of St. George slaying the dragon that I recall when we read of Satan’s defeat. As I look at it now, I would say the legends of St. George defeating the dragon and Gustavus’ are actually built upon this Scriptural account of good versus evil – that is of Michael defeating the devil.
Through the ages man has internalized the images of Scripture and associated them with events in his own life. And so, we can relate to Michael and all angels when good defeats evil in the world. We like the images of heroes sitting atop their steed striking down the wicked with spear or sword. It symbolizes victory. If the Stockholm cathedral were to rename their statue St. Michael defeats the dragon, then it would more appropriately be a fixture fit for a church’s nave, but nonetheless it still represents the defeat of Satan.
This cosmic battle that is laid out for us has a conspicuous absence as we would imagine it. God does not seem to appear in the picture until the action is done and the loud voice in heaven declares the victory of God and the reign of Christ. Even there it seems that God remains hidden, choosing to make his power known in and through those whom He has created - in this case St Michael and all the angels. Scripture says that God never changes, and so it must be, that in all of these battles, He defeats evil in subtle and unseemly ways.
For instance, the cross. As we think of images, the cross wouldn’t normally be one that would come to mind as a means of victory over dragons. Yet, isn’t that exactly where the final victory has been won over Satan? It is there that God chose to work in hidden ways, but it is there that He also chose to be the mediator – Himself incarnate instead of working through created beings. Yet it was still for the creation that He fought. He didn’t need to concern Himself with the dragon for His sake. St. Michael could take care of that. But for your sake, God in Christ Jesus became involved in the battle to strike down the dragon once for all.
While I don’t object to images of the saints in church, even if their hagiography (saintly history) is speculative, but I can do without them just as easily. Those images can provide me with encouragement as I recall the faithful life and death of such saints. But there is an image that I cannot do without in the church and that is the image of the cross. And even more strikingly, a cross with the body of Christ hanging upon it. It is that image of love, sacrifice, and victory that I never want to forget; I never want to distort; and I never want to contextualize as being only a temporal event.
God remained hidden in the cross, but there it was God Himself fighting and winning the victory over your evil foe - the devil. No more do his accusations have merit. Your sin has been atoned. He can not accuse you before God as one not deserving life, because through faith in Christ, you have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. His death has purchased life for you.
It is in this ultimate victory through the death and resurrection of the Son that assures us also of the promises of God to continue to abide among us until the day when we shall abide with Him in heaven forever.
I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still if Thou abide with me!
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies.
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
(Abide with Me; Lutheran Service Book 878)
Amen.
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