Get out the mixer and make yourself some angel food cake. It’s Angel Day today.
In the liturgical calendar, it’s referred to as Michaelmas — kinda like Christmas, but with a mass in honor of Michael the archangel instead of Christ. But it’s not just Michael who is honored today, it’s all angels. And that makes it one of the more awkward days in the Christian year.
Angels have become something of an embarrassment for many Christians.
We sorta believe in them, because, well, the Bible. But we ignore them almost completely, treating them like a crazy cousin we don’t talk about with anyone outside of the family.
And like all things family, angels get pulled out and dusted off and put on display only one time a year: that other mass time, Christmas.
Christmas is replete with angels.
They appear to Mary in person and to Joseph several times in dreams. They silence a priest, entice shepherds, and warn magi. The story explodes with angelic visitations. And so we hang ornaments with wings and halos from the evergreen trees (or facsimiles thereof) in our living rooms or set up lighted versions in our yards. We eat cookies formed with angel cookie cutters and send cards with angel stamps securing their delivery by messengers of the government.
But the insipid cuteness of these heavenly messengers misses the mark by miles. The “fear not” spoken by these neutered beings is more like a pat on the back for the anxious rather than the assurance that they aren’t going to vaporize those they visit by their fiery and intimidating glances alone.
Both the Hebrew and Greek words we translate as “angel” simply mean “messenger” in the original languages.
It points to the primary way they’re used. But these otherworldly being are often referred to with another word: host. We sing about them as such in the “Doxology”: “Praise him above, ye heavenly host.” That “heavenly host” doesn’t refer to the hospitality of our Lord. It refers to the host of heaven, the army of heaven. The Psalms refer to the host/army aspect of angels over their delivery service aspect. They are warriors. This is why Jesus talks about his ability to call them down at a moment’s notice for his defense, a defense he has every right to use and yet a right he rejects.
Tom DeLonge is the goofy singer for both Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves. He’s also a big fan of extraterrestrial conspiracy theories. He believes he’s responsible for the U.S. government’s recent declassification of UFO sighting documents. But his take on ETs and angels is that they’re the same thing. Same with ancient pantheons and current experiences of the paranormal.
I think he’s both right and wrong at the same time, just as I believe that the monotheistic faiths are both talking about the same one God and different competing gods at the same time.
DeLonge is right we he says the angelic are extraterrestrial. They are.
They are a part of this created order and yet they are other. They are truly extra (i.e. beyond) terrestrial (i.e. this world). They participate and don’t participate in our world. But no, they aren’t little green men and can’t be explained away as such. They don’t come from other planets. They come from another realm, the realm of God.
Angels are a reminder that just as we are full participants in this physical Creation, we are also full participants in an aspect of the Creation which is beyond the physical.
This doesn’t demean the physical. It exalts it by insisting that it participates in something even greater. What we see and touch and taste and smell and hear is glorious. But it participates in a glory beyond even that which our senses register.
Rather than silly cherubs, these are message-delivering warriors from another realm. And their most basic message is that we participate in that other realm ourselves. Along with that, they remind us to not be afraid, for the Ruler of that realm is on our side. In fact, they went crazy when we decided to enter this physical realm to draw us to himself.
So happy Angel Day. Set aside the heavy devil’s food cake and enjoy the light sweetness of some angel food cake today. And be transported.