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smike03
With
Angels and Archangels:
Through the Church the Song Goes On
Text:
The Propers
Date: Saint Michael and All Angels Day (Pentecost 16)
9/28/03 palm chess cracked
Martin Luther personified God’s gift of music calling
her “Frau Musica.” Whether a simple melody or a complex, six-part
fugue, whether a beautiful Gregorian chant or a grand oratorio,
music was created by God, her vocation to be a helpmeet for her
proper husband, the Word of God. Luther perceived that even the
Word of God is just a little less powerful to invade the human soul
without the assistance of music.
Did you ever notice that, in the scriptures, the angels
of God are described generally as speaking to men but singing to
God? And their messages to people (for the word “angel” means “messenger”)
most often result in the songs of men?
Tomorrow is Saint Michael the Archangel and All Angels’
Day ushering in the last third of the long, green season of Sundays
after Pentecost called Michaelmas. Unlike the commemoration of the
Apostles, Martyrs and saints usually on the traditional date of
their death or “heavenly birthday,” since the angels of God do not
know death, this date was probably chosen because it was the date
of the consecration of a church in Michael’s honor in Italy before
500 a.d. It is interesting also that St. Michael’s Day became associated
with the “academic year,” since it coincided with the beginning
of the autumn or “Michaelmas” semester in England. It is interesting
because the key to understanding and celebrating the angels of God
is words, and specifically, as with music, the Word of God. The
loud voice in heaven in our second reading from the Book of Revelation
declares of the Christian Church, “they have conquered [the accuser,
the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”
[Rev. 12:11]. Luther wrote of “the old evil foe” in his famous hymn,
“one little word can fell him” [LW 298:3]. Today we celebrate that
great fall.
The angels sing praises to God and, bringing the Word
of God to men, inspire the Church’s song. They joyfully sang at
God’s creation of the earth [Job 38:7]. The Levites were commanded
“to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the
seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and
worshiped” [2 Chronicles 29:30 (ESV)]. Isaiah overheard the eternal
song of the seraphim and cherubim in the temple, singing, “Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his
glory” (Is. 6:3). In his fear, one of the seraphim came to Isaiah
with a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar
and touched his lips and brought the word of absolution, saying,
“Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and
your sin atoned for” [Isaiah 6:3, 7 (ESV)]. Isaiah would sing,
"I will give thanks to you, O Lord….
"Behold,
God is my salvation;
I
will trust, and will not be afraid;
for
the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and
he has become my salvation" [Isaiah 12:1-2 (ESV)].
Three
young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, sang with the Angel that
delivered them from the fiery furnace, “Bless the Lord all you works
of the Lord” [Addition to Daniel, Prayer of Azariah 1].
At the incarnation of our Lord the archangel Gabriel
spoke to Mary and to Joseph, and the ranks of angels sang in the
skies over Bethlehem in the hearing of the shepherds, “Gloria
in Excelsis Deo,” “Glory be to God on high.”
When the angels deliver the Word, the Church responds
in song. Mary magnified the Lord. Zechariah blessed the Lord, the
God of Israel for his gift of salvation. Simeon sang a song of peaceful
departure. All these holy, inspired songs have continued to be sung
by Holy Church through the ages: the Sanctus, the Confitebor
tibi Domine, the Benedicite, omnia opera, the
Gloria, the Magnificat, the Benedictus,
the Nunc Dimittis. In addition, from early times, the Church
has sung the mysteriously inspired Te Deum, rejoicing with
the apostles and prophets and martyrs confessing that “from morn
to set of sun through the Church the song goes on” [LW 171:3].
At every Holy Communion we give thanks to the Lord
for his mighty salvation concluding our thanksgiving with the words,
“therefore, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,
we laud and magnify your glorious name evermore,” and join our feeble
voices with their mighty, eternal chorus. That little word, “therefore,”
suggests that even our highest praise and thanksgiving is not complete
until and unless it is joined with the one, universal, eternal song
of heaven, of the angels around God’s throne.
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