Herald-angels and the gospel

Herald-angels, other spiritual beings, and the gospel
 
“I decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus…And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them…Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Luke 1:3; 2:8-11
 
The West is increasingly secular, in that the opinion formers and decision makers in the public square act as if spiritual matters are irrelevant. We “don’t do God”. But at the individual level, there are still many believers of different religions including the occult and folk spiritualties, proving the oft-quoted dictum attributed to GK Chesterton, which could be paraphrased as: when people stop believing in God, they don’t become secular, they become undiscerningly pan-spiritual.  And among the many who have concluded that “there is nothing out there”, the God-created soul still responds emotionally to the corporate, visual, ritual pointing to something beyond ourselves. Even Richard Dawkins the arch secularist appreciates the religious celebration of Christmas for what it does though he doesn’t accept what it means.
 
A myopically secular commentator might see the beginning of Luke’s gospel as contradictory, incoherent even. He claims at the start to be writing a properly researched historical account (1:3), and yet almost immediately an angel appears to Zechariah, the father-to-be of John the Baptist (1:11). In chapter 2, as a cool-headed historian, he locates the events with reliable references to the Roman authorities and laws of the time. Jesus is born in the only place his parents could find in a crowded town. But though “no room at the inn” is the focus of many sermons at Christmas, it’s not what Luke emphasises. Instead, again, he foregrounds (2:9-15) the appearance and message of angels to shepherds.
 

 
Our secular sensibilities protest at this – surely the introduction of angels and the supernatural cancels and discredits the claim to be historically accurate? But Luke is challenging us with the truth: reality is material and spiritual, and the gospel is rational (it makes sense to our human minds) and supra-rational/supernatural, bringing our inner beings into the realm of God himself.
 
According to the bible, angels surround the throne of God in worship, and some are sent as messengers to humanity. There is also, however, a matrix of spiritual “powers and principalities” who have rebelled against God and are under the control of Satan. In the gospels and Acts they manifest as demonic spirits causing havoc within people. A strong case can be made from Scripture that human authority structures are inhabited by spiritual powers which give them their character and which can become corrupt and destructive (eg Psalm 82). This explains why there is so much conflict and suffering in the world, and evil even in the church (eg Rev 3:14-15).
 
The ministry of the gospel then is to bring the message of Christ to individuals, so that he enables them to turn away from sin and satan, and live a new live under Jesus’ loving authority. And also, on a wider level, “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 3:10). As the church remains faithful to the truth of Scripture, worships Christ and engages in loving service, God works through the church’s prayers for the spiritual health of institutions and nations, perhaps in some ways (as hinted in Scripture) by the agency of his more powerful, and wholly good, angelic forces.
 
We are made in the image of God and so we have the capacity to be aware of these beings. But having said that there are strong warnings in the Bible to worship God only, and not to worship other spirit beings, seek help from them, get too interested in them. In Luke Chapter 1, Mary encounters the angel Gabriel. There is a brief conversation in which Mary ends up accepting the message from God in faith, and then the angel leaves. Mary does not praise the angel, or speak of it, or try to contact it again – instead she praises God.
 
And it’s the same with the shepherds after their encounter with one angel and then a host of angels. They saw and experienced something very rare for human beings – the glory of the Lord – and their response was terror (like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and others). And they heard a message: the Saviour, Christ the Lord, has been born, and this is good news for everyone. Go and see him! All the key points of the Christmas gospel sermon are there, with the familiar amazing paradoxes. God appears as a human being and specifically as a vulnerable baby. The supernatural and the natural. This baby’s parents can’t find a proper place to lodge, and yet he is the Lord of the universe and will be the Saviour of the world. God himself arrives among human beings, but the first to visit, acknowledge and praise God for him are not the social elites, but night watchmen for livestock. God’s agenda is for his own glory, and he also wants peace for all “on whom his favour rests”.
 
 
 
And here are two points of application as we approach Christmas. Firstly, the angels do not promise peace to all, but only to some. How is it possible to gain God’s favour? This leads us to the message of salvation by grace through faith in what Jesus has done. Secondly, if peace is promised to Christians, should we not consciously lay aside what prevents peace in our hearts? Anxiety, and particularly feelings of resentment, envy and anger, often stoked up by social media, may be explainable by circumstances, but we’re encouraged to put those attitudes off and replace them with what the angels sing about.
 
We hear the Christmas angels,
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Emmanuel!