"Grab Bag: Angels, Please Come to Order"

The sub-title of the sermon is taken from Rev. Alex Coyle's play he wrote that was first performed by the women of the church, and then a few years ago was updated and added to and became our Advent play.  It depicts different scenes in heaven, and gets its title from this sense of humor and chaos that accompany the angels

John Calvin wrote on the subject of angels.  It is found in the section on God the Creator, and more specifically on distinguishing true gods from false gods (Calvin's Institutes, Book 1, Chapter 14, Sections 3-12). the points Calvin makes about angels are:  1. Angels are created by God and subject to God.  2. Angels carry out things God has decreed and act as God's intermediary messengers (14.5).  3.  Angels "keep vigil for our safety, take upon themselves our defense, direct our ways, and take care that some harm may not befall us." (14.6)  4. Calvin is not sure if each individual has their own angel (he references Acts 12:15 in support of that notion).  He does caution against limiting God's care for us to one guardian angel (14.7)  5. Calvin dares not count the number of angels, but references biblical comments that speak of lots of angels (Matthew 26:53; Daniel 7:10; 2 Kings 6:17 and Psalm 34:7). 6. God makes use of angels, not for God's sake, but for our sake (14.11)  7. focus on angels should not divert us from directing our gaze to the Lord alone (14.12)  7.

Angels have names at times in the biblical story.

"Angel of the Lord" is a fairly common phrase in the Old Testament.

I often hear people speak of an angel as a person whom they know who has died and is now acting in a guardian type role.  While I understand the sentiment, that is not the biblical model for an angel.

The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" gives us the idea that an angel is a hierarchical category of heavenly beings with angels needing to perform acts on earth to earn their wings.  This feeds the sense of humans becoming angels after they die, but this also does not have biblical support.

How have you understood angels in your life?