Sermon preached at the Family Sevice on
Sunday, October 7, at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Hebrews 1: 1 – 4; 2: 5 – 12, Mark 10: 2 – 16
We heard angels mentioned three times in the
reading from Hebrews this morning.
- God’s Son was described as being “as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited,” (Hebrews 1:4)
- “God did not subject the coming world …. to angels,” (2:6)
- “You (God) have made them (us humans) for a little while lower than the angels,” (2:7) and
- “Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels.” (2:9)
Angels appear about 20 times in the New Testament,
in most cases as messengers: the angel Gabriel to Mary, the heavenly host to
the shepherds. The Greek
word angelos just means “messenger.”
But that’s not what these ones the author of Hebrews is thinking about. In the
Old Testament angels are the heavenly beings that surround God, God’s court,
and the author of Hebrews is referring back to the OT, to Psalm 8 (4-9):
“When I consider your heavens, the work of
your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, what is man
that you should be mindful of him? The son of man that you should seek him out?
You have made him but little lower than the angels; you adorn him with glory
and honor; You give him mastery over the works of your hands; you put all
things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, even the wild beasts of the field, The
birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever walks in the paths of the
sea.”
Psalm 8 is, as you can hear, full of wonder
and joy. God who created everything cares for us, God thinks of us and seeks us
out and made us only a little lower than heavenly beings. Not only that, the
Psalmist writes, God made us humans the masters of all creation, and not his
angels.
The author of Hebrews seems a little less
enthusiastic. “God left nothing outside their control,” he writes, only to
follow this with “as it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them.”
(2:8)
If we go back to the beginning, to the
creation stories in Genesis, we hear how God created us in God’s image and to
act as God would, bringing order and justice to bear on the whole of creation. In
the second creation story (Genesis 2:15) God places Adam in the Garden of Eden
to work it and take care of it. Humanity may have been set in authority over
the world. But we don’t seem to be making a very good job of it. The oceans –
and the fish we eat – are full of plastic. We really have enough food to go around,
but still people starve. We continue to pollute the atmosphere so much that we are
changing the climate, and as a result some island nations will probably disappear
entirely, not forgetting the coastal areas of many of our countries. Obviously,
the author of Hebrews did not see these particular threats, but he did see the
selfishness, greed and separation from God and one another that was preventing
the people of his day from fulfilling God’s commission, as they still do today.
So what did God do? Write us off? No, God never
writes us off. First “God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by
the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son,” (1:1) Jesus
made human “for a little while lower than angels.” (2:9) Jesus came to speak to
us, to show in his person – as “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint
of God’s very being” (1:3) – who God is and what God wants. Jesus came to demonstrate
in his life and dying what selflessness, generosity, and being in relationship with
God are like. Jesus came to renew our relationship as his brothers and sisters
and therefore also God’s children.
As the one through whom all things were
created, the Son has a particular interest in caring for and nurturing that creation,
which is something we who follow him must share. For Anglicans, creation care
is one of our 5 Marks of Mission: “To strive to safeguard the integrity of
creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”[1]
And all the mainline churches, Catholic,
Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant have set apart a whole season, ending today, both
to celebrate creation, to repent of our sins against creation, and to renew our
promise to care for creation. This season of creation began on the first Friday
in September, the Night of the Churches. At the closing service here, we used as
intercessions prayers from a service for the Ecumenical Day of Prayer for the
Care of Creation. And I want to finish with those petitions[2]:
God, our father, you have given us the world
to be a blessing to us. Grant us the gift of insight, that we may always
perceive this anew. Grant us the gift of repentance, that we may turn away from
a lifestyle of selfishness and destruction. Grant us the gift of hospitality,
that we may share it together with all people and bear responsibility for
everyone. Grant us the gift of moderation, that we may live in it and not
exploit its resources ruthlessly. Grant us the gift of perseverance, that we
may use it sustainably – preserving it for ourselves and all future
generations. Grant us the gift of joy, that we may serve in it as your
stewards. Grant us the gift of gratitude, that we may praise you for it every
day.
Amen.
