During this Advent season, a number of us have been reading and reflecting on Susan Robb’s The Angels of Christmas: Hearing God’s Voice in Advent. The word “angel” comes from a Greek word that means “messenger.” Robb makes the point that whether or not we believe in the literal existence of angels, God still reaches out through messengers, whether they’re heavenly or purely human, complete strangers or people we know well.
All of us can probably think of times in our lives when a person appeared at just the right time to bring us the help and the hope that we needed. Is this a mere coincidence, or is it God acting incognito?
How will we respond to these messengers? Richard Rohr encourages us to “trust our angels.” Like Joseph, Mary and the shepherds of old, who did not question the message they received, we are called not just to hear, but to act on the message of Christmas. Will we go from being shepherds who receive the good news, to serving as angels who share it, allaying fears and providing guidance for others?
Author, philosopher, theologian, mystic, educator and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman, who spoke at Lakeside on several occasions, proclaimed:
When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among others, to make music in the heart.
Let each of us take this message to heart and be an angel to those who are waiting with hope to hear the good news that God is with us this day and every day!
Merry Christmas!
