Angel message [Ash Wednesday]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“Declares the Lord: ‘Rend your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful.’”
 
In one of the most used words in the Bible, the Lord sends His message through St. Joel, by speaking. In our English translation it says, “declares”, but the teaching is the same. God has a message and it will be spoken out loud.
 
In the book of Joel, the primary message is “return”. Yes, there is more going on there, but even fasting takes a back seat to returning. This is because returning is more important. If you do not return, there can be no fasting, no weeping, and no mourning for sins. 
 
This “returning” is not repentance, but they are closely related. In Acts 3:19 the Lord says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” in Christ. In this same belief, this returning and repenting leads us directly to Jesus main topic of every one of His sermons: “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17).
 
A sermon is also a message. A message from God’s Word and therefore a message from God. Thus it is “messages” that we are going to be discussing together on the coming Wednesdays of Lent, with this revelation in mind: the Greek for “message” is “angelia”, thus the person to deliver the angelia is an Angel.
 
We will not be discussing all angels, but one in particular: the Angel of the Lord. But before we get to that, we need to define our terms. The Bible uses angel in a couple different ways, but all of them have the same job. 
 
An angel, in the Bible, is always someone with a message. So on the lowest tier of our definition of angels are what we have grown up with: those fanciful beings with wings that serve God day and night, ever before His face. Most angels that show up in the Bible are actually scary creatures with multiple faces, multiple wings, and on fire. “He makes His messengers winds, His ministers a flaming fire”, says Psalm 104:4. But that is for another time.
 
Some angels do show up and look like men and that’s where our second tiered definition comes. Sts. Michael and Gabriel look like men and are categorized as archangels, leaders. So those two get us closer to the idea that men can be angels. 
 
Not in the sense that they turn into angels or become angels or any kind of transformation. We stay far away from that. They simply carry a message and deliver it according to God’s will. We hear this in Isaiah’s prophesy about John the Baptist from Malachi 3:1, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.”
 
Now this may sound like word play, but again, we are dealing with God Who became man, so we should expect some teasers before the real show, to get us ready for that belief. So men can be angels, or occupy the office of angel, in that they simply deliver God’s Gospel. But, who better to do that than God Himself?
 
So our third and final tier of defining angels comes at the very top when the Bible talks about the Angel of the Lord. This is the Angel of angels. He shows up at the Burning Bush to talk with Moses, He sweeps down to kill the firstborn of Egypt, and He prevents Abraham from killing his son Isaac, among many other occurrences.
 
It is this person Of Whom we will follow closely and learn about this Lent, because He brings angel and man together. He looks like a man, but acts as God’s angel. He looks like an angel, but speaks, moves, and acts like a man.
 
With all this in mind from His Word, we encounter Jesus this evening being a messenger, an angel. It is His own message. He thought it up. He gave it to men to write it down. He also wanted to be the One to come down and tell everyone Himself. 
 
And that message is, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” and “Rend your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful.” 
 
Returning and repenting is not a work. At least not yours. The Holy Ghost turns you. Turns you to see your sin and to see your Savior. You are turned, not to face the music, but to face Grace, Mercy, and your true Treasure.
 
This is the Gospel hard at work. Christ has already created the Treasure and has already bought and paid for infinite grace and mercy, for you. In your sin, you run away from all of that. In Baptism, Jesus assumes you into Himself, forever tethering you to God. So that when you run away from God, His Holy Spirit works on you, turns you once again, and returns you to your rightful spot by His side.
 
This is the Gospel: that the treasure has been secured and the vault door left open. That the unmerited favor from God has been given fully, without any merit or worthiness within you. And that the loving-kindness of God has been shown to you and won for you before you were born and while you continue in your sin against God.
 
This is the message of heaven, the message of the angels, and now, by the grace of God, the message of men. For God was made man, allowing His Word, His Message, to be on the lips of sinful men and spread by the same. Except, now that faith has been given to those men, they have been sanctified, and the thoughts they express and the words they write are God-given and Holy Scripture.
 
Such is the strength of the Message given to us. That we can speak and that we can hear it and believe it as if it were Christ dealing with us Himself. Praise the Lord! As He promises in Psalm 113, "to raise the poor from the dust and the needy from the ashes" (v.7).