Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3/Revelation 12:7-12/St Matthew 18:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
How easy it is to look down on the little ones. Noisy, smelly, needy, and way too rambunctious. We grown-ups sigh and put up with them, though often loosing our tempers, and ourselves behaving as children, but we think we’ve done the great thing. We like to think we are the important ones, we’re the great ones, we’re what it’s all about and children are just a nuisance to our lives.
Jesus shows that we have it all backwards. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The disciples argue. And He takes a dirty street urchin and puts him right in the middle of them. “You want to be great,” He asks? “You must become like this!” Pointing to the little one whose attention has already drifted, who wants to get back to the hard work of playing. “In fact,” Jesus says, “that is the only way into My kingdom; to become a little one. That is the path to true greatness.”
The disciples are perplexed. And so are we. For we too stumble over what Jesus is saying. We too have behaved as the disciples, keeping the little ones back from bothering Jesus. (Or is it from bothering us?) But Jesus has more: Anyone who causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin - better to have the millstone wrapped around your neck and be cast into the sea. Jesus loves the little ones, they matter to Him. And those who would cause them to fall away from Him - well, lets just say no one would want to face Him on that Day if a little one is lost due to us, due to what we’ve done or failed to do.
It is better to lose hands, feet, eyes, anything rather than face Him on that Day when you’re the cause of a little one having left Him. So He warns: don’t despise one of these little ones, don’t look down on them or think them unimportant. They are the most important! Jesus loves them. And He gives His angels charge over them. Their angels, He says - the angels I assigned them - always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven. He cares about them. He cares about them a lot.
And so He gives them angels. He sends forth His mighty host for their good. For He who came to seek and save the lost, gives His angels charge over His little ones. You who desire the protection of His angels, seek then, to be one of our Lord’s little ones.
Consider Daniel, a great prophet before men and kings, but before God he was a trembling little one. He prayed without ceasing. Until, as last, an angel came to him and assured him that his prayer had been heard and was to be answered. But this mighty man was filled with terror; frightened to death, even as Isaiah the mighty seer had been at the sight of the throne room of God. But note how the angel speaks to him, Daniel, man greatly loved . . .fear not.
And they are mysterious words that this angel speaks. Of Michael, that great archangel of the heavenly hosts, doing battle to help the people of God, even as Jesus says in the Gospel about the angels protecting His little ones. And then, a warning of things to come; that the times and the seasons will get even worse than they already are. But once more, fear not, for your people shall be delivered; that is, the people of God. For Michael shall again arise; he will defend and conquer. And so God’s people, His little ones, shall all be delivered; everyone whose name is written in the book.
Graves will be opened and the dead shall arise, and the faithful shall be gathered home to shine like the lights in the skies - which is how Job refers to the angels, the morning stars singing together at the dawn of creation. That’s how the faithful, the righteous ones, shall be forever and ever.
It is a vision for a little one to believe. In fact, who but a little one could trust that out of all the disaster and mess of human history God is forming Himself a people that He will never forsake and that He will bring to glory? It is not a children’s fairy tale, but it is a story only a little one can believe.
But there’s more. The battle described to Daniel, is seen by St John. War in heaven - something we would never consider possible. But there it is. Michael and his angels against the dragon and his angels. And Michael - as he always does - wins and the dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, is tossed out, thrown down, exbalen, exercised from heaven down to earth, and his angels with him.
And the song rings out in heaven: Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Lamb’s blood is not a macguffin; some mere idea in this story. It is what fills the chalice. It is the blood that conquers the accuser. It is the blood that blotted out your sin on Golgotha’s Hill. It is the blood that always and forever testifies to sin’s forgiveness and death’s destruction. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows his time is short!
He tried to snatch up the woman’s Child, but could not. So he spends his efforts now on her offspring, on you; trying to grab up as many as he can to share condemnation with him. Some of the Early Church fathers, like St John Cassian, believed that those disasters described in the psalm - the snare, the deadly pestilence, the terror of the night, the arrow, the pestilence - are species of fallen angels, as diverse as creation herself.
And they have but one goal, the singular purpose of their evil master: to snare you in the pride that puffed him up and ended up casting him down. The pride that would have you think of yourself more highly than you ought. The pride that would have you look down upon the little ones as Satan looked down upon us frail creatures of flesh and blood and revolted at the thought that his angelic majesty should be the servant of the likes of us!
But the good angels share the humility of Heaven’s King. They know that He has honored our fallen race by taking on our flesh, by suffering and dying in that flesh to ransom us, and by rising again in that flesh to bring us eternal salvation. For He loved not His life, even unto death. He is the Greatest in heaven’s kingdom, who humbled Himself and became a poor, defenseless Child. Upon the Cross His hands and feet were pierced through as He was completely cut off from the Father, cast down to the depths of hell with the millstone of our sin about His neck. Having risen from the grave and ascended into heaven He has seated us with Him, in His flesh, at the right hand of the Father.
And so when a good angel sees one of little ones, he doesn’t think, “Why should I serve that wretch?” Rather, he thinks, “Why look! I am honored to serve this brother, this sister of Heaven’s King! For they shall one day rejoice with me! What joy!”
Look then, at the little ones whom Christ loves, with angel eyes and all your silly pride will evaporate. The little ones belong to Him who became a little One for them. And indeed He has made you His little one through Holy Baptism; putting His Name on you and giving you His kingdom. If we would be great, then we ought to see things the right way around - the little one are our superiors; they teach us how to blessedly receive the Kingdom of God by no other way than being given to by Heaven’s King.
Come then, all His little ones of any age, to the Lord’s Table, and open wide your mouth to receive the Body and the Blood of the Lamb, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. For by His Blood you overcome the evil one with his accusations. For you are tucked safely into Christ, and the Accuser cannot get you. This is the joy of being a little one, a companion of the angels, guarded and protected, destined to rise from your graves and shine like the stars.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
How easy it is to look down on the little ones. Noisy, smelly, needy, and way too rambunctious. We grown-ups sigh and put up with them, though often loosing our tempers, and ourselves behaving as children, but we think we’ve done the great thing. We like to think we are the important ones, we’re the great ones, we’re what it’s all about and children are just a nuisance to our lives.
Jesus shows that we have it all backwards. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The disciples argue. And He takes a dirty street urchin and puts him right in the middle of them. “You want to be great,” He asks? “You must become like this!” Pointing to the little one whose attention has already drifted, who wants to get back to the hard work of playing. “In fact,” Jesus says, “that is the only way into My kingdom; to become a little one. That is the path to true greatness.”
The disciples are perplexed. And so are we. For we too stumble over what Jesus is saying. We too have behaved as the disciples, keeping the little ones back from bothering Jesus. (Or is it from bothering us?) But Jesus has more: Anyone who causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin - better to have the millstone wrapped around your neck and be cast into the sea. Jesus loves the little ones, they matter to Him. And those who would cause them to fall away from Him - well, lets just say no one would want to face Him on that Day if a little one is lost due to us, due to what we’ve done or failed to do.
It is better to lose hands, feet, eyes, anything rather than face Him on that Day when you’re the cause of a little one having left Him. So He warns: don’t despise one of these little ones, don’t look down on them or think them unimportant. They are the most important! Jesus loves them. And He gives His angels charge over them. Their angels, He says - the angels I assigned them - always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven. He cares about them. He cares about them a lot.
And so He gives them angels. He sends forth His mighty host for their good. For He who came to seek and save the lost, gives His angels charge over His little ones. You who desire the protection of His angels, seek then, to be one of our Lord’s little ones.
Consider Daniel, a great prophet before men and kings, but before God he was a trembling little one. He prayed without ceasing. Until, as last, an angel came to him and assured him that his prayer had been heard and was to be answered. But this mighty man was filled with terror; frightened to death, even as Isaiah the mighty seer had been at the sight of the throne room of God. But note how the angel speaks to him, Daniel, man greatly loved . . .fear not.
And they are mysterious words that this angel speaks. Of Michael, that great archangel of the heavenly hosts, doing battle to help the people of God, even as Jesus says in the Gospel about the angels protecting His little ones. And then, a warning of things to come; that the times and the seasons will get even worse than they already are. But once more, fear not, for your people shall be delivered; that is, the people of God. For Michael shall again arise; he will defend and conquer. And so God’s people, His little ones, shall all be delivered; everyone whose name is written in the book.
Graves will be opened and the dead shall arise, and the faithful shall be gathered home to shine like the lights in the skies - which is how Job refers to the angels, the morning stars singing together at the dawn of creation. That’s how the faithful, the righteous ones, shall be forever and ever.
It is a vision for a little one to believe. In fact, who but a little one could trust that out of all the disaster and mess of human history God is forming Himself a people that He will never forsake and that He will bring to glory? It is not a children’s fairy tale, but it is a story only a little one can believe.
But there’s more. The battle described to Daniel, is seen by St John. War in heaven - something we would never consider possible. But there it is. Michael and his angels against the dragon and his angels. And Michael - as he always does - wins and the dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, is tossed out, thrown down, exbalen, exercised from heaven down to earth, and his angels with him.
And the song rings out in heaven: Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Lamb’s blood is not a macguffin; some mere idea in this story. It is what fills the chalice. It is the blood that conquers the accuser. It is the blood that blotted out your sin on Golgotha’s Hill. It is the blood that always and forever testifies to sin’s forgiveness and death’s destruction. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows his time is short!
He tried to snatch up the woman’s Child, but could not. So he spends his efforts now on her offspring, on you; trying to grab up as many as he can to share condemnation with him. Some of the Early Church fathers, like St John Cassian, believed that those disasters described in the psalm - the snare, the deadly pestilence, the terror of the night, the arrow, the pestilence - are species of fallen angels, as diverse as creation herself.
And they have but one goal, the singular purpose of their evil master: to snare you in the pride that puffed him up and ended up casting him down. The pride that would have you think of yourself more highly than you ought. The pride that would have you look down upon the little ones as Satan looked down upon us frail creatures of flesh and blood and revolted at the thought that his angelic majesty should be the servant of the likes of us!
But the good angels share the humility of Heaven’s King. They know that He has honored our fallen race by taking on our flesh, by suffering and dying in that flesh to ransom us, and by rising again in that flesh to bring us eternal salvation. For He loved not His life, even unto death. He is the Greatest in heaven’s kingdom, who humbled Himself and became a poor, defenseless Child. Upon the Cross His hands and feet were pierced through as He was completely cut off from the Father, cast down to the depths of hell with the millstone of our sin about His neck. Having risen from the grave and ascended into heaven He has seated us with Him, in His flesh, at the right hand of the Father.
And so when a good angel sees one of little ones, he doesn’t think, “Why should I serve that wretch?” Rather, he thinks, “Why look! I am honored to serve this brother, this sister of Heaven’s King! For they shall one day rejoice with me! What joy!”
Look then, at the little ones whom Christ loves, with angel eyes and all your silly pride will evaporate. The little ones belong to Him who became a little One for them. And indeed He has made you His little one through Holy Baptism; putting His Name on you and giving you His kingdom. If we would be great, then we ought to see things the right way around - the little one are our superiors; they teach us how to blessedly receive the Kingdom of God by no other way than being given to by Heaven’s King.
Come then, all His little ones of any age, to the Lord’s Table, and open wide your mouth to receive the Body and the Blood of the Lamb, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. For by His Blood you overcome the evil one with his accusations. For you are tucked safely into Christ, and the Accuser cannot get you. This is the joy of being a little one, a companion of the angels, guarded and protected, destined to rise from your graves and shine like the stars.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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