“Angels All Around [and Demons, Too]”
(There is More Than Meets the Eye)
Genesis 28:10-19
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
July 19, 2020 Sermon
Rev. Juancho C. Campañano, PhD, BCC
We are in the middle of a pandemic. Today and in the next few Sundays, I am going to reflect with you how we might respond to a pandemic as well as our day to day challenge of living. As Christians, we look up to Jesus’ teachings, life and examples to give us the primary guides in facing opportunities and challenges before us. In Luke 19 when Jesus was asked to give people special signs of the coming kingdom of God, he pointed to himself as the only sign. This is in the context of his impeding death and crucifixion with the temple as the backdrop of the discussion. He said the Temple will be destroyed but in 3 days he will rise up again. Jesus the Risen One is the ultimate sign given to us. It is the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Christ is the sign we have been looking for.
Jesus was raised in a culture where there is no separation between body, mind, spirit and soul. He also lived in a world which perspective is that material and spiritual are basically good. He lived in a world where life is viewed as one whole. In the prayer he taught us he said: Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God does not want this world to be destroyed. God wants it to be transformed into the realm of God. In Revelation 21, we see the new heaven and the new earth coming down to earth. To accomplish this, God needs you and me. God will not do it for us (so, please stop waiting for God to do the work for us). God wants us to be in partnership with him in making God’s kingdom a reality in our midst. Jesus life and example debunks the idea that the end of the world is preceded by horrible evils like wars and acts of nature like earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, famine. These evils, of course, can precede the destruction of the world if people – you and me – will not listen to God and Jesus’ teachings. Jesus, the Risen One, as the sign is challenging us to fight evils and pain and suffering. God has been waiting for us to join God’s work in transforming this world.
Our Old Testament lesson today is about Jacob on the run after he deceived and tricked his brother Esau on his first born right and blessing. He is running from Beer-sheba – his home, and a familiar place. Haran is his destination; still in the future. You and I know how difficult to leave our comfort zone and go to a place that we don’t know and new to us. He had to travel days. By nightfall he needed to stop not only for rest and sleep but also darkness made continuing his travel impossible. Remember there were not highways and bright street lights for guide and safe travel. It is in this time of wondering in the night that God came to him in a dream. Jacob must have felt that God has abandoned him. Transitions and difficulties in life can break or make us. We will be tempted to think that God has left us; the devil is so strong; we have no match for him. We might think that our sufferings are caused by the devil and part of it is definitely true. As our gospel lesson tells us, at night the devil sowed some weeds in the gardens of our life. It is also true, that many evils and sufferings in life are cause by us. That’s being human. We commit mistakes, we become arrogant and selfish and proud, we trust in our powers, and take advantage of other people. The writer of the epistle tells us that we are tempted by our evil desires (James 1:14). That’s what happened to Jacob. He was lured by his own selfish and evil desires in deceiving and tricking his brother Esau. Now he is running for his life because his brother is angry and is in pursuit of him.
Thank God. Times of transition and vulnerability may also make sensitive to the presence of God – pursuing us to return to God. Through a dream, Jacob realized that God is closer than he first thought and that God has not abandoned him. The angels (Malaika means messenger) coming up and down in the ladder or staircase spanning heaven and earth brought to him God’s message and empowering presence. I believe there many angels – God’s messengers – all around us, with wings or without wings. So far, I only saw and experience angels without wings. It is possible that I have encountered angels with wings in disguise as the writer of the epistle of Hebrews seems to suggest (Hebrews 13). Let us never forget that angels – with wings and without wings – are all around to help us. Yes, when Jacob lost his home and family, his control and power of what is going on with his life, when he was surrounded by darkness, he found God! Or even a better way to put it: God found him anew. C.S. Lewis said that God whispers to us in our pleasure and shouts to us in our pain. Pain, he said, is God’s megaphone to rouse a sleeping world. Now God moves to rouse Jacob even while he sleeps. Jacob’s experience on this night was the beginning for him to learn a lesson from what he did to his brother. (If we continue reading Jacob’s saga in Genesis you will realize it took Jacob many years to come around with repentance, humility, and courage to settle his misgivings with his brother Esau.)
Many of us have been so used with the American life before the Pandemic. Because we are so used to our life before pandemic, we can hardly adapt to the new situation. Many of us are so angry that our life and freedom that we used to have are taken away from us. Our reluctance to practice the 3 Ws – wear mask, wash hands, watch distance – are expressions of our grief of our past life.
We also thought that we are the most powerful country in the world, why we are not able to curb and control this coronavirus? Why is our government not able to see this coming? Why our best minds in science and health cannot come up with a better way to handle our situation?
We are like Jacob. He thought that he outwitted his brother and his family dynamics and culture. Only to realize that he is now running for his life. His brother is mad and wants justice, possibly even his death.
The words of Max Lucado are instructive here: If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior!
Friends, there are more in life than meets the eye, to borrow the line from poet W. H. Auden. We cannot always understand life with the use of science or empirical evidences. Life is also experienced in meaningful way by living out universal values like love, compassion, justice, etc. There are things in life that guides, controls, directs us and if we ignore them, we will pay the price. Yes, we need to repent, to reflect on what we have done not only with ourselves, with each other, and with creation. Perhaps we have been so comfortable with our accomplishments, with our selfish power. Perhaps we have become so comfortable and we have overlooked the values that create viable, equal and lasting relationships. Perhaps, the coronavirus is God’s way to waken us up; to put an end to our vanity and in ignoring living the values of God’s Reign.
When Jacob woke up, he felt totally rested and wonderful in a way that he had never experienced before. He was no longer the same after that night. He became better person because he met God anew. It is my prayer that after this Pandemic and after deep reflection and self-examination we will come up stronger and better people and nation:
There will always be challenges and difficulties in life. That’s the nature of life. There will be challenges – pandemic, social unrest, wars, crimes, injustice and more – that each generation will face. One generation will have more share, others will be less. Each generation will have to face its own problems with courage, wisdom and vision for a better day… and should never quit and never lose our North Star: TO LOVE. This is the message of our gospel lesson. We will face foes and demons in our lives, we must never give in to their ways. Last night I was watching an episode honoring John Lewis, an icon of the Civil Rights, also called the Gandhi of America, the Conscience of Congress, who died the night before. One great lesson that was highlighted was that the Civil Rights people were committed to non-violence and love. And they said that they were able to pass the Voting Rights Act because when America saw how the Ku Klux Klan or KKK violently attacked the protests at Edmund Pettus bridge and elsewhere, they got the support enough to pressure Lyndon Johnson to sign the bill into law. Our Gospel lesson informs us of the enemies who sowed seeds of weeds and thistles among the wheats. When Jesus was asked whether they are going to uproot the weeds, he said “NO.” They have to wait for harvest to separate the weeds from wheats. (Like angels who are all around us, demons, too, surround us – maybe with horns and good-looking ones. I confess I haven’t met one with horns but I have met many who are mostly beautiful and handsome. If they were ugly, it would be easy to recognize them among angels and from among us. That’s why in more ways than one, I have been lured by them. Thank goodness, God did not let me go with them all the way.)
I believe John Lewis and the Civil Rights advocate believe in loving the enemy and never embrace the enemy’s teachings and ways. John Lewis and advocates of active non-violence were willing to be beaten severely and prepared to die if need be. John Lewis suffered brutal beatings the most serious ones cracked his skull and almost cost his life. Like the Civil Rights people who are committed to Jesus way of non-violence, I pray that we may also have the courage to love our enemies believing that they, too, are created in the image of God and in need of God’s redemption. As we close, may you take with you these words of John Lewis to guide you in facing your own demons, trials and difficulties in life, both personal and systemic: “People keep telling me they are frustrated and ask, what can I do? I say organize, get registered and vote like you’ve never voted before. You must not become bitter or hostile, be hopeful and optimistic. This is not a struggle for a day or a week, but the STRUGGLE OF A LIFETIME.” Keep dreaming. Keep working. Fight the good fight of faith. Give all your best. You are not alone. You are in the company of endless line of people who made a difference in the world. Above all, remember God is with us in our struggles, in our hopes and dreams, in working and praying that the kingdom of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven.