Asked people to bring an angel from their Christmas collections

What kind of angels do we have?

Are there any scary ones?

I’ve always wondered why angels always have to say first, “Don’t be afraid.”

We don’t portray them as scary monsters.

To be “angelic” usually means a peaceful demeanor.

Perhaps it’s the news they carry that is difficult to take in.

In the Christmas story especially, the angels come to different characters in the story and always preface their remarks by saying, “Don’t be afraid.”

The angel says to Mary, “Don’t be afraid – you’re God’s favorite.”

But to be God’s favorite means that she will conceive a son while she’s still a virgin. She’ll have to explain that to her parents and to her husband to be. She’s told that her baby will inherit the throne of his ancestor David – a throne whose history is fraught with both personal anguish and national troubles. Even though this boy will be a great King, it’s not long before that royal promise is shadowed with overtones of betrayal, denial, and death. Mary may be God’s favorite, but God has never been known to bestow pleasantries on the favorites. God’s favorites usually have to endure the worst kinds of personal pain. This favored one will be there to watch her innocent son die a humiliating death at the hands of the people he so desperately loved.

The angel says to Joseph, “Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Name the boy Jesus – for he will save people from their sins.”

Joseph is told not to be afraid to become part of this holy family. But he will raise a son who looks up to a different Father. He will take his family into hiding when Herod wants to kill baby boys because of a rumor that the new King in the Davidic line has been born. Joseph will be the one dealing with Jesus in the “unwritten” years of being a precocious teenager and shirking the family business to hang out at the fishing pier. Jesus may save people from their sins, but who can spare Joseph from the knowledge that he will have to die to do it?

The angels say to the shepherds, “Don’t be afraid. We bring you good news of a great joy about a special baby who is now resting in a feed trough.”

The shepherds were not used to getting good news. They were part of human society used to getting bad news. All day they dealt with disease, and predators, and their own poor state. Angels don’t bring news to shepherds. They talk to kings, rulers -- prophets at the very least. When someone has good news for the lowly in society; it usually means that someone in power is going to get kicked down a few pegs. That’s never a pretty picture. Saviors don’t announce their arrival to shepherds. Messiah’s don’t get placed in beds of hay. Mary’s vision is coming true. The powerful will be brought down from their thrones and the lowly will be lifted up; the hungry will be filled with good things and the rich will be sent away empty.

The angels always say “Do not be afraid.”

This is not to say there’s nothing to fear, but to give us courage to face fears that are justified.

They always say “Don’t be afraid” because they are messengers of God, and God is always bigger than our fears.

So what are we afraid of?

Darkness, war, death

The prophet Isaiah says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness –on them light has shined.”

Do not be afraid, for we too walk in the darkness. Personal darkness, societal darkness, national darkness. Sometimes it feels as though we are the ones living in a land of deep darkness. I think that’s why some of the most popular fantasies of our time are so concerned about battles between good and evil. Times are dark. We are scared. Will we bear witness to the light that outshines any darkness? The language of scripture seems old and wise, but mostly old. It creates cadences that are hard for us to hear about the cycles of time and the trust that we must place in God’s plan when we are so utterly convinced that we have life under control.

Isaiah speaks of a perpetual kingdom, one begun by a predestined child, one that is governed with a sense of unprecedented justice and well-placed authority. The ruler of this kingdom will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. We recognize this authority in the trust given to Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary, raised by Joseph, and heralded by angels saying, “Do not be afraid.” But we are afraid. We are afraid to adopt the counsel of Christ over the assumptions of our culture. We are afraid to honor the might of God above our nation’s power and might. We allow fear to run our relationships rather than trust the steadfast love of our Everlasting Father. And we let fear keep us raising the stakes of wars and disputes of all kinds rather than living as neighbors and friends under the Prince of Peace.

How can we learn to honor the Prince of Peace? Perhaps it’s by trembling a little and loving a lot. The messengers of God, God’s angels, cannot take away our fears. Our fears are very real. What the angels can do is remind us that there’s life beyond our fear, a life in which God promises to be with us (Emmanuel). The angels can remind us to take the risks – like Mary, like Joseph, like the shepherds – to hear God calling forth a new thing in our lives. We rehearse our Christian courage when we tell this story again this year. At the end of 2007, we hear Mary and Joseph say “yes” to a time-altering event that will forever be known as the “before” and the “after.” We hear the shepherds say, “We’ll come see” and watch them stare in awe at a child no different from them who gets presents of gold and rare treasures. When we hear, “Do not be afraid,” we allow both danger and courage to be a part of the story, our story.

Amen.