190929 Sermon for St. Michael and All Angels, September 29, 2019 One of the most powerful stories that we are all taught by many different sources is that progress is marching on. We are getting better and better all the time. There seems to be a lot of evidence for this. People used to not have toilets. Now we do. People used to not have electricity. Now we do. Sick people used to die quickly. Now they die slowly. People used to have to write letters. Now they text. Who knows, then, what we might discover in the future, but whatever it is, it is going to be great.Another important part of this story of progress also has to do with religion. The story of progress says that we have outgrown religion. According to the story of progress, religion was a substitute—and a rather poor substitute at that—for science. For example, people used to not know how weather worked, and so they ascribed it to the will of a certain god. People used to not know how diseases worked, and so they ascribed it to a demon. Now we supposedly know how weather and diseases work, and so there is no longer any need to believe in gods or spirits.The story of progress has been very successful in our culture. It is in the air that we breathe, and so it has its effect on us Christians as well. We also are prone to disbelieve in the existence of evil angels and good angels. We are even more prone to disbelieve that these spirits have anything to do with our day-to-day life. If such things exist or if they actually do anything, then we want proof. Since the proof is never as good as we want it to be, it is a whole lot easier to just believe what everybody else believes. People will think that you are weird if you don’t believe what everybody else believes. Therefore, being a Christian today requires some independence. Christians have a very different story of what the universe is all about. We are not the product of progress or evolution. The heart and soul of the story of our existence is the love of God toward us in Jesus Christ. For us and for our salvation God became man. Jesus redeemed us by dying on the cross even though we have been rebellious towards God. The Creator has joined himself to us with the greatest intimacy and friendliness. God is flesh of our flesh—an unheard of thing and very intimate. He is also very friendly. All who believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Those who do not believe in him remain in their sins and are condemned for they reject the best and most important thing that has ever happened—the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.Angels are not at the very heart of this story of our existence, but they are still very much a part of it. The festival of St. Michael and All Angels gives us the opportunity to look at their part in the story of the universe that is otherwise neglected or dismissed as antiquated.Angels were created by God as spirits. Spirits are unusual creatures in that they don’t have bodies like we have bodies. When they have become visible to people, it is because they have taken on a visible form, like the Holy Spirit took on the form of a dove at Jesus’s baptism. The Holy Spirit is not a dove. The Holy Spirit does not have a body. He is a spirit. That’s who the angels are too, but sometimes they will take on a visible form.Sometime after God created all the angels, there was some kind of rebellion among the angels. The Bible doesn’t tell us nearly so much about this as our curiosity might want. All that we can say for sure is that as a result of this rebellion there were thenceforth good angels (as God had originally created them all to be) and evil angels (who once were good, but then made God their enemy).The fallen angels are also called demons. The leader of the demons is the devil or Satan. It was this Satan who took on the form of a serpent, or possessed a serpent, and tricked Adam and Eve into their rebellion against God. Satan is the liar and the murderer who is ultimately responsible for