Well, some of us here might well have boycotted those terrible stores that refused to wish one a Merry Christmas! Thank the good Lord, for the one dependable store that continued to identify the season with “Merry Christmas”! They say it on the TV, in magazines and when you shopped at their store. I told my family that we should support this store at all cost! Thank you, Victoria’s Secret! I will really look forward to getting a few gifts from there!

There were plenty of places to leave money, not just for ones own purposes or benefits although some might forget that during this day. The New Yorker Magazine had a cartoon about Christmas spending. Along the sidewalk stood a sweet woman from the Salvation Army ringing her bell with the sign “give” posted visible above the depository. Walking by the sign was a well-dressed executive head high in his business suit, with a baseball cap that read GET! The giving and the getting often define Christmas: “What did you get this Christmas? What did you give your husband this Christmas? The Apostle Paul reminds us in quoting Jesus “it is more blessed to give than to receive”ⁱ. As we mature we spend more and more time trying to create and find the perfect gift for those whom we love. Today we could be asking the question; what did you give this Christmas? There is only one gift that is better than giving and that gift we read about in John 1: 12; “But to all who received him (Christ Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor or the will of man, but of God.” It is in the receiving, the believing, and the becoming the children of God that we experience the greatest of gift of all. That gift is superior to anything else we could be given. Sometimes we get confused in our own identity and in the identity of Jesus. The early Jewish Christians struggled with fully comprehending who Jesus was. They assumed that he was a much honored and glorified angel; part of God’s heavenly host, but Hebrews 1 makes it clear that Jesus is far superior to the angels.

Please turn with me to Hebrews 1, in your Bible so that we may receive the gift of hearing God’s word together: Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” 7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” 10 And, “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing; 12 like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end.” 13 But to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? The word of the Lord, thanks be to God!

Years ago a new pastor from a local presbytery had arrived at a very established church. Its congregation was accustomed to a worship service with beautifully orchestrated music, a short homily a lot of handshakes and good appearances until next Sunday. After a few months one of the long time members noted, the pastor only preaches on Jesus. “Every week all we hear is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. One might think that the pastor spent his first year preaching only on Hebrews for the author writes to make it perfectly clear that it is all about Jesus the Christ, the one who is superior to all else. He is worthy of all our words. He is not to be confused with prophets or anything less than the incarnation: For Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophetic word in the Old Testament and New Testament. Jesus is God’s Son; Jesus is God’s appointed heir, Jesus is God’s agent in creation, Jesus is the radiance of God; Jesus is God’s perfect revelation; Jesus is God’s sustainer through the Word in power, Jesus is God’s unique and perfect sacrifice, Jesus reigns with God in powerⁱⁱ.

In Jesus’ uniqueness we recognize that he is not a mere angel. To the Jews angels were honored and highly regarded; commonly they were ill advisedly worshiped. Easily the Jewish Christians, to whom this epistle is written, considered Jesus higher than humanity and felt that they needed to elevate him to the status of Angel, perhaps the perfect most high angel of God. Scripture tells us that angels transcended from the heavenly realm as messengers for God, bringing news and helping God’s people. We read of angels ministering to Abraham, Moses, Baalam and Daniel. Psalm 91:11 tells us that angels are given charge over us and watch us. One need only know Christmas hymns to know the importance of angels, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “Angels from the Realm of Glory”; nearly every Christmas song has a verse for angels. In the New Testament Angels announce the birth of Jesus, minister to Jesus and announce the resurrection of Jesus also. Despite all their glory and significance, Jesus is not merely an angel. Quoting from the Septuagint, Hebrews makes clear the difference in the one superior Christ Jesus, who in obedience to God takes on our form, not an angel’s, and empties himself taking on the form of a servant made in human likeness.”ⁱⁱⁱ Although Psalm 8:5 tells us that we are created but a little lower than the Angels we have been given through Jesus Christ an inheritance that is uniquely offered to us, not to angels.

Being an Angel is less than who Jesus is for Jesus is superior even to the angels. Jesus himself brings us into the presence of God. We have a culture that has gone gaga over Angels. We have angel ornaments on our tree; we have little figurines of angels, sweet, feminine, innocuous and displayed everywhere. Yet almost every time I read of angels in Scripture, especially in the New Testament they are frightening people with their presence, somehow the cherubs of Raphael, or Rembrandt’s angel in the “Holy Family with Angels”, doesn’t quite capture the power, majesty and purpose of angels. They look child like; ethereal with skin so white one is convinced they are anemic! We have several Christmas Carols about Angels and books about angels. Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code has even capitalized on the concept of Angels merely by the title of his book Angels and Demons. The book The Littlest Angel is sweet and endearing but it perpetuates what so many people believe, that we aspire to the level of angel, rather to the appropriate call of being heirs, brothers in sisters of the kingdom of God. When people we love die, we say they have become angels in heaven. We compliment someone’s behavior by saying you're like an angel. We coerce loved ones with the concept of “be an angel” and give me a hand.

But our behavior should reflect our inheritance. Rather than being called an angel, I’d much rather people look at the community of Christians and recognize who God has created us to be, by his grace: “it is the Spirit himself bearing witness to our spirit that we are children of god, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”^iv There is no comparison with Jesus and the angels. Wouldn’t it be the best gift you ever received from another person to have them say to you, “you remind me a Jesus, “you’re like his brother or sister”? To me having someone that I remind him or her of Jesus would be the gift worth getting.

Amen.

ⁱ

Acts 20:35
ⁱⁱ Brown, Raymond; The Message of Hebrews; pg. 28-30
ⁱⁱⁱ Phil 2: 6ff
^iv Romans 8:17

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