Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Old Testament and Revelation lessons (Daniel 10: 10-14, 12: 1-3 and Revelation 12: 7-12).

In light of this Sunday's emphasis on angels, I was asking people what they wanted to know about angels. One member asked "Am I an angel?" I very quickly said, perhaps overly quickly for him, "Oh, no, you're not an angel!" I didn't mean that the way it might have sounded. I was not insisting that he was less "angelic" than most. I was simply stating a fact that humans are humans and angels are angels, and we do not become angels when we die or after Judgement Day. Now there are many things I could say about angels, many questions I could address. Since angels are mentioned hundreds of times in Scripture, I knew I would not be able to address nearly everything, so I addressed several additional questions on the front of this month's "Parish Caller" Newsletter. If you have more questions, please call me or write them down and I'll "search the Scriptures" with you to answer them. But for today, I think it best to stick primarily with the messages of our given texts for today, with their images and ideas. There are only two angels mentioned by name in Scripture, Gabriel and Michael. Both are named as appearing to Daniel. Gabriel appears to Mary and to John the Baptist's father Zechariah prior to Jesus' birth. Michael appears only in our texts here today and in Jude 9.

One of the most striking images in these texts is the "War" going on in heaven. Michael and his good angels are battling against the devil, the accuser and his angels. War in heaven? I thought heaven was supposed to be a place of peace and glory and praise of God? How can there be battles there? Satan would have no hope of physically overpowering the all-powerful Lord.

But the battle described here may be more of a war of words. Satan use to have the ability to stand in the presence of God, in the courtroom of God, and accuse sinners before God. He did so in the Old Testament, in the book of Job. Satan was rather like a prosecuting attorney, an unjust prosecuting attorney slinging his accusatory evidence against the accused criminals. But Satan had this privilege apparently only before the time of Jesus on earth. In verse 5 just prior to our text we hear "She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne."

While most of Revelation is written in figurative language, often difficult to decipher, our text is clearly speaking about a battle in heaven that came after Christ's ministry on earth and his ascension back to heaven. This battle is not so much a physical war with guns or knives or muscles or fists, but a powerful war of words, accusations and defense. Our Lord, because of his ministry and death and resurrection and ascension back into heaven, has taken our guilt, taken our punishment. He has become our defense attorney in this heavenly court, not because we are innocent of ourselves, but because His blood, the blood of the Lamb, ransoms the world, takes on the punishment we deserved. That blood was shed on the cross for us. That blood strengthens us regularly through the Sacrament, which we will again partake in a few minutes.

There was a battle in heaven after the time of Christ, but in a very real sense, Michael and his angels were not the major actors in this drama. Granted they played an important role, carrying out God's will. But really Michael and his angels are simply acting as the court bailiffs, taking the unjust prosecuting attorney, himself guilty of all sorts of slander and contempt of court, and escorting him out of the court.

God has found him in contempt, and Michael and his angels are simply removing him from the courtroom of heaven. We have one other place in Scripture where Michael and Satan are involved in a war over words, the only other place Michael is mentioned by name apart from our two texts. In Jude 9 it says: "But Michael the archangel, when he was disputing with the devil over the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a harmful judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Michael, powerful beyond our imaginations, does not physically contest with the devil, but calls on an even stronger power to subdue him, the Word of the Lord. What is ironic about our two texts, Revelation and Daniel, is their timing. We normally think the Book of Revelation is written about End Times, but today's text focuses on the time directly after Christ's Ascension, when Satan was removed from heaven, no longer given an audience to accuse God's chosen people. But he was thrown down to earth, still with a limited power to hurt and tempt and lead people astray. When we normally think of the book of Daniel, written 500 years before Jesus time on earth, we think of the stories of the heroes of faith, Daniel standing up for his God and being thrown into a lion's den. "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego" standing up and trusting their Lord enough to be thrown into a fiery furnace. But the second half of the book of Daniel is really a sort of Old Testament Revelation. Even though our Old Testament was written centuries before, in it we learn of what Michael the archangel will be doing for God's people in a "time yet to come." Daniel 12: 1-3 "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people-- everyone whose name is found written in the book-- will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever."

When Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast in 1969, it was preceded by several weather warnings, warnings that many heeded and moved to safety, but warnings that others chose to ignore. A group did not take the warnings seriously, and chose to hold a party on the top floor of a condominium. When the force of the hurricane hit, 23 of them died (from Rev. D. Martin, Concordia Pulpit Resource, September 2002). As Christians, you and I are like the wise people in our text, people who have heard the warnings of the coming judgment against Satan and all who follow his ways. As Christians, we are confident that our names are written in the Book of Life and we will be delivered. While our bodies are here on earth, our names are written in heaven. We don't know when our Lord is coming, either the Last Day for everyone or before that for us individually at death.

As many of you know, it was a difficult week for me in one sense, having to do a double funeral for a young mother and her 5 year-old son killed tragically in a car wreck caused by someone else. But in another sense, this week was a joy. I knew of this young woman's faith in Christ, her membership with our congregation and numerous other congregations in Topeka and Oklahoma as she led a mobile life during childhood and as the wife of a soldier. I knew how important the Sacrament of Baptism was to her, and how she had arranged for the baptisms of all her children and continued to instruct them in the Christian faith.

She wanted their names written in the Book of Life. I was able to proclaim, with confidence, to over 200 family members and friends, the joy of the Gospel and protection from angels and the power of resurrection in Jesus Christ.

As Christians we also are given the great opportunity to be "spiritual" forecasters and reporters, "to lead many to righteousness." We have the great responsibility to warn those who are not aware of the "time yet to come," coming of Jesus. We have the great joy to know that we and many others have heard and heeded those warnings, and now reside in the strongest storm shelter ever devised, our Lord's Body the church. We are protected by powerful angels like Michael. We are protected by an even more powerful force, the Holy Spirit, working through and with God's powerful Word and Sacrament. We will never become "angels", even when we are in heaven. But as we continue in His Word, we can be confident of the time when we will see them and be their peers and fellow worshipers in the presence of Lamb of God. Revelation 22: 20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.