Homily For The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels 2026
One of the first jobs I had as a young man was working in a small Christian bookstore. I recall spending time looking at bibles, bible cases, literature and tracts. We also had a display case with Precious Moments figurines. I imagine some of you are familiar with this series of stylistic depictions. The designer presented the Apostles and Prophets as doe-eyed children with quirks, safe and warm and palatable. Precious Moments also had a series of angels for sale. Most of these were soft, unassuming, accessible in tone. The Christian faith was presented, in light of Her saints and angels, as nothing short of pastel and innocent. Kind, yes. Warm, yes but pathetic in response to the threats that face the Church.
The Epistle for this feast is a corrective to the temptation to domesticate angelic power. They are not powerless porcelain characters but beings who God created with distinctive glory and power. We see this in today’s Epistle from Revelation Chapter 7. St. Michael and all the angels are arrayed in this battle in heaven. They overcome Satan and throw him out. Not only Satan but those angels who rebelled against God are cast out of heaven. We acknowledge the power of Satan - the great deceiver, the accuser of the brethren in the throne room of heaven. He was the exalted one who had the brazen audacity to attempt to stage a mutiny in heaven against the unassailable God of heaven and earth. It is not God who cast him out; God gave power to Michael the Archangel to lead the forces of the obedient angels against Satan and his host. Michael overcame Satan. God had given him power and might to cast Satan’s entire army out of heaven.
Saint Michael, in the Latin, Sanctus Michael, Holy Michael. He and all the legions of holy ones fight at the direction of the Lord. Unlike human saints, who are declared righteous, declared holy because of their faith in Jesus Christ. St. Michael, Holy Michael and all the angels are holy because they exist in godly perfection in the presence of God Himself. They offer to God unceasing praise and obedience. The angels are unmatched among the created order in their desire to love and serve God. Richard Hooker, arguably the greatest of the Anglican theologians, writes the angels behold, “the face of God, in admiration of so great excellency they all adore him; and being rapt with the love of his beauty, they cleave inseparably for ever unto him. Desire to resemble him in goodness, maketh them unweariable and even unsatisfiable in their longing to do by all means all manner of good unto the creatures of God, but especially unto the children of men;”
They are models of how we as humans should offer ourselves to the Lord. Their love of God - His excellency, His beauty - makes them unwearied in praise and thanksgiving. We read in the Old Testament Lesson of the vision of the throne room of God in Isaiah Chapter 6. There, the veil is pulled back so that we can see the worship offered by the angels. They sing his praises “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and never grow weary of His presence, never grow tired of obeying his will. In their obedience, they minister unto the children of men. Men and women, who preferred sin and independence to God’s perfect holiness and creaturely dependence; the angels minister to those who are often double-minded and reticent to obey. They long to understand, to look into the salvation that has been won for us in Jesus Christ. They are eager to comprehend the implications of our redemption. Jesus Christ, the perfectly righteous, offered himself - the sinless for the sinful-to reconcile us to God.
The angels, in the words of today’s collect, “succour and defend us on earth.” We read in the Book of Daniel (12:1) that Michael is the great defender of God’s people. The Psalmist declares that “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” He also acknowledges the power of God who gives command of his angels to guard the faithful in all their ways. The holy Angels defend us in our fight with the evil one; in a realm that we cannot see but is just as real as our physical world.
On this feast day of Holy Michael and all Holy Angels, let us praise God for having created the angelic host who serve men in a most wonderful order. God has appointed that they may strengthen and defend the Church of God here on earth. May we grow in our love of God and offer Him ever-increasing obedience, worship and praise. Amen.
