The existence and work of angels is not something that is often discussed these days, and yet they are of huge significance both within scripture and the tradition of the Church.  September could be called the ‘Month of Angels’, as it is the month in which the feast of Michaelmas occurs; perhaps this is a good time to ponder the very real nature and work of the angels.

We live in a part of the world where there are several hilltop churches dedicated to St Michael the Archangel (including St Michael de Rupe, Brent Tor), and on Dartmoor we have two other special places of worship dedicated in the name of fellow archangels: St Raphael’s Chapel at Huccaby (which is the only Anglican chapel in the country to be dedicated in the name of Raphael) and St Gabriel’s Church, Postbridge.

I recently came across a reference to the neglected feast day of ‘St Michael in the Mountain Tomb’, which used to be celebrated in England on 16^th October. The history behind this feast offers an interesting explanation as to why hilltop churches are often dedicated in the name of St Michael.

The Feast of St Michael in the Mountain Tomb commemorated the occasion when the Bishop of Sipontum witnessed a series of apparitions of St Michael in a cave on Mount Tumba in Apulia, Italy, in about 490. The Archangel promised that, if the bishop built a place for Christian worship near the cave, he would protect the nearby town of Siponto from attack.

The bishop obliged, and built what is now the oldest shrine to St Michael in Western Europe, called Monte Gargano (or Monte Sant Angelo). The feast of Michael in the Mountain Tomb is still celebrated in some places on 8^th May, marking an occasion when, through the intercession of St Michael, Siponto was saved from pagan invaders. Interestingly, St Michael is also celebrated on 8^th May in the Diocese of Truro, as he is one of the county’s patron saints.

Why in England we used to keep the Feast of Michael in the Mountain Tomb on 16^th October is an interesting question. It could signify another miracle attributed to the intercession of St Michael in the Mountain Tomb, when a sailor, caught in rough October seas, was saved from being wrecked. This perhaps sheds light on the (later) legend which surrounds the building of St Michael de Rupe, Brent Tor by the grateful sailor who had survived a similar ordeal.

All this is very interesting, but still leaves us wondering, what exactly is an angel? They are God’s messengers (the word ‘angel’ is derived from angelos, the Greek word for ‘messenger’). Angels are purely spiritual beings, without their own physical bodies, but possessed of intelligence and their own will—which is why there are both good and evil ones. St Michael fights the evil ones in Revelation 12, for instance, and Jesus himself resists the fallen-angel-in-chief, Satan, when he is in the Wilderness for forty days and nights.

Angels haven’t the power to know the secrets of our hearts, or govern our wills, but can assist us in ordering our lives towards God. The idea that they are surpassing in perfection amongst all creatures and that they guard us comes from a number of sources, such as  Psalm  91:11: ‘For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways’.  Christ is at the centre of the angelic world, as they were all created through him and for him (see Matthew 25:31).

Angels are grouped into three orders: the seraphim, cherubim and thrones (who carry out the work of adoration), the dominions, principalities and powers (who engage in fighting evil) and the virtues, angel-guardians and archangels (who see to the custody of creation). All of these various types and orders of angels are meant to be working together, God working through all of them. We find angels in charge of the elements (Revelation 12:1, 14:18, 16: 1–10), guarding nations (Daniel 10), fighting Satan (Rev. 12:7) guarding us from peril (Daniel 6:22, etc); they protected Lot, saved Hagar and her child, stayed Abraham’s hand, led poor Lazarus to paradise…. and, to top it all, they can sing for ages without pausing for breath! ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isaiah 6: 3).

The angel Gabriel announced the birth of both Jesus and his precursor, John the Baptist, and visited Jesus (again, singing…) whilst he lay in the manger (see Luke: 2: 13–15). The angels protected Jesus in his infancy, served him in the desert and gave him strength in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:43). The angel in the empty tomb tells the women of his resurrection (Mark 16: 5–7). The fact that Jesus knows and makes use of angels means that we can legitimately benefit from their help, too.

The idea that we all have a guardian angel is an ancient one; it is really a crystallisation of what we find written about them in the Old and New Testaments. St Basil said ‘beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life’. The idea that we have such perfect and worthy creatures dispensing God’s grace may be difficult to grasp. I think that it is all about company: God loves to have lots of people with him, sharing his life. We all flourish and behave better in good company, so God provides it by giving us guardian angels. The writer to the Hebrews show the flipside to this when he says ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares’ (Hebrews 13: 2).

This Michaelmas may we be prompted by the aid of the angels to share more fully in the heavenly company which unites earth to heaven, by joining the angels in their unending hymns of praise.

The Transfiguration

On the 6th August the Church celebrates the feast of the Transfiguration. It is a hugely mysterious event recorded in the New Testament. But what is its significance? St Mark, Chapter 9:2-10 is set within a narrative sequence beginning at Caesarea Philippi where Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, and which ends with Jesus’s prediction of his Passion and the journey to Jerusalem (Mk10.52). The story of the “Transfiguration” as it is known follows Jesus’s earlier prediction, recorded by Mark, about the kingdom of God coming in power. By placing it here the evangelist links the events at Caesarea Philippi and the Transfiguration with the resurrection.

Mark would most probably have been writing in Rome between AD65-70 at a time of religious persecution of Jewish and Gentile Christians and when Christian apologetics sought to explain Jesus’s suffering, death and rejection. Throughout his Gospel he constantly seeks to work out a theme of the “messianic secret”, that is that the revelation of God’s reign has begun in Jesus, but remains hidden until the final act of revelation on the Cross. An important emphasis in his writing is Jesus’s Passion. The resurrection is proclaimed only once, by the women’s discovery of the empty tomb (Mk 16.1-8) and the words “He has risen, he is not here” (Mk 16.6). Most notably, Mark makes three predictions of Jesus’s passion (Mk 8.31, Mk 9.31 and Mk 10.33f), each of which alludes to the resurrection by stating “……after three days he will rise”. It is within this context that the Transfiguration is recorded to show the significance of Jesus’s passion and resurrection.

Fact or Theological Symbolism?

An important question is whether or not the Transfiguration has a factual basis or whether it represents theological symbolism. So what can we learn from the passage itself? Well, Mark begins “After six days”. This in itself is unusual. Mark rarely gives precise detail of time and this may be part of the symbolism or, conversely, a note to establish the Transfiguration as an historical event. Luke, for example, begins his account “After about eight days” (Lk 9.28). It is interesting to note that the opening is reminiscent of Exodus 24.13-16 when God revealed himself to Moses: “The Glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days” and this has led some Biblical commentators to suggest that, for Mark, the Transfiguration may have eschatological significance. Peter’s wish to build three dwellings (or “tents”) could be closely associated with the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, commemorating the time in the wilderness which had acquired eschatological significance in contemporary Judaism, that is, the looking forward to a new age, the hope that God would once more lead his people towards the promised land – in other words, the final realization of God’s Kingdom here on earth.  What is clear is that the passage is a crucial turning point for Mark. In his Gospel, it brings to an end Jesus’s Galilean ministry and, having established that Jesus is the Son of God, looks forward to the resurrection and the coming of the Kingdom.

Another explanation of the Transfiguration is that it could be a vision to Peter which gives insight into Jesus’s role. Several features of the account support this argument. In Biblical writing “the mountain” is often used as a symbol of divine revelation, and it is a common setting for theophanies. The time period of six days, apart from its association with the Exodus story (Ex24.13-16), corresponds to the time spent by the priest in the Temple before the Day of Atonement to purify himself; possibly therefore, this signifies a time of preparation for divine revelation. The “coming on a cloud” was also a recognised means of describing God’s presence (see for example, Ex16.10). The divine voice which Mark records is similar to that at Jesus’s Baptism “and a voice came from Heaven” (Mk 1.11). And so Mark, by inserting the story after Peter’s confession, may be describing Peter’s spiritual experience, that time when, perhaps, he saw Jesus in a new light or, in the terms of the Transfiguration, in new “Glory”.

The events which Mark records at Caesarea Philippi, and the Transfiguration, inevitably point to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man must go to face his final conflict and win his greatest glory.  They show the relationship between Jesus as the Son of Man and as the Son of God. Mark’s use of the term  “transfigured”  (from the Greek “metamorphothe”) suggests the form of Jesus was changed, as evidenced by his shining face and dazzling white clothes – Jesus is in splendour, glorified with Moses and Elijah, and identified by a voice from Heaven as God’s beloved Son. The belief that “glory” was almost infectious and could extend even to clothes was common at the time (see 1 Enoch 62.15-16); Luke also specifically mentions “they saw his glory” (Lk 9.32) and significantly Peter, James and John, the same disciples who will be with Jesus at Gethsemane (Mk 14.33), are witnesses.

Using the Exodus story Mark shows that the old covenant of Moses had passed away, Jesus is the new covenant. This teaching emphasises (Mk 14.17-25) that the first covenant was made through the blood of animals, but the new covenant can be brought in only through the death of Jesus on the Cross. The passage also gives a glimpse of Jesus’s Messiahship, a glimpse of his future glory, the final state of Lordship to come through the resurrection.

The role of Moses and Elijah is important. The Old Testament depicts an account of the death of both these characters; they were each “taken up” in mysterious circumstances and after suffering. It was widely believed that various Old Testament figures would appear at the end of this world and play a part in the events leading to it. Traditionally, they have been held to represent the “Law and Prophets” (Rev 11.3) which witness to Jesus. Mark may have seen the Transfiguration as a disclosure of God’s eschatological purpose.

The Transfiguration shows Jesus as the Son of Man and the Son of God who inaugurates the kingdom of God and the new covenant relationship between God and his people. Whether it is an attempt to interpret an historical event is impossible to say.  Mark portrays an eschatological message by using a recognisable genre and symbolism. Jesus is the Messiah because he must suffer but the Transfiguration portrays the glory which is beyond the suffering. It confirms the truth about Jesus, that above all he is God, and that in him God comes among us not only to share our humanity, but to be transfigured with it by giving up his life, sacrificially, for our salvation. In the Transfiguration it is this truth which is revealed to us.

Christopher Hardwick

Dear Friends,

As I’m waiting to welcome our next guests, I reflect on their need for refreshment and wonder if I will be able to meet (or even exceed!) all their expectations whilst they are staying with us. Often I don’t know their back story, the reason why they have chosen to stay in a particular place or at a particular time, but I do know that the welcome they receive when they arrive at their destination will set the tone for the rest of their holiday.

Visitors often arrive exhausted and sometimes frustrated from a delayed journey, so a cream tea is often the best gift I can offer to satisfy the immediate need for a sugar boost!  However, the Oxford dictionary definition makes it clear that, apart from satisfying our physical needs of food and drink, refreshment is also a giving of fresh strength and energy. Other words associated with refreshment include restoration, rejuvenation and spiritual refreshment.  Tavistock and its surrounding villages offer all of us the opportunity for refreshment in its widest sense.  We are so fortunate to have been placed in this area to live and work. Sometimes it is through the eyes and revelations of visitors that we are reminded of God’s glory. Living as we do with the beauty and majesty of the landscape constantly around us, we can become complacent and forget momentarily how awesome it is to be part of West Devon and Dartmoor.

We all need to set aside time for refreshment even when we live here! I imagined that by the time I got to be of a certain age I would be fully in control of my time. I hoped to be able to manage it so that I would never feel exhausted, weary and left reeling round and round. Instead I often expect my body to work as it did when I was only 35! But isn’t it encouraging to know that even when we have nothing more to give to others physically and emotionally, God never tires of us, and He gives me the strength when I need that last push. I can turn to my Bible and find the following to lift my spirits:

Psalm 62:1: For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

Psalm 73:26:  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

Jeremiah 31:25: I will satisfy the weary and all who are faint I will replenish.

Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

As we encounter visitors this summer, we might do well to let something of their passion for our town and villages remind us of our love for where God has placed us to work in His Kingdom, and may we bring encouragement to all those seeking refreshment in this special place.

Love and Blessings,

Reader Sally

Nothing is ‘Ordinary’      

We are once again coming to the end of the Easter season in our Church calendar, and after celebrating the ‘birth of the Church’ at Pentecost, we enter that long Church season termed ‘Ordinary Time’. But nothing is ordinary in the dealings of God with humankind, or in the life of the Church, or in the lives of you or me as Christian believers.

The triumph of the resurrection on Easter Sunday was certainly no ‘ordinary’ event. The powers of darkness may well have thought they had the victory when our Lord Jesus, the incarnate God who had become man, was crucified and died on Calvary’s tree. But no, Jesus burst forth from the grave to give to you and me not just the hope of eternal life, but also the promise that we shall be changed and share in the everlasting joys of heaven.

And what did the bystanders at the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem in the year AD30 make of the diverse languages coming from the lips of the disciples after the descent of the Holy Spirit had come upon them? In Acts 2v4 we read “the crowd was bewildered, amazed and astonished as they heard all these Galileans speaking in their own native language”.  That was no ‘ordinary’ event either for the bystanders to hear, or for the disciples who suddenly found they had been given the ‘gift of tongues’.

And is it any different in this twenty first century for you or for me as Christians?  We have become followers and disciples of the one true and living God, Yahweh, who spoke and the universe came into being (Gen 1v3). Yet God is like a Father to us, for He loves us with a love that accepts each one of us just as we are, and that is no ‘ordinary’ relationship.

Joy and I have just returned from following ‘the way of Saint James’, the Camino, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Some of you may remember we looked at ‘The Way’, a DVD featuring Martin Sheen, for our Lent course some three years ago, and if you have not yet seen the DVD it is well worth viewing. I hasten to add that we did not walk the 790km in twelve days but took the SAGA coach!

The culmination was the pilgrims’ Mass in the Cathedral in Santiago with the swinging of the thurible, the metal censer for incense, and that was no ‘ordinary’ event either! It was as exciting as in the DVD!

So, I wonder, what is your perspective on God? Is He just ‘ordinary’ and so small in order to fit your imagination? Do you hold a distorted view of what true faith in God should be? I am sure we all hold some distortions that only eternity will finally dispel, for now we “see through a glass darkly” (1Cor13v12).

Saint John relates how Jesus tried to give us a picture of a God free from distortions, a God who imparts to us eternal life, not just a supplier of our material needs, for the life God intended for us all is much fuller than that. Do our prayers reflect such a distortion, becoming just a mere list of requests, or are they more profound and outward looking? Jesus said “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life”. The crowd around Jesus then asked a most pertinent and relevant question, a question we also should constantly ask ourselves: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (Jn6v27).

And the answer that Jesus gave is not an ‘ordinary’ expectation or experience for most people: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (Jn6v29). That should be our prayer, both for ourselves and for all those whom we love and all whom we meet.

But, like the crowd around Jesus, people today demand a ‘sign’, “that we may see, and believe” (Jn6v30). But this is just another distortion. God is not in the business of supplying miracles on demand. We do know that as a God of grace and mercy He may well work miraculously in some situations, so let us not give up asking him for healings, and let us in expectation bring friends along to our monthly service for healing and wholeness. We may be surprised at what God can and will do.

Our faith as Christians is not merely a response to outward signs, even though these may be most significant at times, but it is a commitment and relationship to Jesus Christ, for Jesus is the gift of God to us that far outshines any material blessing we may desire or receive.

So as we move through the coming months of ‘Ordinary Time’ let us look forward in faith for the ‘extra ordinary’ to be seen from the God we serve, for we have the promise from Jesus that “he who comes to me I will not cast out” (Jn6v37). And Jesus does not end there but gives us that great hope and promise that “everyone who believes in the Son should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn6v40).

Now if that is not something ‘out of the ordinary’ I don’t know what is.

Every blessing to you all, Mike.

Dear Friends,

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?                                                         

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?                                                       

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble;                                        

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

I am writing this on Easter Monday, but I will never forget the Tavistock Passion Play on Good Friday. It was an enormous privilege to be involved with the production. I found the crucifixion extremely moving. It was wonderful to be able to sing along with the choir and reflect on the words of the old American Folk hymn: Were you there?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Yes, I was there in my imagination, the re-enactment was so powerful. The music and acting were great and the attention to detail paid off. It was so convincing – the crosses; the Roman soldiers; the costumes and the make-up, including the very realistic bruises on Jesus’s arms and leg, all enhanced the performance.

Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Was I the only one who looked up at the sky as the choir began to sing this verse, half expecting the Lord to make the scene even more dramatic? We had prayed that it would not rain and the Lord answered our prayers despite the forecast the day before for light rain for most of Friday morning. Delightfully it also remained fine for another smaller, but no less significant, Passion Play that took place on Good Friday afternoon – the Easter Ascent of Brentor to St Michael’s. It was a great start to the season of services at the top of Brentor.

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? This was a powerful reminder that Jesus, the truly righteous man, really did suffer appallingly and died for our sins. As St Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans:  But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Chapter 5:8 NRSV)

But, of course that is not the end of the story.

Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?

Yes! Jesus is alive today!

We have now travelled through Lent and are celebrating the season of Easter with Ascension Day at the end of May. For many of us, particularly in Mary and Peter Tavy, our Lenten journey has been particularly poignant this year following the death of our beloved Rector, Rev. John Higman at Candlemas. It would have been even harder to bear without the knowledge that Jesus overcame death and is alive and reigns forever, promising the gift of eternal life to all who believe in him.

Here in Mary Tavy the swallows have arrived and there are bluebells everywhere. Spring is established and summer on its way. The words of the old hymn, by JMC Crum, focusing on life through death, sung to the Old French Melody, come to mind:

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,                                                               

Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;                                                               

Love lives again, that with the dead has been;                                                               

Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

The beginning of the second verse makes it clear Love refers to our Lord Jesus Christ:

In the grave they laid him, Love whom men had slain

But it is the last verse that breaths life and hope into our situation and informs my prayer for the parishes of Mary Tavy and Peter Tavy:

When our hearts are wintry, grieving or in pain,                                                                     

Thy touch can call us back to life again,                                                                                 

Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:                                                                        

Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.