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Secondary: Current Assemblies

 ANGELS (MICHAELMAS)

By Stuart Kerner


> Suitable for Whole School


> Aim

To mark the season of Michaelmas and consider the nature of angels.

 

> Preparation and materials

> Assembly

        

  1. Play ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams as the audience enter.
  2. Begin by saying that you would be very surprised if most of the audience had not heard the song before. It is, of course, ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams, the song that saved his solo career in 1997.
  3. Continue that it was voted the best song of the past 25 years of British music at the 2005 Brit Awards. Also (and possibly more surprisingly) in March of last year, it was voted the song Britons would most like played at their funeral.
  4. Comment that (as many of your audience who have been to a funeral or memorial service recently will know) funerals are sometimes incredibly sad occasions, where people are very emotional and weep for the loss of a loved one.
  5. However, for Christians, death is not the end. Many choose to treat it more like a celebration of the life of the deceased and so funerals sometimes have the atmosphere of a party.
  6. Ask why people think ‘Angels’ is thought to be such a suitable song for a funeral. You should hopefully get answers involving the idea of someone watching over us and taking care of us in everyday life.
  7. Ask your listeners to consider whether or not they believe in the existence of angels.
  8. Say: ‘If I were to ask if any of you had seen an angel, I’m sure that some of you would say “yes”. We want to believe it; we want to be confident that we are enclosed in the loving protection of a guardian angel.’
  9. During the Middle Ages, philosophers used to argue about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. But, as the world has developed, science has uncovered more and more, and technology puts within our grasp methods of communication that, a hundred years ago, could only have been achieved by angels. Things are so much more complicated today.
  10. So do angels really exist? The Bible tells us pretty firmly that they do.
  11. In the Old Testament, Jacob wrestles with an angel (Genesis 32.23–31) and Abraham is visited by three angels who tell him he is to be a father (Genesis 18.1–16).
  12. We all know the story of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary to announce the birth of Jesus (Luke 1.26), and the ‘choirs’ of angels we sing about at Christmas who told the shepherds about the nativity (Luke 2.8–14). And again, after Jesus has risen, the women at the tomb are greeted by more angelic agents who tell them their Master has gone (Luke 24.4).
  13. But, of course, angels aren’t always so kindly. You will probably have heard about the angel of death in the story of Moses. This angel, while carrying out the instructions of God, was responsible for the tenth plague – the deaths of all first-born Egyptian children (Exodus 11.1–12.36).
  14. Point out that the reason you are discussing all this is that at this time of year, on 29 September, some Christians celebrate Michaelmas or the feast of St Michael and All Angels, as it’s sometimes known.
  15. St Michael is said to be Prince of All Angels and is portrayed in the Bible as a dragon-slaying archangel. He led the army of God during the Lucifer uprising, casting Satan out of Paradise. St Michael, then, quite literally fought with the devil:

    ‘Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him’ (Revelation 12.7–9).
  16. Satan was originally God’s brightest angel. His pride caused this war and resulted in his being thrown out of heaven with a third of the angels.
  17. Because of his history of fighting evil, St Michael is the patron saint of soldiers and police officers and is also said to be guardian of the souls of the dead, weighing their good and bad deeds in his scales, according to Christian tradition.
  18. Michaelmas used to be an important day in the calendar, as it was a ‘quarter day’ when rents would be paid, priests ordained and local officials elected. Many customs and traditions were kept on this day, like eating goose to ensure a year of wealth and plenty ahead.
  19. One of the stranger bits of folklore surrounding St Michael and his angels concerns conversation. Those awkward silences that sometimes occur while people are chatting together in a group were said to be the result of an angel passing by and taking the conversation to record in a heavenly book. This record would then be presented on Judgement Day as evidence either for or against the speakers.
  20. Be careful what you say, you never know who might be listening and who might just hold it against you later on!
  21. Conclude by saying that whether you believe angels exist or not, you could do worse than take up St Michael’s example – challenging evil, protecting the weak and above all acting as a soldier for the Lord.

> Time for reflection

Reflection:

We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.

(Luciano de Crescenzo)

How wonderful it must be to speak the language of the angels, with no words for hate and a million words for love!
(Eileen Elias Freeman)

 

Prayer:

Dear Lord,
In a wonderful way you guide the work of angels and men.
May those who serve you constantly in heaven
keep our lives safe from all harm on earth.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

 

> Song

‘He who would valiant be’ (Come and Praise, 44).


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