Title: Entertaining angels

There’s a familiar saying: Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

When you give food to a hungry person, he appreciates it. He’s nourished and satisfied. But, of course, a few hours later, he’ll be hungry again. And, if he were given a meal, once, he might expect that all of his meals will be doled out to him. Why should he work for his meals?

What kind of person does this one become? I’m reminded of the family, back in Montague, who lived across the alley from me. The husband and father had not worked in years. He talked about his monthly welfare check as if it were his paycheck. While they were poor, they had just enough to pay the bills, feed the kids, and enjoy life, so he had no incentive to find a job. He used to say how he could have taken this or that job, but it paid less than he was "making" on welfare, so why should he take it? He was given a fish. He expected always to be given his fish. So, the man became no good to anyone—not to his family, not to his community.

Now, teach a man to fish, and he can feed himself and his family. He can turn his fishing skill into a job, his earnings into bill-paying money and his share of taxes, which pay his share of the police force and every other government office on which, before, he was on the receiving end. And, he can teach his kids to fish, so that they can also be useful citizens.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Keep this in mind as we learn about angels.

The same book of the Bible, the epistle to the Hebrews, from which today’s New Testament lesson is taken, also gives us the definition of an angel: "Are not all angels ministering spirits, sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?"

The word angel means messenger, and the word minister means servant. Angels are God’s messengers to serve God’s people. We see plenty of that, in God’s Word, as when Gabriel gave the message to Mary that she would bear the Son of God, and the angels who told the disciples, who were gawking into the empty tomb, that Christ wasn’t there because He had been raised.

From this, we add a couple of other insights regarding angels. The Lord Jesus tells us that little ones’ angels are always before His Father in heaven. And, when Peter had been imprisoned and an angel rescued him, Peter went to the house of friends, who thought he was still chained up, so they guessed that the man at the door was Peter’s personal angel.

From these verses, we came up with the term guardian angel, and that everyone has a guardian angel who is this ministering spirit who helps us in time of great need. Indeed, there are enough people in church, right now, that, almost certainly, more than one of you has a story to tell us about a time when an angel did exactly what Psalm 91 says: He kept your foot from slipping; that is, an angel kept you safe in a dangerous situation.

Now, you won’t hear me arguing against this as a great gift from God. Indeed, that God even created angels for us tells us about God’s nature, that He is a giver of good things. God didn’t have to create angels. God doesn’t do things because He has to, but because this is His nature, to do good things because He is good. And, His will is that you be the same way.

Did God only create angels to get us out of sticky jams? Or, to put it in the terms of how I opened the sermon—does God use angels only to give us a fish?

If angels only gave us fish, then we could become dependent on angels. If an angel gets me out of a tough situation this time, will I be expecting him to bail me out the next time? If all my guardian angel does is bail me out, don’t I become his welfare case? Don’t I come to expect him to take care of me, as my former neighbor expected the government to take care of him? Wouldn’t I become a lazy Christian, always expecting God’s daily handout?

Ah, but if angels do more than give fish—if angels also teach us to fish—then we have the chance to become fisherman—even fishers of men—and, that’s certainly a biblical notion.

This, finally, two thirds of the way into the sermon, brings us to this familiar Bible verse: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

How can we take this verse and apply it to the idea that angels, being the ministering spirits that they are—God’s messenger servants—could teach us to fish? Let’s find out by asking another question: What’s the greatest lesson every one of us needs to learn so that he is a useful citizen? The greatest lesson that every one of us needs to learn is the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want them to treat you. This falls right into the same category of the second greatest commandment: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Is it possible, then, that God created angels to do more than keep us from harm, but, also, to teach us to do good—to live in God’s image? Is that what this verse means: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares"?

Here’s the thing about angels: You won’t know when you see one. They don’t announce their presence, as in biblical days. But, they are still active, and God is using them for your good—for the good of those who will inherit eternal life. That’s way more than only you.

Your good is way more than for you to be kept safe, or have a full belly. Indeed, you have enough of that. You get too much, and you think that’s the life you deserve: eat, drink, and be merry, because what else is there to be concerned about?

And, when you have the fat-and-sassy attitude of the typical modern American, you don’t give a hoot about treating others the way you want them to treat you, or loving your neighbor as you love yourself. That’s the problem with the sinful nature—it always want to be fed; it doesn’t want to fish, but to be on the receiving end of someone else’s fine catch.

Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate angel. He is the ministering spirit who was sent to serve those who will inherit salvation—and, that, He did. He took on your sinful flesh to serve up His holy being in your place. He died so that you could live.

Oh, and He gives you fish! He fries up a platter full of tasty morsels in His Word, where you hear the proclamation that your sins are forgiven in His name; and in the water of baptism, where, forgive me for mixing metaphors, He brought you to the lake of eternal life, to swim with all of his other fish; and, in the Supper of His saving body and blood, where He does, indeed, nourish and satisfy you.

Now, you are His redeemed, and that makes you His fishermen—His fishers of men. Now, He puts His angels into your path, when you least expect them and you don’t know they are angels, and He uses them to teach you to fish—how to be a Christian; how to treat others the way you want them to treat you; how to love your neighbor as you love yourself; how to live in the image of Jesus Christ, who saved you for your eternal life, and so that you might also be a ministering spirit—His hook in this world, to catch every fish that He wants in His Paradise Pond. Amen.