What do you think of when you think of angels? If I had to bet, I’d say it’s something like this…

Or this….

Or perhaps one of these…

But if we read the Bible’s descriptions of angels carefully, we might more accurately imagine them like this…

It turns out that the Bible’s angels are actually kinda metal, terrifying even! Maybe that’s why the ones they visit so often have to be told “Do not be afraid.” 

Sure, some of the “angels we have heard” in the Bible do in fact play harps and sing “sweetly o’er the plain,” but as a group, from Genesis to Revelation, the angels of the Bible do much more than sing. 

In the chapters preceding today’s reading the angels have not been singing much at all. They’ve been ripping open seven seals of John’s apocalypse, unleashing a torrent of divine judgment upon the earth. But then, between seals six and seven, there is a reprieve. John is shown a foretaste of where this is all headed. He sees a multitude worshiping God, having been brought through this great ordeal. It’s a foretaste of the End. But just as soon as it appears, it vanishes, and then there is silence, curiously it lasts about a half an hour. 

Then… more angels. The Seer sees seven angels given seven trumpets. Then another angel, armed with a golden censer, mixes incense with the prayers of the saints, combines that with the fire from heaven’s altar and begins to fling it upon the earth as thunder, lightning, earthquakes. This is the Lord’s un-making, de-creation of the world, at least the world as it is. This is God’s Advent, and these are Advent angels. 

If what you expected today was feathered and dimpled cherubim, well, sorry. These angels have come not just with a message, but on a mission to destroy! 

Nevertheless, I say to you, do not be afraid. Because in the fullness of time this angelic advent of destruction is also our salvation. 

World War II era theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says if we want to get into the Advent Spirit we should imagine ourselves at the base of a caved in mine, waiting, hoping against hope, praying that someone is coming to save us.

Advent, like today’s reading, begins in silence, in the dark, under the weight of a fallen world caved in on itself. Advent is the time that is every time, when we strain to see even the faintest light break through, and listen for the voice of one crying out that “Help is on the way. Prepare the way of the Lord.” Whether they come singing or come swinging, the message and the mission of the angels is to leave no stone unturned in God’s efforts to save us. 

So, Advent begins in silence, because if we can get silent enough, we may start to hear the sound of angels, not just plucking their harps, but swinging swords and pick axes, clearing the way of all the world’s fallen rubble, preparing the way for Christ to come and save us.