Mtr Beth Clarke
Friends in Christ,
Moving back to Arizona from Washington, DC, has me really appreciating horizon lines again. There is something both calming and enticing about a visible horizon, as it marks the limit of our physical perception. And while we can know what lies beyond it, it creates a boundary between observable reality and what we know through faith.
Today, we celebrate the feast of Michaelmas, the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, which gives us an excellent opportunity to contemplate a different kind of horizon: the spiritual horizon.
We encounter Michael the Archangel most dramatically in Revelation, where he leads the heavenly host in a celestial war against evil, a battle unfolding far beyond our ordinary horizon. Michael fights a dragon, and this dragon is no run-of-the-mill monster. Revelation names him as the Devil, the deceiver of the whole world. And the dragon is cast down.
Michael’s victory points us to Christ’s victory over death. Revelation directs our gaze toward a spiritual horizon in which, through Christ, the dominion of sin and death is broken. The blood of the Lamb defeats the great adversary. Christ wins the cosmic battle.
That is part of what makes Michaelmas such a profound feast of the Church. It invites us to gaze beyond what we typically perceive and encounter the realm of the holy. And, in fact, we do this every time we gather for worship. In so many ways, worship asks us to look toward the spiritual horizon.
At the Eucharist, we say that we join our voices “with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven,” before crying out with them: Holy, holy, holy. Our liturgy directs our attention beyond the horizon. We participate in a worship that extends far beyond what we can see around us.
The Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels falls on September 29, but this year we are transferring our celebration to Sunday, October 4, allowing the whole gathered community to enter more fully into this celestial feast.
So, as you gaze toward a horizon and wonder what lies beyond it, remember that a horizon does not mark the end of reality. It marks only the limit of what we can physically see, but not of what we can faithfully know.
Michaelmas invites us to look toward that boundary with hope, trusting that just beyond, the song of heaven resounds: Holy, holy, holy.
Yours in Christ,
—Mtr Beth