Coming to St. Michael and All Angels, for at least one member of my family, has been an invitation to broaden the imagination. You see, our son is about to turn six years old, and all around this church are statues, icons, and even stained glass windows of St. Michael, the old Archangel himself. The angel was hardly ever what caught Silas’ attention. Rather, what draws his eye is the dragon. He has so many questions about the dragon, what it means, where Michael encountered the dragon, why they fought. The dragon needs explanation.
Today I want to talk about the dragon, and I do so with a bit of trepidation:
We live in days where faith can be difficult. There is a great deal of cynicism in our society, some of it parades as atheism. Those of us who come to church, who say our prayers, are questioned: Why bother? Don’t we know that science is real? Isn’t this all just a big fairytale?
“Fairy Tales are more than true, not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.”
Those words are actually a misquote by the fantasy author Neil Gaiman of GK Chesterton. He used what he thought were Chesterton’s words to start his novel Coraline. The misquote is so good that it stuck around.
“Fairy Tales are more than true, not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.”
I feel within myself, even as I say these words, a certain resistance. Evil is difficult to talk about. This is at least partly because the church has often used the questions of good and evil to belittle, to manipulate, and to control. The church has called many things which are good “evil,” from loving same-gender relationships, to ordained women, the acceptance of our trans siblings and the welcoming of immigrants. The church has been wrong to name what is good evil, and for the times the church has done so out of a desire for power, we must repent. I can understand why it would be tempting in a church to avoid discussions of dragons altogether.
There is another dimension to our denial of evil, which is less psychological and more philosophical. We live in a world of binaries. All around us computers are talking in code, a series of calculations is occurring in 1s and 0s. We have built a world on binaries, and in a binary world something either is or it isn’t. In that sort of worldview, it might be tempting to see evil simply as the absence of good, as darkness is the absence of light.
Evil is not an Absence, but a Presence
The Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann wrote against such a binary understanding when it comes to evil. Writing about why our baptismal liturgy asks the person to be baptized, or the parents and godparents speaking on their behalf, to renounce satan and all his works, Schmemann says this:
evil is most emphatically not a mere absence. It is precisely a presence: the presence of something dark, irrational and very real, although the origin of that presence may not be clear and immediately understandable. Thus hatred is not a simple absence of love; it is the presence of a dark power which can indeed be extremely active, clever and even creative. And it is certainly not a result of ignorance. We may know and hate.
Schmemann says that the church has never had a precise doctrine of the devil. We don’t know the devil intellectually, but we know him when we see him. We know that evil is real and must be named.
Many of us could name the demons alive in our world: greed, sexism, homophobia, classism, and ethno-centrism to name a few. I would argue racism is one of the most powerful demonic forces out there. You know that line from “The Usual Suspects:” “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist?” That is about how I feel when I hear the someone say the words “I’m not a racist.”
A few years ago, I was in New York City with my dad. One strangely warm December night after dinner we were on a street corner, waiting for a cab. This was before the days of Uber and Lyft. We finally hailed a taxi, but we had been waiting behind another guy, and so we tried to give him the cab. As the man reached for the door, the cabby sped off. The man to whom we had tried to pass the cab was black.
I stood on that corner, waiting for another taxi, and just stewing in my righteous anger, but then I thought about a moment earlier that week when I was stopped at a traffic light in Washington, DC. On the sidewalk next to me was a group of African American teenagers, and without thinking I hit my door-lock button. The kids heard the “thunk” of the locks. It aint just New York cabbies. I think that racism, that old demon, grabs ahold of all human beings sometimes.
We have come a long way as a society, but to fool ourselves into thinking that racism is over, or that homophobia is a thing of the past, that misogyny is a remnant of less enlightened times is to allow these demons to run unchecked in our society, and, more importantly, in ourselves. As Christians, we cannot pretend to name evil in others when we are unwilling or unable to recognize it acting through us.
The Supernatural Power of Good
So do I think that there is some sort of supernatural power to these evils? I do. I simply can’t find any other satisfactory explanation for why human beings would treat one another the way we tend to treat one another. Faith asks us to engage our imagination, to see what can’t be seen with just our eyes, to ponder the hidden realities, even when those realities are ugly and cruel, even when it is our own anger we must learn to understand. Faith invites us to name the dragons, so they might be vanquished.
The other part of the images of St. Michael that has caught my son’s imagination is also important. The dragon always comes first. He has all sorts of questions about the dragon. But then he tends to notice the sword. And how could you not? Michael often is shown to have a bright fiery sword.
I convinced that there is also supernatural power out there for good. I believe human beings can come under the influence of evil, but I have also seen real evidence of people who were possessed by what Abraham Lincoln called “The better angels of our nature.” I am convinced that, in spite of the cynicism in our day, God is out there in the world working. The best name for the supernatural power of God is “love,” and I have the privilege of seeing God’s love at work in the world every week through people of faith.
I see the power of love at work in the world each Tuesday, when more than a dozen volunteers show up in the early morning here to feed about 200 households. At the food pantry, alongside the nutrition, there are hugs, and laughter, and smiles exchanged. I see the love of God at work in the groups that drive supplies down border shelters in El Paso the first Wednesday of each month. I see God’s love in the stillness offered every Thursday morning by a dedicated group of contemplatives, quiet room in a busy and loud world. I see the love at work in the friends who show up to make food for people who are sick, who bring hugs and prayers to a family who has just experienced a death.
I saw the love of God, the righteous possessing love of God, this year in every person who shows up in the roundhouse in Santa Fe or who waits through an hours-long Albuquerque City Council meeting, to advocate for their immigrant neighbors. God’s love takes hold, time and again, in this church. I’m just privileged to witness that love at work through you. Seeing God’s love in action here is like watching that fiery sword cutting through all the negativity, the frustration, and the hatred that is too present in our world.
Today we hear the story of Michael defeating the dragon. Today we tell again the story that the angels are stronger than the demons, that love is more powerful than hate. If you want to know this is true, if you want to believe, I would encourage you to do two things in response: both are different ways of investing.
First, I would invite you, stick around for the ministry fair. Get to know some of the volunteers, sign up to join in the work of this parish, and weave yourself more fully into this community. Invest your time and your talent. Stick around and you too will see the angels at work.
I would also invite you to consider how you will support the work of St. Michael’s in the year ahead financially. We are in the midst of our annual pledge drive. All of the work we are able to do in this place is empowered by the generosity of this congregation. Without your generosity, St. Michael’s would not exist. If you have already made a pledge, thank you. If you are still considering your pledge, I would invite you to talk to one of the members of our Stewardship team. Challenge yourself to put your money where your values are. Make a difference with us.
We live in difficult days, cynical days. These are not easy days to be a people of faith. But your faith matters. Your faith matters because it is through the eyes of faith that we can see and name the evil in this world. I know that many of us are facing the coming month with trepidation. As the election season wraps up, we see evil rearing its ugly head. We see the demonic forces of hatred all around. It may seems strange, but I would submit to you, that while voting is important, while the election matters, the fate of our society won’t be determined on November 5th. No matter what happens, the dragons won’t all be vanquished. Poverty and hunger, inequity will persist.
Whatever happens this November, the fight that continues is a fight that has gone on through all of human history, through the cosmos itself. Goodness must always contend with evil. Love must always stand up to hate. Whatever happens on November 5, our work here will remain the same: we will witness to the love of God. Whatever happens, St. Michael’s will stand on the side of the better angels of our nature. No matter what happens, here at St. Michael’s we will seek to know and to make known what is always true: Dragons can be beaten, because God’s love is always always more powerful than hate.
Mike Angell 