Many years ago now when I was the priest at St.Mary’s, Dalmahoy a strange event happened one Christmas Eve. The Midnight Mass at that church was always very well attended – literally standing room only because of the Country Club just up the hill. This particular Christmas Eve was no different, it was packed. In fact worshippers in the aisle had to file out the back door and walk round to the front door and enter again to allow the altar party to get into the sanctuary. It was an amazing atmosphere and it seemed to take for ages for the church to empty at the end of the service.
Among the last to leave were a well dressed, and rather attractive couple who greeted me like a long lost friend – I had a mental block and could not remember their names. They, however, obviously knew me and we blethered for a while - with me desperately hoping they’d give me some clue as to what their names were. As this couple made their goodbyes the woman presented me with a beautifully wrapped box – which for some reason I thought contained a Christmas Pudding! As she gave me the gift, I recall, that she said to me:
‘We always give presents to our friends but we never think to say thank-you to or give a present to our priest. Happy Christmas.’
I was very touched and carefully took the present home to open before retiring to bed. When I opened the gift it was not a pudding but a beautiful, hand-crafted ‘Baccarat’ glass Angel of the Annunciation.
Bizarrely, I had been ‘haunted’ by the idea of angels for many months and this gift seemed to crystallise all my thoughts about angels and I have wondered since if in that couple I had ‘entertained angels, unaware’?
You may have had similar experiences, those times when you engage with someone, even for a brief time, such as in the queue for a Festival event, oral the bus stop, and that brief experience seems to change your life forever. The person whose comments helped to clarify your thoughts or whose actions brought something into clearer perspective for you. These people for me ‘angels’. Whether or not they are heavenly angels is a moot point but what is important is that their transient interaction with us is blessed and holy.
This is what I think the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is getting at. The whole of the passage read this morning contains, I think, some of the most beautiful phrases in the Bible:
‘Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers…do not neglect to do good
and share what you have..’ Hebrews 13
To quote just a few but all held together by that first sentence:
“Let mutual love continue.”
The gift of love which we can give and receive, hold close and share can be a powerful and life enhancing gift. It is a gift that is always different and like a diamond contains many different facets by which we can reflect and refract the light within each other and thereby experience something of the ‘Being' we know as God.
Love really does change everything but it can be dangerous too. Those deprived of love do not grow up into well rounded, open individuals. Those betrayed by love can grow bitter and ‘bleed from the soul’ if not loved again. Those smothered by love can grow selfish and self-seeking. So while love can be life enhancing it has to be respected and treated properly.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us to remember others less fortunate, to be content with the blessings we have, to be concerned for those in positions of leadership and to remember that the love of God, as expressed in Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Acts of love be they by those known or unknown are those events that shape and guide our lives and open us up to the unexpected encounters with the living God.
At all times try to live your life to the full, love much and never shut your self off from the opportunity of receiving love, especially from angels unaware.