Monday, September 29, 2025
Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
He ain’t heavy, he’s my angel
Thrones were set up
and the Ancient One took his throne.
Friday morning we found our way to a new museum for us, Texas Science and Natural History on the UT campus in Austin. Students sold us tickets and guided us around. Erin, a recent astronomy graduate who is looking for a job in her field, learned our names and showed us the chemical fingerprints of argon, hydrogen, helium and neon, which along with every other elements display specific colors and patterns from the solar spectrum (all the colors of the rainbow). She also showed us a model of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains, deep in the dark sky country of southwestern Texas.
His clothing was bright as snow,
and the hair on his head as white as wool;
His throne was flames of fire,
with wheels of burning fire.
Of course I want to know far can it see? Erin used light years to answer: a light year is the distance light travels in 365 days (at 186,000 miles per second), and this telescope can “see” nine to eleven billion light years away. OK! I have no idea how to write that number.
The actual telescope weighs 160,000 pounds and its circular prismed mirror measures 10 meters across. This large mirror enables astronomers to look back in time to probe distant galaxies and black holes. They can explore the mysteries of “dark energy, a mysterious force which causes the universe’s rate of expansion to speed up.”
A surging stream of fire
flowed out from where he sat;
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,
and myriads upon myriads attended him.
Astronomers are not just seeing farther away. They are also looking back in time. Light captured from a galaxy 12 billion light-years away originated when the universe was much younger.
Miles’ skepticism kicked in when we left. “Erin was wrong about when the universe began,” he said. It wasn’t billions of years ago.” I said nothing. I haven’t got the physical or spiritual antennae to “know.” The Bible’s timeline is certainly more manageable for my small merely human mind (six thousand years I can comprehend). I am thankful for scientific measurements in the universe, which allow us to travel in space, and for GPS satellites which allow me to travel easily through Austin or anywhere in the world as my phone guides me turn by turn. This is certainly a miracle I appreciate every day.
As the visions during the night continued, I saw
One like a son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven.
I saw one like a son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
I am grateful that my mind allows the joyful embrace of scientific and spiritual understandings of the universe. Because along with remembering our visit to the science museum, this is is a day to celebrate what we know of archangels. The only ones named in the Bible are Michael, also known as the “prince of the heavenly host” and who battled the dragon in Revelation 12; Gabriel (“God is my strength”), who explained a vision to Daniel and foretold the births of John the Baptist and Jesus to their mothers; and Raphael, who healed Tobias in the Book of Tobit and stirred the healing waters in the Pool of Bethesda.
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship;
nations and peoples of every language serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Archangels are one of the nine choirs of angels listed in the Bible. In ascending order, the choirs or classes are 1) Angels, 2) Archangels, 3) Principalities, 4) Powers, 5) Virtues, 6) Dominations, 7) Thrones, 8) Cherubim, and 9) Seraphim. Along with the Elohim, they populate the spiritual world which exists alongside our physical world. The stories which involve them in battle with their demonic foes, and their intercourse with humans, are as fascinating as anything we’ll find on the science side of the universe, and to watch the interweaving of both is one of the glories of being human.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed.”
(Daniel 7, Revelation 12, Psalm 138, Psalm 103, John 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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