St Michael and All Angels
It might just be me, but having spent my teenage years in Rugby (just down the A45 from Coventry) this is one of the most striking images of St Michael that I know. It is hung on the side of the new Coventry cathedral which is dedicated to St Michael and All Angels.
It's not the only image of St Michael that I know! If we had good photographs of our stained glass windows high up in the clerestory, I could also have shared with you SMR's own image of St Michael. Designed well over a century before this one, it is rather 'Victorian' in feel: however I am told that those windows are rather special. Not only do we have a window of Michael, but he is joined by three other archangels: Gabriel, the messenger of God who visited Mary to tell her about her pregnancy; Raphael, the healer and protector of travellers; and Uriel, the angel of prophecy and wisdom. And Michael? Well, as this image suggests, Michael is the dispenser of justice!
In SMR all four can be found at the highest level of the windows just outside the Lady Chapel. You have to strain your neck and look up to your left as you come out of the chapel. But when you do, you'll see six panels. The two side panels contain an image of a Seraphim and the two central panels bear the image of an archangel. To the left Michael, to the right .. well I think it's Uriel, but I could be wrong. Any why Michael's shield bears the cross of St George, I really have no idea!
I wonder what you make of angels and archangels. I must admit to some scepticism about these heavenly creatures and all things that smack of a pseudo-magical world. Some of you, and many of my colleagues, will baulk considerably at my doubt. You may quote how the angels served Christ after his forty days alone in the desert being tempted by Satan (a period of time we now call Lent); you may want to cite the passage in Revelations when war breaks out in heaven and Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; or, and this is one of the passages that makes me question my doubt, you may say to me that Jesus tells Nathaniel that he will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
There are many curious elements to the Christian faith: angels and archangels are but one of them. For me, the big question is what their presence or absence, their veracity or duplicity, their materiality or fantasy, does to your knowledge of, trust in and love of Christ.
On the battlements, in the dead of night, Hamlet and Horatio watch for the ghost of Hamlet's father to appear ... or not! Horatio is a practical, down to earth scholar who doesn’t believe in ghosts. On seeing what he believes cannot be seen, he says: “O day and night, but this is wondrous strange.”
Hamlet's reply? Whilst I realise this isn't a biblical source, I find Hamlet's wisdom attractive as it draws us towards wonder, curiosity and possibility:
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Or, as our friends The Friends (or Quakers) put it:
"Always believe you might be wrong."
Dan Tyndall
27 September 2024
