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SUMMARY:Sunday 29th September\, 11:30am Holy Eucharist for St Michael & Al
 l Angels
DTSTART:20240929T103000Z
DTEND:20240929T113000Z
DTSTAMP:20260502T182117Z
UID:10906882024-09-29 10:30:00+00:00achurchnearyou
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Unlike other saints´ days\, the feast of St Michael & All Ang
 els commemorates not a historical person who preached the gospel and/or su
 ffered for their faith\, but rather the concept of angels\, Arch or otherw
 ise\, whom the bible tells us play a role in God’s engagement with his w
 orld.\n\nIn fact there are two strands of tradition within the Bible. On o
 ne side angels are regarded as the guardians of the other nations\, but un
 fortunately their citizens started to worship them in their own right\, an
 d the Bible then labelled them as evil. And on the other side\, there are 
 the serving angels who enter the world of men with messages from God and r
 eturn to heaven to sing his praises.\n\nBut what we have in the Bible\, ar
 e the creations\, not of God\, but of men. And not of evil men\, but men a
 nd women\, like us\, genuinely trying to come to terms with some of the gr
 eat puzzles of our human make-up: people challenged by the frailty of thei
 r being\, sapped of their self-esteem by their own fickleness\, and people
  trying to solve that great religious dilemma\, of how it is that God\, th
 e creator\, relates to\, and does business with\, us\, his creation. In ot
 her words\, the existence of angels allowed us to point to causes of our b
 ehaviour outside of ourselves\, and\, where convenient\, blame them for ou
 r shortcomings.\n\nSo\, do these angels exist today? Most certainly they d
 o. One is undoubtedly called ‘wealth’\, and is not a bad thing in itse
 lf\, indeed it can be very much a protecting thing\, a guardian angel. But
  there is something in us human beings\, which picks on it and idolises it
 \, which attributes to it great powers – of salvation\, of joy\, of enri
 chment\, that should only be attributed to God. And then\, when everything
  goes wrong\, we turn around & blame money\, wealth\, for tempting us. Ano
 ther might be what we call ‘society’\, though it is at least as often 
 referred to as “they” - the great generic term which is\, of course\, 
 all of us: we can idolise it as a full expression of being\, the sum of ex
 istence\, but then again we distance ourselves from it\, and blame it for 
 riots\, corruption\, racism or whatever.\n\nAnd on the other side there ar
 e the angels which bring to us words from God\, perhaps through the words 
 of a friend\, a piece of music or an encounter\, an experience\, through w
 hich God´s message is spoken.\n\nSo an expression of our humanity\, good\
 , bad\, mixed and indifferent! But today we remember how that humanity\, i
 n all its fallenness\, seeks to engage with our loving God.
GEO:-4.407165;36.721145
LOCATION:St George's Church\, Málaga
URL:https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/8530/service-and-events/events/1
 090688/
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