Angels have always been of interest in the religious sphere, the entertainment business, books, and more. There is even a baseball team that the name. In the religious realm it is simply that angels are part of the testimony of Scripture as messengers of God. They represent an “avenue” in which we can be assured that God is there, interested in us, and watching. Angels have been portrayed as warriors and as neophytes attempting to “win their wings” as they counsel humans losing their way.
In today’s readings, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews focuses on a different role – as administrators of the world – but not so the world to come. The biblical evidence for the angelic government of the world is early: it goes back to the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:8 where the establishing of the nations is described: “He set up the boundaries of the peoples after the number of the divine beings” (NAB) or as more literally translated from the Septuagint: “he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God.”
In today’s 
Ben Smith of the New York Times, formerly a founder and principle at BuzzFeed, penned a 
You might have noticed that I seem to be focused on conscientia informata, or morally operating from an informed conscience – something beyond opinion or even conscience. It is a basic duty of every Christian, as outlined in the 
I can remember coming home from 3+ years of mission in Kenya, friends were driving me home, and as we wound through trees, I could see the porch light on at my home in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Even from afar, it shone like a welcoming beacon. It was the sign I am home in a place I have always belonged. It was known, calm, and safe. It was far from the wildness and messiness of life of the slums of Kibera. It is the same moment we have seen on the evening news, in newspapers, on-line in the experience of our men and women serving overseas in foreign lands. Coming home writ large is the heavy bags dropped on the tarmac, the faces of unbridled joy, parents sweeping up children in their arms, a loved one embraced, and the moment they know: I am home.
There has always been ocean lore that proclaims rogue, monster waves rising 80, 90, or 100 feet high or more. Of course, these are not eye-witness accounts. Men in wooden ships don’t survive such an encounter. There was the story of the Alaskan Tlingit Indian woman who returned from berry picking to find her entire village disappeared. The debris field evidence on the shoreline indicated that the ocean had risen up and fell upon the village. The wave would have been more than 100 feet high to cause the damage. Experts of the day dismissed stories about such waves because they seemingly violated basic principles of ocean physics.
WARNING: this post is excessively long and potentially 
The 
I have always been interested in the stories of the Kings of Judah and Israel as accounted in the Bible’s books of 1st/2nd Kings and 1st/2nd Chronicles. When the topic is raised among most Christian people, I would suggest that people recall the reign of King David and the stories of his son, King Solomon – and conclude that the era of the Kings was a good thing. They easily forget that Saul was the first king and his reign did not end well. Nor did Solomon’s. And David had his own spectacular moral failures. Apart from King Josiah, the rest of the Kings of Judah and Israel are judged harshly by Scripture, failing to do their duty to God and the covenant people, falling prey to the corruption of power.
Today’s 
friarmusings 