About Anger
A sermon for June 9. 2019 (Pentecost)
at the DuPage Care Center, Wheaton, IL USA
James 1.19–20
You must understand this, my beloved:
let everyone be quick to listen,
slow to speak,
slow to anger,
for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is such a pleasure and a privilege to be with you again talking about the Word of God in this Pentecost Sunday.
Pentecost is when we celebrate the beginning of the Christian Church; when the first followers of Jesus first started sharing with the world the radical and revolutionary message they learned: the hope invasion; the radicalism of love; the Kingdom of God among us.
The book of James echoes many of the teachings of Jesus, in fact more than any other New Testament book other than the Gospels themselves. It is a book filled with the passion of the fist days of the church. Full of fire for the transformation of the world.
Unfortunately, for complicated reasons, it doesn’t get much attention these days.
However, today i would like to talk with you about something which we don’t talk about in church very much, even though, if you are anything like me, this is a subject that comes up in your life rather too often: the subject of anger.
In the interest of full disclosure and giving credit where it is due, several of my ideas come from an essay called About Anger, by the author Ursula K Le Guin, which she wrote in October of 2014.
What is anger?
The dictionary defines it as a strong feeling of displeasure, and usually of antagonism. Some synonyms are: indignation, fury, rage, wrath. Indignation means moral anger — anger at something we consider unfair, mean or shameful. Fury and rage suggest an emotion so intense that it leads to loss of control. Wrath suggests a desire to punish or to get revenge.
We can say broadly that there are two kinds of anger: hot anger which expresses itself immediately, such as slapping back when someone slaps you. And cold, persistent anger which gets expressed in hostile words and actions, or doesn’t get expressed at all, but is pushed down and festers.
The first kind, hot anger, obviously has it uses. Ursula Le Guin describes it as a weapon. In certain situations, a slap, punch or scream may fix a bad situation quickly.
Except that as Christians, we hold ourselves to a higher standard. Jesus said that if someone slaps us, instead of slapping back, we turn the other face.
On September 28. 1958, the Reverend Martin Luther King was 29 years old. He was autographing copies of his book Stride Towards Freedom, when a mentally ill woman, without warning. stuck a knife into his chest with such force that the handle broke off. As bystanders restrained her, Dr King did all he could to calm them and prevent further violence. Later he said he bore her no ill will, and even refused offers of a bodyguard. Dr. King had dedicated himself to a life of nonviolence, following the example of Jesus. This is not something that just happens; it is the result of strong commitment and life-long dedication.
It is harder so find uses for slow burning anger. Ephesians 4:26 says: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” Do not let the sun go down on your anger: even if you get angry, don’t go to bed angry.
Still quoting Ephesians 4: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
Persistent anger may end up being expressed in angry and hurtful words. James has much to say about poisonous words. James 3.6 says that an uncontrolled tongue is “a fire from hell, a restless evil, full of deadly power.”
How about anger that does not get expressed? Anger that is repressed, pushed down, hidden, produces bitterness and depression. One of the saddest things in this world is to live in constant bitterness, unable to enjoy this wonderful miraculous world, always looking instead at the perceived slight, the unsolved injustice. James 3:16: “where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.”
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We should distinguish between public and private anger. There is some space for anger in the public arena, when it is a reaction to injustice. It’s one thing to be angry at the oppression of the poor, or at expressions of racism and bigotry. Another very different thing for me to be angry at my boss because she cut me short in a meeting two weeks ago.
Still, even righteous human anger is a very blunt and imperfect tool or weapon. Ursula Le Guin wrote: “Anger points powerfully to the denial of rights, but the exercise of rights can’t live and thrive on anger. It lives and thrives on the dogged pursuit of justice.” In other words, human anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
What to do about anger?
For starters, let’s try to understand anger and where it comes from. Anger is an automatic reaction to a threat — real or imaginary. In some situations — in war, for example, anger could save your life. However in most anger-arousing situations that we are faced with in civilian life, anger doesn’t help.
Pay attention now, this is important: the main sources of personal anger in civilian life are:
a) a perception of a personal slight or disrespect
b) fear of not being safe
c) fear of not being in control
Think about it, and i think you will agree.
Anger is so connected with fear, said Ms Le Guin, that “if I’m in an angry mood and aware of it, I can ask myself ‘so what is it that you’re afraid of?’ That gives me a place to look at my anger from. Sometimes it helps me get into cleaner air.”
So:
a perception of personal slight or disrespect;
fear of not being safe;
fear of not being in control.
Let’s address each one of these.
About personal slights and disrespect, a well lived life requires a healthy sense of self worth as well as a well-tuned appreciation of the value of the opinions of other people.
James 4:6: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
We all know public personalities who are notoriously thin-skinned. As part of being Christians, we must thicken our skins a little.
If somebody or something prickles your sense of self worth, take it as a learning opportunity. As a lesson in humility. Being Christian is a lot about the choices we make, how we choose to react to what happens to us. I’m telling you: staying angry because of a perceived slight — because you think someone didn’t treat you as well as you deserve — it’s just not worth it. In the end, if someone really wants to snub me, what does it matter? There is no accounting for taste, right? We can’t please everyone. Try to please God.
Fear of being unsafe: this is a big one. How often i’m angry with someone at work because i’m afraid that person is doing something to undermine me. or i’m afraid that person will do or say something that will put my job at risk.
What can we say about this? Number one, nobody is completely safe all the time, except maybe the dead. Being alive is bing at risk. Living is the most dangerous thing we can do.
Number two, if the risk is real, anger is probably the wrong way to deal with it. Your anger is wasting energy that could be used to address the problem, and your angry behavior is probably scoring points for your adversary.
The third one, fear of not being in control, is what gets me most of the time. I love the feeling of being in control. I love it when a plan comes together. It’s good to be the king! It’s a great feeling. But it’s not true. Are we ever really in control?
Here’s Brother James again, chapter four, verse thirteen:
Come now, you who say “today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”
James 3.13–18:
Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
Today is Pentecost, a day when we celebrate change. Let’s decide to change the way we deal with anger. Understand anger for what it is, a natural reaction which should not control our lives. Let’s understand the choices we have, and let’s decide to use moments of anger as learning experiences.
And this way, by choosing every day to stay on the side of that peaceable and gentle wisdom, we will become gradually more and more the people we are supposed to be.
May God help us, amen.
