Seven Deadly Sins: Anger
We're currently doing a series on Sunday evenings about the Seven Deadly Sins. The other week, I spoke on anger.
Seven Deadly Sins - Anger
How often do you get angry?
•
Do you get angry over big things or little things? Is annoyance the same as
•
anger?
I’m speaking tonight from position of being someone who struggles with
•
the fine line between passion and anger; someone who needs to understand
what makes anger a sin, how it makes us sinful. No easy answers tonight, but a
few thoughts.
If we start to think about anger, we might first think of it as a response to
•
being wronged. Something bad happens to us, or to those we love, and we get
angry. We want to “sort things out”, “make things right”.
Anger has also been described as a response to feeling threatened. This
•
might be because of a real threat, but more often than not it is a perceived
threat that makes us defensive and angry.
Several times already in this series you’ve probably heard that [x] is a sin
•
because it attempts to usurp or overrule God’s place in our lives, in the world.
When we get angry, whether because we feel threatened or wronged,
•
that anger is sinful - states that we do not believe God will work all things
through in time.
o
Romans 12:19 - “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room
for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”
says the Lord.”
If we take matters into our own hands, we’re saying we don’t trust God to
•
sort out whatever has made us angry.
We may feel that it is still “okay” to be angered by injustice - rife in the
world.
I know I felt for a long time that it was right to be angry about injustice in
2
the world - unfair trade, oppressive regimes, the treatment of vulnerable
people in many societies - how can you see these things and not be rightly
angered by them?
Well-known story - Jesus clearing the traders from the Temple.
Jesus is angered, takes action, clears out those he’s angry with. Job done!
Surely we should do the same?
Well, how often are our motives pure?
And how often does a violent response solve anything?
Jesus, as the perfect Son of God, could be angry, could be angry with
hardhearted people and yet be concerned with healing them. Could drive
traders from the Temple, and yet still love them and the entire world
enough to die for them.
Can we honestly say we can do likewise? Look at how often a desire for
justice - even on others’ behalf - turns to violence. e.g. this week so-
called “Days of Rage” in Egypt.
o
A movement which began with peaceful dissent, and actually made
headway towards its goals, lost patience, reacted to the violence
shown to it, and so has, perhaps, lost the moral argument by
resorting to violence.
“A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of
war, “This way of settling differences is not just”.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
1967
Hard, but as Christians we are called to engage in loving dialogue;
acknowledging that God’s image is in all of us.
o
Eph 4:15 - “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every
way into him who is the head, into Christ...”
It is right to desire change, it is right to desire justice, particularly for those
around the world who are horribly oppressed, but we cannot allow anger
to consume us - like all the deadly sins, it will consume us
Instead we have to hand control over to God, and ask God to show us
how best to act for justice. I’m not saying this is easy, but I do believe that
surrendering the things that make us angry to God makes it harder for
anger to consume us.
What about God’s anger?
3
Often the idea of an angry God has been used to oppress others, or to
•
condemn them (which it is not our place to do, only God’s), which makes most
of us deeply uncomfortable
But undeniably God is sometimes portrayed in Scripture as angry.
•
In particular, OT:
•
Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you
shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to
you. Joshua 23:16
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce
anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners
from it. Isaiah 13:9
While the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose
against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low
the young men of Israel. Psalm 78:30-31
Suggest are anthropomorphic images of God, reflect the Jewish nation’s
•
attempts to put their experience of God into words
But taking this picture of God as angry too far leads to a harsh, unloving
•
God - leads to penal substitutionary theory, where an angry God pours out an
horrific death on the blameless Christ - an idea which, to my view, absolutely
contradicts the statement “God is Love”, which contradicts God’s compassion in
being made man.
But is it not OUR anger that consumes us? Consider whether OT images
•
of angry God are reflections of how badly things went with Israel when they
behaved badly. Consequences of own actions and attitudes?
As Christians, want to suggest way in which NT consistently brings
•
emphasis on God’s mercy over and above God’s wrath is vitally important to
understanding God. God’s anger and God’s compassion are intimately linked
(http://kenschenck.blogspot.com/2010/07/faith-reflections-12.html)
Return to the cross, consider this picture: God did not have to die on the
•
cross to turn away His own anger and be able forgive us - rather, God chose
and chooses every day to die on the cross as a demonstration that God’s love is
deeper than justice, that God’s love overcomes the anger God must feel at our
wrongdoing. Anger is conquered by Love
I must say, it took me many years to start understanding this. Surely God
•
must be angry with us? Surely we deserve to be punished, just as we punish
4
one another, or punish criminals, and it’s just as well that God (as Jesus) was
prepared to pay the price for us and turn away this anger?
But to imply that God is locked into a retributive system of justice is to
•
read human values onto God’s character.
Look again at the example of Jesus - the image of the Father - in the
•
Temple.
o
Money changers were known for cheating people, selling them less
than their coins were really worth. Then only these coins could be
used to buy animals for sacrifice.
o The “house of prayer for all nations” has become exclusive,
dishonest, and unwelcoming. Is this why Jesus was angered?
Our Gospel reading today, Mark 3:1-5. Found this intriguing...
•
Why do you think Jesus was angry?
•
(http://jesustheradicalpastor.blogspot.com/2007/01/jesus-beyond-anger-
management.html)
o
Pharisees exalted letter of Law over people
o
Jesus can see this man need healing
o
May even have realised is a trap
o
But in his anger, he does not turn on the Pharisees - or revenge
himself by withering their hands!
o
He is angry, but he is grieved - notice how the two sit alongside each
other (as I am told they do in the Greek)
Jesus’ response is not to smite the Pharisees, but to love the man who
•
is suffering, and by healing him, demonstrates - as he does over and
over again - that God is above all concerned with loving and reconciling
mankind.
o
No profession of faith by the man recorded, nothing asked of him but
to let Jesus work through him.
Jesus’ example gives some clues as to how to deal with our anger, so it
does not consume and destroy us.
Even when tell ourselves we are angry about injustice - particularly
•
injustice towards others - it is rarely true that our anger moves us to be
constructive.
5
We can hold in our anger, and let it eat us; or we lash out at others -
•
sometimes not even those with whom we are really angry - and hurt them with
our anger instead. Neither will get us far!
The example of Jesus, for me, is two-fold
•
Firstly, be angry only about things that really matter
•
o
Don’t rise to personal insults, or spend your time defending yourself
- Jesus is not recorded as doing so.
o Jesus’ anger in the passage from Mark and towards the Temple
traders is reserved for those who are perverting “religion” in order to
keep others away from God, to make it hard for them to access God.
o
So, Jesus teaches us that we should be angry when human beings
make each other less able to access and relate to God.
o
Think of the number of insults and hurts hurled at Jesus in his short
life of ministry - does he ever turn round and angrily justify himself?
Secondly, react positively and make a difference
•
o
Death penalty does not work - even watching a murderer die does
not bring back the victim. In fact, murdering the murderer is a
hollow victory.
Tony Campolo reports the father of a murdered girl, having
§
watched her murderer being electrocuted, as saying, “I wanted
him to suffer more for what he did. Dying isn’t enough”.
o
Few of us will be in that position. But personal attacks: we are not
yet made perfect in God, so we will not be able to completely forgive
in the same way that Jesus could. Don’t pretend you have forgiven
when you have not. But it might be worth talking through problems
with others.
o
Attitude of “I’ll show them” still means exalting yourself, proving you
are right. Proverbs 15:1 - “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a
harsh word stirs up anger.”
Remember, too, that those who we feel have wronged and hurt
§
us often feel wronged and hurt themselves.
o
It takes humility to turn away from anger like this, but the practice of
it makes it easier over time. (CBT - replacing old patterns with new
responses?)
o
In situations of wider injustice, positive action will help to assuage
anger. Jesus drove the traders from the Temple, but even so it does
not come across as a fit of rage, but as a demonstration of God’s
6
availability to all.
o
Personally, I have found that when I am angry about wider injustices,
I have to take positive action to stop myself being consumed by
rage towards the perpetrators of injustice - whether corporations,
governments, dictators
§ signing petitions and statements of support for various causes
§ boycotting unethical goods (eg from Israel where they may
have been grown on illegally settled land)
§ supporting Fair Trade
§ PRAYING for change
And this attitude of prayer is vital. God will reconcile all things - all hurts,
all injustices
o
again, Romans 12:19 - “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave
room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will
repay,” says the Lord.”
o
We have no right to be angry with others when God has removed His
anger from us
o
Our anger will destroy us far quicker than it will help us to destroy
anyone else - even if we feel we are “right”!
Justice is God’s sovereign prerogative. God will take what measures of
justice God desires.
But more often than not, we will find that God will reconcile and have
mercy upon those who hurt us, just as He has mercy on me, on you, on all
of us.
o
God did not have to die on the cross to turn away His own anger and
be able forgive us -God chose and chooses every day to die on the
cross as a demonstration that God’s love is deeper than justice, that
God’s love overcomes and conquers anger. Amen.
Seven Deadly Sins - Anger
How often do you get angry?
•
Do you get angry over big things or little things? Is annoyance the same as
•
anger?
I’m speaking tonight from position of being someone who struggles with
•
the fine line between passion and anger; someone who needs to understand
what makes anger a sin, how it makes us sinful. No easy answers tonight, but a
few thoughts.
If we start to think about anger, we might first think of it as a response to
•
being wronged. Something bad happens to us, or to those we love, and we get
angry. We want to “sort things out”, “make things right”.
Anger has also been described as a response to feeling threatened. This
•
might be because of a real threat, but more often than not it is a perceived
threat that makes us defensive and angry.
Several times already in this series you’ve probably heard that [x] is a sin
•
because it attempts to usurp or overrule God’s place in our lives, in the world.
When we get angry, whether because we feel threatened or wronged,
•
that anger is sinful - states that we do not believe God will work all things
through in time.
o
Romans 12:19 - “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room
for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”
says the Lord.”
If we take matters into our own hands, we’re saying we don’t trust God to
•
sort out whatever has made us angry.
We may feel that it is still “okay” to be angered by injustice - rife in the
world.
I know I felt for a long time that it was right to be angry about injustice in
2
the world - unfair trade, oppressive regimes, the treatment of vulnerable
people in many societies - how can you see these things and not be rightly
angered by them?
Well-known story - Jesus clearing the traders from the Temple.
Jesus is angered, takes action, clears out those he’s angry with. Job done!
Surely we should do the same?
Well, how often are our motives pure?
And how often does a violent response solve anything?
Jesus, as the perfect Son of God, could be angry, could be angry with
hardhearted people and yet be concerned with healing them. Could drive
traders from the Temple, and yet still love them and the entire world
enough to die for them.
Can we honestly say we can do likewise? Look at how often a desire for
justice - even on others’ behalf - turns to violence. e.g. this week so-
called “Days of Rage” in Egypt.
o
A movement which began with peaceful dissent, and actually made
headway towards its goals, lost patience, reacted to the violence
shown to it, and so has, perhaps, lost the moral argument by
resorting to violence.
“A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of
war, “This way of settling differences is not just”.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
1967
Hard, but as Christians we are called to engage in loving dialogue;
acknowledging that God’s image is in all of us.
o
Eph 4:15 - “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every
way into him who is the head, into Christ...”
It is right to desire change, it is right to desire justice, particularly for those
around the world who are horribly oppressed, but we cannot allow anger
to consume us - like all the deadly sins, it will consume us
Instead we have to hand control over to God, and ask God to show us
how best to act for justice. I’m not saying this is easy, but I do believe that
surrendering the things that make us angry to God makes it harder for
anger to consume us.
What about God’s anger?
3
Often the idea of an angry God has been used to oppress others, or to
•
condemn them (which it is not our place to do, only God’s), which makes most
of us deeply uncomfortable
But undeniably God is sometimes portrayed in Scripture as angry.
•
In particular, OT:
•
Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you
shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to
you. Joshua 23:16
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce
anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners
from it. Isaiah 13:9
While the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose
against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low
the young men of Israel. Psalm 78:30-31
Suggest are anthropomorphic images of God, reflect the Jewish nation’s
•
attempts to put their experience of God into words
But taking this picture of God as angry too far leads to a harsh, unloving
•
God - leads to penal substitutionary theory, where an angry God pours out an
horrific death on the blameless Christ - an idea which, to my view, absolutely
contradicts the statement “God is Love”, which contradicts God’s compassion in
being made man.
But is it not OUR anger that consumes us? Consider whether OT images
•
of angry God are reflections of how badly things went with Israel when they
behaved badly. Consequences of own actions and attitudes?
As Christians, want to suggest way in which NT consistently brings
•
emphasis on God’s mercy over and above God’s wrath is vitally important to
understanding God. God’s anger and God’s compassion are intimately linked
(http://kenschenck.blogspot.com/2010/07/faith-reflections-12.html)
Return to the cross, consider this picture: God did not have to die on the
•
cross to turn away His own anger and be able forgive us - rather, God chose
and chooses every day to die on the cross as a demonstration that God’s love is
deeper than justice, that God’s love overcomes the anger God must feel at our
wrongdoing. Anger is conquered by Love
I must say, it took me many years to start understanding this. Surely God
•
must be angry with us? Surely we deserve to be punished, just as we punish
4
one another, or punish criminals, and it’s just as well that God (as Jesus) was
prepared to pay the price for us and turn away this anger?
But to imply that God is locked into a retributive system of justice is to
•
read human values onto God’s character.
Look again at the example of Jesus - the image of the Father - in the
•
Temple.
o
Money changers were known for cheating people, selling them less
than their coins were really worth. Then only these coins could be
used to buy animals for sacrifice.
o The “house of prayer for all nations” has become exclusive,
dishonest, and unwelcoming. Is this why Jesus was angered?
Our Gospel reading today, Mark 3:1-5. Found this intriguing...
•
Why do you think Jesus was angry?
•
(http://jesustheradicalpastor.blogspot.com/2007/01/jesus-beyond-anger-
management.html)
o
Pharisees exalted letter of Law over people
o
Jesus can see this man need healing
o
May even have realised is a trap
o
But in his anger, he does not turn on the Pharisees - or revenge
himself by withering their hands!
o
He is angry, but he is grieved - notice how the two sit alongside each
other (as I am told they do in the Greek)
Jesus’ response is not to smite the Pharisees, but to love the man who
•
is suffering, and by healing him, demonstrates - as he does over and
over again - that God is above all concerned with loving and reconciling
mankind.
o
No profession of faith by the man recorded, nothing asked of him but
to let Jesus work through him.
Jesus’ example gives some clues as to how to deal with our anger, so it
does not consume and destroy us.
Even when tell ourselves we are angry about injustice - particularly
•
injustice towards others - it is rarely true that our anger moves us to be
constructive.
5
We can hold in our anger, and let it eat us; or we lash out at others -
•
sometimes not even those with whom we are really angry - and hurt them with
our anger instead. Neither will get us far!
The example of Jesus, for me, is two-fold
•
Firstly, be angry only about things that really matter
•
o
Don’t rise to personal insults, or spend your time defending yourself
- Jesus is not recorded as doing so.
o Jesus’ anger in the passage from Mark and towards the Temple
traders is reserved for those who are perverting “religion” in order to
keep others away from God, to make it hard for them to access God.
o
So, Jesus teaches us that we should be angry when human beings
make each other less able to access and relate to God.
o
Think of the number of insults and hurts hurled at Jesus in his short
life of ministry - does he ever turn round and angrily justify himself?
Secondly, react positively and make a difference
•
o
Death penalty does not work - even watching a murderer die does
not bring back the victim. In fact, murdering the murderer is a
hollow victory.
Tony Campolo reports the father of a murdered girl, having
§
watched her murderer being electrocuted, as saying, “I wanted
him to suffer more for what he did. Dying isn’t enough”.
o
Few of us will be in that position. But personal attacks: we are not
yet made perfect in God, so we will not be able to completely forgive
in the same way that Jesus could. Don’t pretend you have forgiven
when you have not. But it might be worth talking through problems
with others.
o
Attitude of “I’ll show them” still means exalting yourself, proving you
are right. Proverbs 15:1 - “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a
harsh word stirs up anger.”
Remember, too, that those who we feel have wronged and hurt
§
us often feel wronged and hurt themselves.
o
It takes humility to turn away from anger like this, but the practice of
it makes it easier over time. (CBT - replacing old patterns with new
responses?)
o
In situations of wider injustice, positive action will help to assuage
anger. Jesus drove the traders from the Temple, but even so it does
not come across as a fit of rage, but as a demonstration of God’s
6
availability to all.
o
Personally, I have found that when I am angry about wider injustices,
I have to take positive action to stop myself being consumed by
rage towards the perpetrators of injustice - whether corporations,
governments, dictators
§ signing petitions and statements of support for various causes
§ boycotting unethical goods (eg from Israel where they may
have been grown on illegally settled land)
§ supporting Fair Trade
§ PRAYING for change
And this attitude of prayer is vital. God will reconcile all things - all hurts,
all injustices
o
again, Romans 12:19 - “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave
room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will
repay,” says the Lord.”
o
We have no right to be angry with others when God has removed His
anger from us
o
Our anger will destroy us far quicker than it will help us to destroy
anyone else - even if we feel we are “right”!
Justice is God’s sovereign prerogative. God will take what measures of
justice God desires.
But more often than not, we will find that God will reconcile and have
mercy upon those who hurt us, just as He has mercy on me, on you, on all
of us.
o
God did not have to die on the cross to turn away His own anger and
be able forgive us -God chose and chooses every day to die on the
cross as a demonstration that God’s love is deeper than justice, that
God’s love overcomes and conquers anger. Amen.