Lost…And Angry
John 2:13-22
July 9, 2006
This is the last in a series of sermons on being lost. I told you before that I became addicted to the television series LOST, but then have really been unable to keep up with the story-line. The show is about the 48 survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 which crashed on a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. They run into all sorts of surprises and challenges as they fight to survive in the wilderness.
I have decided that since I have missed so many episodes, I am going to buy the DVD’s so that I can see the whole thing from the beginning and start to put the pieces together.
Have you ever been lost? How did you feel? I remember when I was eight years old and playing in the Wildcat Baseball League here in Fort Wayne. We took a train trip up to Chicago to watch the White Sox play a game. I honestly don’t remember the game at all, but I do remember getting lost when it was over.
We were on our way back to the bus to take us to the train station for our trip home when I stopped to buy one of those great big suckers that last for about a week. I turned around and saw that I was alone. There was nobody in sight that I knew. So I did what my parents had always told me to do…I found a police officer. I walked up to this cop and told him that I was lost. He looked down at me and said, “Don’t worry. Kid’s get lost around here every day.” Then he turned around and walked off.
I became terrified and started to cry. Some lady saw me crying and came over to ask me what was wrong. She finally helped me locate my bus and the incident turned out alright. But I remember the sheer terror that I felt that day.
I have been thinking about that day for awhile. I have a feeling that kids aren’t the only ones who get lost. When adults lose their way, it is often an emotional experience. We lose track of ourselves and don’t understand why we feel the way we feel. Often, we’re not sure how to get back on track. We feel lost when things are out of control and we’re not in charge anymore. It can be a really scary time for us. Today, as we wrap up this series, we’re going to talk about being lost and angry.
What is it that sets you off, that really makes you angry? What trips your trigger? What is it that gets on your very last nerve? What is it that makes you so mad that your face gets crimson?
I have already told you that one of the things that really burns me up is having to stand in line at a gas station behind someone who can’t decide which lottery tickets to buy.
Lat week, my oldest kid got married. Ever since he gave Megan her diamond for a Christmas present last year, he has been planning to get married that day. He was crunching the numbers, trying to figure out how much money he was going to need. When he was home for Christmas break, he had an extra fifty bucks in his pocket…and so he got a tattoo with it. Both his mother and I were furious. Apparently, there is a tattoo artist in Fort Wayne named “Donny” or “Danny” or “Dennis” or something like that. He is known all over the country. Matt just had to get a tattoo done by him. We were not pleased.
My other son dropped his cell phone in the toilet. Of course, it doesn’t work and he’s impossible to get hold of anymore. The boy just really frosts my cookies.
Anger is no stranger to God. Throughout the Bible, there are hundreds of examples of God’s anger which was directed toward God’s people. God got angry at the Children of Israel when they made a golden calf to worship. God got angry at King David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. God was angry with the people when they no longer followed him, and so he sent them into exile in Babylon.
Even Jesus got angry during his life. He got angry when the religious leaders were preventing the people from hearing the truth about God. He got angry when the Temple worship was being distorted; so angry that he drove the moneychangers away with a whip.
But what can we say about anger in our lives? Do we try to deny it? Do we try to hide from it? Do we refuse to recognize it? Do we just give in to it? What do we do?
First of all, I think that the only reasonable thing to do is to acknowledge that anger is a reality. All of us get mad from time to time at something or other. We can’t gloss over that fact. We are not a group of super-duper, champion Christians who never get mad. There isn’t one person in this room this morning that hasn’t gotten mad at something in the past week. If I were to ask for a show of hands, I am sure that some of you would say that you are mad right now at something or someone.
So we start with the fact that anger is with us; always has been and always will be. So now what? Where do go from here?
I think that there are really two different kinds of anger: legitimate and illegitimate. Anger is sometimes appropriate in a given situation, sometimes not. So the first task is to determine what legitimate anger is and what isn’t. The second task then, is to determine appropriate responses to that anger.
First of all, anger that is directed to another within the Body of Christ is not legitimate. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient time, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘Whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21-22).
Christians ought to be the first to understand that we are not perfect, that we don’t have it all together, that we make mistakes, that we are not always at our best. Remember that it was the Apostle Paul who wrote, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…(Romans 3:23). In I Corinthians 123, Paul writes that we now see in a mirror dimly. In other words, in our finite human situation, we don’t always have a clear view of what is happening, don’t always have the ability to see everything, and can never have a full understanding of what is true and right.
If you accept the fact that you are a sinner also and that you don’t know the fullness of truth, then I think that you are put into a position of having to give others the benefit of the doubt that they are acting in the best possible manner given their own level of understanding.
Also remember Jesus who said, “In everything to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). If you have ever made mistakes or done something stupid, you no doubt hope that other people won’t hold it against you. The same thing applies when someone has offended you. We owe it to our sisters and brothers in the faith not to get angry at the drop of a hat for some slight provocation.
Related to not getting angry at our brothers and sisters in the faith is a second type of illegitimate anger which is anger that is focused on people rather than on behavior. When you go through the gospel to find the instances of the anger of Jesus, you will find that he was always angry at sinful behavior and not at people.
He went into a synagogue one day and was confronted with a man who had a withered hand (Mark 3:1-6). The religious authorities were watching him to see whether or not he would heal on the Sabbath. Mark 3:5 says that he looked at them in anger because they wouldn’t allow for doing good on the Sabbath. He wasn’t angry at them, but only at the hardness of their hearts, only at their behavior.
Illegitimate anger seeks revenge. Have you ever been so mad at someone else that you wanted to do something to get back at them? Of course you have. Has someone ever done something to you that made you lay awake at night thinking about ways to hurt them in return? Of course you have. Everybody has done that.
A number of years ago, I had a very difficult appointment up in Crown Point. It was a relief for both church and pastor when the bishop moved me somewhere else. Back in 2003, they were having a twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the church. One of the women wrote to me asking for a picture because they were going to put all of their pastors’ photos in frames to hang on the wall. I ignored her request…twice! Felt good to get back at her for being such a meany when I was there.
Paul says “…never avenge yourselves…” (Romans 12:19). Let God take care of the disciplining of wayward souls. We don’t have the right to pay somebody back for a sin against us. Leave it to God.
Illegitimate anger is found in an unforgiving spirit. Remember that we pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” How in the world can we expect others to forgive us, or to be forgiven by God, if we are unwilling to be forgiving?
Jesus says, “…when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come an doffer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).
Sometimes we can be so stubborn. We just won’t let our anger go, but allow it to continue to live in us to seethe and burn and grow. Ephesians 4:26 says, “…do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
So we know that there are many instances of anger which, when held up to the light of Scripture, are illegitimate. When anger is directed to a brother or sister in the faith, or when it is focused on people and not on behavior, or when it seeks revenge, or when it is unforgiving; then there is a problem. When our anger crosses those boundaries, we have to do something with it. We can’t allow this sort of anger to rule our lives because it will only make us miserable. So get rid of it. Let it go. Don’t let it rule your life.
I am convinced however, that there are some legitimate causes for anger among the body of Christ. In the Gospel lesson this morning from the second chapter of John, Jesus found the moneychangers and the sellers of animals in the Temple. They were polluting the Temple with activities which drew people’s focus away from the Temple’s true purpose. He saw the futileness of all the activity, the waste, the deception, the manipulation of God’s intentions for people, the terminal sickness of that religious system.
He got mad…whip-cracking mad. He was mad at the temple being turned into a marketplace. He go mad at the money changers who were turning a holy obligation into a scheme to get rich. He God mad at all of the pilgrims there for the Passover celebrations that saw the Temple grounds only as a place to make a business deal. He got mad at the priests who had allowed their love for ritual overtake their love for God. He got mad at all of the pointless animal sacrifices which caused the blood to run from the altar, but which extinguished the reflection of God’s light.
There is indeed a time to get angry. There is indeed such a thing as righteous anger. This type of anger is directed at those practices which draw people away from true worship of God. This type of anger is directed at those practices which perpetuate injustice among God’s people. This type of anger is directed at those practices which quench the Spirit in our midst.
Righteous, legitimate, and appropriate anger is forged in the crucible of God’s Will for the human community.
Anger is part of human existence. The key is to get angry over things that really matter; things that draw us away from the Kingdom; things that distract us from Jesus; things that build barriers between God’s people and authentic relationship with each other and with God; things that destroy people’s spirit and hope.
Put your everyday anger to rest. Don’t let it control your life. Concentrate instead on those things that destroy the Body of Christ. From your anger over injustice and perverted worship, work to restore the church’s relationship with Christ. If you have to get whip-cracking mad, do it for God’s sake.
