Seven Deadly Sins - Part 1 - ANGER

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                                                                                                 Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.  Ecclesiastes 7:9^(NLT)

We are going to take a look at what has been referred to for many centuries as The Seven Deadly Sins.  We begin with one of the most common – anger.

We encounter so much anger in everyday life that most of us have become somewhat desensitized to it.  Everywhere you go, and in every realm of existence there is anger – some is miniature in its impact, some wildly excessive.  And some of it is our own!

·       It is a fact of life in business places and schools.

·       The media – TV, Internet, Cell Phones – all filled with anger.

·       Wherever you find yourself you cannot miss the road rage of the highways, lines at stores, and even in churches, families and close relationships.

Anger is “number 6” on the list commonly known as the Seven Deadly Sins (lust, envy, gluttony, sloth, greed, anger and pride).  Our question today is

Why Is There So Much Anger?

In order to begin to talk about why there is so much anger you have to address the question’s forerunner – where did anger begin?

A number of years ago I watched a History Channel presentation called “The Seven Deadly Sins”.^[1]  The episode on anger gave God credit, starting in Genesis 6 where God’s wrath (anger) destroyed all the earth.  But the very first reference to anger in Scripture predates the flood; it’s in Genesis 4, where God asked Cain why he was so angry. 

When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord.  Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock.  The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift.  This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.  “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain.  “Why do you look so dejected?  You will be accepted if you do what is right.  But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out!  Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you.  But you must subdue it and be its master.”  Genesis 4:3-7

Cain responded to God’s questioning by acting out his anger; he killed his brother!  We have been angry and killing each other in various ways ever since.  There are so many references to angry persons in Scripture that I stopped counting after 100.

One side-road about anger in the Bible:  There is a difference between the anger (wrath) of God and human anger.  God’s anger is always righteous; man’s is not.  There is a different quality to God’s anger than just being ticked-off. 

Anger can be quick in the hot-tempered or short-fused personality.  But it can also be slow and deeply-formed.  However it happens there is always the danger of having it master you.  But God says to master it, subdue and keep it at bay like a rodeo cowboy lassoing an angry bull.

God’s instructions at this point may help us understand that our anger is inevitable, it will happen.  But that is all the more reason to examine our attitude often to see if this sin is creeping up on us.

For You Today

You do not know if anger will present itself today.  All the more reason to be on guard.  They are not called deadly sins for no reason at all!  And the person who doesn’t learn to master this one will wind up a fool.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[1] © 1996-2010, A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.(Premiered Dec 29, 2009 – January 4, 2010)

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[i] Title Image:  Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516) or follower [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

After the Anger is Done

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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

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And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,  

Ephesians 4:26^(NLT)

It’s hard….really hard to make sense of the immensity of anger we have seen played out on the world stage in recent years.  There seems to be no end in sight to the news cycles of suicide bombings, terrorist outbursts and hostage situations.  Of late, I pause before turning on the TV to catch the morning news, wondering if I really want to know.  And I turn it on anyway – anxiously wanting to know if another poor deluded soul has pulled the trigger on his detonator.

Growing up in the 1950’s the tempest of World War II and Korea were fading, but the practice drills of hiding under your school desk in the event of a Communist nuclear attack, and the looming specter of Vietnam, ensured you could never quite feel safe.

In the last three decades anger, and its accompanying violence, has moved into schoolyards, market places and seemingly never-ending rounds of blood-splatter on the nightly news.  And, as if watching the results of anger isn’t bad enough when displayed on our 60” TV screens, the current political debate features mirror images of anger and hatred with a kind of “civil terrorism” as Republicans and Democrats pick each other apart.

It’s Cain and Abel without end.

And this leaves me wondering – what happens after the anger?  Really – what happens after the anger is completely spent, and the violence has wreaked its vengeance, and jihad has toppled the Great Satan? 

What then?  To what end will we have come?  And is it really an end?

The theological answer of course, is “no” – it’s not an end, because every act of violence must have its accounting before God.  Nothing is really over until God has spoken.

No amount of killing one another is ever enough to completely satisfy human anger, lust, or greed, whether it is done on the battlefield, or in the board room.  And anger’s backwash of Occupy Wall Street, or Main Street, or blowing-up the train station is just anger on a higher scale of madness.  We are simply playing-out once again the days of Noah, where every person does what he or she wants.

Humankind has not learned much since the fiasco in the Garden of Eden; despite our Smartphones and space exploration, we are still rather inept at getting it, that God isn’t pleased with our anger and selfish ways.  To put it in the words of those highly-revered social commentators of the 1960’s, Sonny and Cher Bono, the beat goes on. 

And the person who has not learned to control his own anger runs the risk of adding to the beat never stopping:

Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.  Ecclesiastes 7:9^(NLT)

The fact is we cannot do anything about other people’s anger, or their actions.  We can, however, trust in God and not be demoralized by what we see in a culture that is headed for destruction.

And we can love. 

Jesus said it in so many ways, but the one that speaks strongest to me this morning is this:

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  1 John 4:8^(NLT)

And this:

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.                 Matthew 10:28a^(NLT)

For You Today

Does the crisis news of the day make you angry?  Don’t let the sun go down on it; confront that anger – let God make your heart glad and peaceful.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  By Andrew A. Shenouda from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (It's the Holy Week!), via Wikimedia Commons

Compassionate Riots

Rescuers pulled a teenager out of the rubble in Nepal's capital today, five days after an earthquake struck. CreditNavesh Chitrakar/Reuters[1]   

Friday, May 1, 2015

One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city.  Proverbs 16:32 (NLT)

Workers are fighting around the clock in Nepal to extract trapped people from collapsed buildings.  A teenage boy was pulled from the rubble Wednesday and the watching crowd broke out in cheers and applause.  It was a compassionate riot!

The Nepalese people are thankful amidst tragedy.

Meanwhile different riots breaking-out in Baltimore, marches and demonstrations in Washington and New York are a spectacle of quite another tone….there is anger.

In the middle of an American tragedy – the death of persons in the custody of police – American forbearance is all but forgotten.

What is the difference between what is happening in Nepal, and what is going on in America from Ferguson to Washington?  It is the distance between anger and compassion. 

Both anger and compassion are strong emotions, and they are separated by light years in cause and effect. Anger tends to destroy when unchecked (as in the street rioting and looting we saw on Baltimore streets this week.)

But sometimes they are connected.  Sometimes anger is driven by compassion, as in the national response in America after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Compassion for lost souls always evokes anger, and rightfully, when it is caused by power grabs and oppression.

But there is almost nothing more obscene than rioting and looting when the (supposed) provocation is righteous anger over oppression.  This goes far beyond two wrongs not making a right; there’s nothing noble or epically-righteous about breaking into a mall to steal toilet paper or a TV. 

It’s simply the release of emotion over pent-up frustration.  It’s making somebody…anybody pay for the hurt we feel over injustice.

In our culture American anger comes too quickly these days.  We are becoming the new caricature of people who claim to be peace-loving, and can’t wait to provoke a good riot.

Whatever happened to the virtues of patience and due process?  A mob can be mighty, but uncontrolled temper can destroy quicker than most anything.

Here’s a bit of advice for all of us from the old Preacher, Solomon (a pretty smart guy) who said:

Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.  Ecclesiastes 7:9 (NLT)

For You Today

If you’re itching to join in the fight against something, let me suggest fighting the terrible losses in Nepal.  They could use a hand.

You might want to check out resources before you send a check to help in Nepal.  Here is the United Methodist website with information on what we’re doing, and what we’ve already sent to help.

If you already know that and are ready to donate, go here; join a compassionate riot!

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[1] Title image:  Reuters