alt-Center

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Friday, August 18, 2017

Never pay back evil with more evil…Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.  Romans 12:17, 21^(NLT)

Our Shih-Tzu, Wellington the Wonder dog takes out his hostility on his toys.  Whenever he is frustrated, or if we have missed his feeding time by 18 seconds, the little monster heads for the toy box and throws them everywhere.  He will grab one, shake it and hurl it like an Olympic javelin champion.  His toys end up all over the room, and he just won’t put them away when his “fit” is done.  Picking up the toys is what his slaves (Mrs. Preacher and I) must do. 

What Wellie does after the carnage is done is rest his weary body. 

Anger does that to all of God’s creatures; it wears us out!  And with due respect to all that is holy and right, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference which side of an argument you choose; anger is going to wear you out. 

In this country we have watched anger and its expressions of violence break out like volcanic explosions.  In Charlottesville this past week the (so-called) alt-Right ultra conservatives, neo-Nazis and white supremacists came face to face with the (so-called) alt-Left, anti-fascist liberals[2]; the clash of these groups’ anger resulted in three dead and 20 more injured, and un-ending news coverage and political wrangling.

I will not presume to hold-forth a solution to the woes of a nation divided as we are; I’m not that clever (or that stupid).  This is as complex as it gets.  

This morning I would simply offer a comment on the nature of how our culture’s mood has (and is) missing the mark by a wide margin.  Scripture shows us alt-Good and its evil twin alt-Evil.

David’s Psalm suggested an alt-good national mood:

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  Psalm 133:1^(NLT)

Paul’s statement on human nature reveals the alt-Evil fly in harmony’s ointment:

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”  Ephesians 4:26a^(NLT)

When anger enters the picture the body count grows.  All you have to do is look at Wellie’s toys to figure that out!  Our national sin is the anger, vitriol, and violence thrown at each other like water on a grease fire; it won’t cease raging…ever!  And with that image comes a cry for some kind of hope…how can we put out the fires of our discontent? 

There is no easy answer to that…certainly not in a three minute devotional thought.  But there is a direction today’s scripture from Genesis suggests:

Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.”  Genesis 41:52^(NLT)

Joseph was ripped violently from his homeland, sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by his owner’s wife of rape, betrayed by people he’d helped, and yet remained without anger.  He named his son Ephraim – fruitfulness in grief.  This is much like Paul’s statement to the church at Philippi: 

…for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  Philippians 4:11^(NLT)

In the worst and best circumstances of his life Joseph celebrated being useful in the conditions life threw at him. 

And now look to the best example; in the midst of extreme hatred and undeserved evil, there was One who gave his life on a cross to make a way of reconciliation with God for those who despised him most.

For You Today

We all need to remember, and spread the word, that anger never resolves injustice; rather it clouds the issue at best, and, at worst, results in the carnage of retaliation, blood, and death.

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy Pixabay.com & Russell Brownworth (own work)

[2] For definitions of alt-Right & alt-Left see NY Times article

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

So Much Anger - Part II

Thursday, January 16, 2014

The most common result of human anger is the division of souls.  We divide ourselves from one another with our anger.  That is largely because anger clouds judgment and we do things we’d never ordinarily do when we are angry.  And we do it to people we’d never want to hurt.  That is why the LORD inspired Paul to write a prohibition against unchecked anger for Christians:

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, Ephesians 4:26 (NRSV)

God knows that anger will creep in; it’s a human emotion that builds inside because we are a fallen people.  But he forbids us to let that which creepeth-in to be that which is allowed to stayeth around! 

Don’t let the day pass without dealing with your anger; don’t let it fester and destroy relationships.  I’ve known people who buried their anger; years pass, until just the right time, and – wham – they let the object of their grudge have it right between the eyes.  That’s shameful for a Christian!

A woman was hauled into court and told the judge that her husband is a horrible neat freak and he drives me nuts about keeping everything tidy.  After the couple argued about the proper alignment of table place settings, [she] rented a 3,000-pound, pneumatic tire forklift…and drove it through the front wall of their one-story frame house.  

According to neighbors who witnessed the incident, she used the machine to smash the dining

room table.  "[He] yelled at me about where his fork was supposed to go," she said, "and I figured I’d fix it with a forklift."  Neighbors said [she] seemed "wild-eyed" and distraught during the attack and kept screaming…at her husband, who took refuge in the kitchen.  The moral of that story is:  never marry a woman who knows how to operate heavy machinery.[1] 

Not letting the sun go down on your anger doesn’t mean taking it out on the closest target before dark.  It means dealing with your anger honestly and with humility.

Today

Take a few moments to review how you have dealt with anger you feel on the inside, and how you’ve responded to others’ anger in the past.

Tomorrow ….get ready to conquer that anger as we look at God’s remedy.

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[1] Tim Harlow on SermonCentral.com