Pastor Jim presented
this sermon at Resurrection on February 13, 2011, the Sixth Sunday after
Epiphany. The text is Matthew 5:21-26,
from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.”
Dear
Friends in Christ,
A
key word for today is “anger.” We all
know that anger can cause all sorts of problems for us in our lives. I suspect that some of us here are better
able to handle our angry feelings than are some others. It intrigues me that in the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus takes the time to address this topic of anger. It tells me that the folks in his day needed
some divine words of counsel
in order to confront a very serious practice.
Our
Sunday school children today also have a lesson on anger. Two of the questions the teachers of our
children in grades 4,5 and 6 are asking are these:
·
What’s
a way we can take the time to talk things out with someone before it gets out
of hand?
·
Why
do you think God cares about how we treat each other?
The
Sermon on the Mount could be called “Lifestyle in the Kingdom of God.” I take that to mean that followers of Jesus
are expected to behave in way that honors God’s ways and not the ways of the
world. So, what is the place of anger in
honoring God or dishonoring God?
The
Hebrew word for anger is used 455 times in the Old Testament. 375 of these refer to the anger of God. Yes, God gets angry. That tells me that anger in itself is not a
bad thing. Certainly not bad since we
know God gets angry.
Jesus
got angry at times too. One example is
found in Mark 3 when Jesus became angry at some Pharisees who severely
criticized him for healing a man with a withered hand. They said he was “ working
on the Sabbath.” He told them they were
not interested in life but in death.
Mark ends this episode by writing that these Pharisees went out and
began to plot how to kill Jesus.
St.
Paul writes “be angry but do not sin.”
There are things in this life that must raise the ire and frustration
and passion of people of faith. Can you
think of some practices that really irritates, even angers you?
How
about:
·
The
exploitation of young women and men by the businesses that exploit sex in our
community?
·
Knowing
that a child is killed by gunfire somewhere in the U.S. every 2 hours?
·
The
million abortions per year in this country by folks who consider their
pregnancy a nuisance or a compromise of their lifestyle?
I’d
like to think that each and every one of us here, if we really thought about
it, would indeed become angry about such evil in this world. I truly believe Jesus would applaud such
anger and further expect us to do something about it.
What
kind of anger does Jesus attack in his Sermon on the Mount? It is “selfish anger.” Anger that cares not for
others or the good of the community or the honoring of God. This is anger that neither seeks nor allows
reconciliation or making things better, but exists solely to make one feel
righteous in his or her own feelings of being hurt or
offended. Such feelings lead not to
life, but lead to death in many ways.
Someone
has called Jesus’ words in this sermon “some of the most difficult to
accomplish they have ever seen from a religious authority.” Today, Jesus compares someone who is angry to a murderer. He says both will be judged the same way.
What? Did Jesus really say that? Is he serious? Being angry is as serious as murdering
someone?
Do
you remember the lessons we learned from Luther’s Small and Large
Catechisms? The fifth commandment is
“you shall not commit murder.” Luther
helps us see that plotting and taking one’s physical life is not the only sin
addressed in this commandment. “Many
people, although they do not actually commit murder, nevertheless curse others
and wish such frightful things on them that, if they were to come true, they would
soon put an end to them…We need to have a patient, gentle heart, especially
toward those who give us cause to be angry, namely, our enemies.”
The
eighth commandment is “you shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor.” This is the commandment that
seems to get trampled upon every day in our lives. Luther writes, “God does not want our
neighbor to be deprived of his reputation, honor, and character…This
commandment forbids all sins of the tongue by which we may injure or offend our
neighbors.”
What
is it about us human beings that prompts anger and often times unhealthy and
hurtful responses to our anger? Is there
something built into us, in our brains that make us act this way? The answer is “yes.” A simple way of understanding our brains is
to say that it is divided into three parts.
The first is the Reptilian brain.
It is automatic response that has evolved over the eons in human
beings. We don’t even have to think
about it. It has helped human beings
survive. I touch a hot stove and instinctively
my hand lifts up.
The
second is the Mammalian brain, or the emotional center. It regulates emotions such as joy and sorrow,
love and hate, play and seriousness. It’s overall role is to connect the rapid reaction of the Reptilian
brain to the slower thinking brain, called the Neocortex. The Neocortex is
the part of the brain that I think Jesus is addressing in the Sermon on the
Mount, though no one knew back then about the three parts of the brain. The cortex brain allows us to evaluate danger,
think through different responses, and choose what we will do. Mature persons use this part of our brain to think
about options and figure out the best way to respond. We Christians are called upon to use this
part of our brains to honor God and decide courses of actions that will promote
harmony and neighborliness.
Let
me end with a true story about anger and a better way to handle one’s
anger. There was a pastor who had a
chronic problem with anger. His wife and
young son had often been subjected to his wild outbursts of temper. The little boy would often hide in a closet
and trembled during his father’s explosions of anger. The pastor and sought and
received counseling. He asked a
group of friends in a prayer fellowship to pray for him, that he might gain
control of this destructive anger.
Slowly, God began to change him at a very deep level. One day he faced a real test of his changed
temperament. He had a hobby of
collecting model trains. He happened to
find a 50th Anniversary Lionel train in mint condition. The price was $400. He really couldn’t afford it, but his wife,
knowing how much he wanted it, juggled the budget a bit so that they could buy
it. It became the jewel and prize of his
collection.. Proudly he displayed it in the hobby room
above the carport.
One
day his little boy was playing with the train and accidentally spilled paint
remover all over it. It was ruined. The little boy burst into tears, anticipating
the awful explosion that was sure to come.
His father came to see what was wrong.
When he sized up the situation, suddenly there was unleashed within him
an awful battle. But he did not explode
as he had done so often before. Instead,
he took a deep breath and didn’t say anything for a moment or two. Then he said to his son, “The train was very
important to me, and we are both sorry about the accident. But I want you to know that you are more
important to me than all the trains in the world” He embraced his son. They both wept, for different reasons. They experienced the kind the peace of God’s
grace.”
May
God grant each and every one of us here the grace to listen with our heads and
hearts and not just our uncontrolled reptilian natures. Amen!