Be angry
Sunday, January 10, 2021 at 11:36PM
In the parish I attend we have a shared homily. Fr. Kevin usually sends a video of his homily the day before. He then offers a short version after the gospel reading. Then he invites the congregation to share their response. Sometimes it’s a powerful, grace filled experience. All on Zoom.
This morning some of us shared our anger. On the Feast of the Epiphany (as noted by Speaker Pelosi with prayer) vandals breached the sacred space, destroyed sacramental artifacts, and interrupted the tradition of ages. And as often happens when such sacrilege occurs—someone dies. So, we spoke of anger.
Some were disturbed by their own anger. Saint Paul tells us “Be angry.” Yes, I know there is more to the passage. But let that sink in a bit – “Be angry.”
There’s a lot of anger in our country at the moment. There’s anger at the vandals of Wednesday and their cheerleaders. And in a much lesser way, at those who rioted this summer and those who rationalized their violence. Anger at those who would use legitimate first amendment expression as a cover for violence. And just to be clear—no, those acts of the summer don’t come close to what happened on Wednesday. Still, moral responsibly doesn’t allow excuses for lesser acts of violence. This year has seen too much violence.
God’s anger
Our Lord appears to be angry rather frequently. Anger in regard to injustice and oppression is faithful and necessary. The Scriptures offer us a God who gets angry. Do a search and you’ll find many examples. Here’s a few.
Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees,
who write oppressive statutes,
to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be your spoil,
and that you may make the orphans your prey!
What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth, (Isaiah 10:1-3)
Somewhere along the line some of us were taught to separate the Old Testament God from the New Testament God. That’s mostly nonsense.
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
but you are making it a den of robbers.’ (Matthew 21:12-13)
And
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark: 3:1-6)
Jesus’ anger is the righteous indignation of God. Sometimes our anger is our participation in the Divine Life—"Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity (Collect, 2nd Sunday after Christmas Day). I usually think of that prayer as being about our participation in the love of God, in the work of God. I rarely think of it as participation in God’s anger.
I say the psalms daily. It’s part of the Benedictine grounding of the Episcopal Church. In that tradition when we say the psalms in the Daily Office, we don’t skip the nasty verses, the angry verses. Even when they seem violent. It’s as though sometime God is saying, “I’m so angry I could kill you.”
Be angry but do not sin
So, there’s part two. Do not sin.
Our anger poisons the well. It poisons the well of the community; it poisons the well of our soul. Allow it for a time. But not a long time—" do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” The saint’s guidance is to be timely in moving past our anger.
There’s more.
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. (James 1:19-20)
There we are. We are to be quick to let go of our anger and we are to be slow to get angry.
Further into James we hear this.
Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. (James 4:1-2)
Your 21st Century therapist will invite you to look inside yourself. What is at war within you?
The training received by members of the Order of the Ascension includes attention to what’s called emotional intelligence and “use of self.” One of the skills to learn is in the area of self-regulation. There are a number of elements involved, e.g., trustworthiness, adaptability. But the first item on the list is self-control: “Managing disruptive emotions and impulses. People with this competence: manage their impulsive feelings and distressing emotions well; stay composed, positive, and unflappable even in trying moments.; think clearly and stay focused under pressure.
Anger is something we can manage. We can decide to stop feeding our anger. We can decide to not indulge our anger. We can decide to turn our anger in a direction that is truer and more productive. How? One route is to ask what lies within and under our anger. What we will usually find is hurt and sadness. There is humanity and vulnerability in acknowledging our sadness. We can participate in God's sadness. A second way to turn our anger toward holiness is to pray. Pray for those tempted to violence, for the victims of violence, for the police officers and medics who did their duty on that day, for political leaders who stayed true, and yes, for our enemies, for those who have behaved badly, those who have enabled evil, those who remain blind. And one more way--take an action. Hear Martin Thornton, "...Aquinas got it right: prayer is 'loving God in act so that the divine life can communicate itself to us and through us to the world. ' Christian action is not action of which Jesus approves but action that he performs through his incorporated, and therefore prayerful, disciples." Again, we may participant in the very life of God by our action. Write a letter to a political leader. Read a book on the US Constitution. Buy an American flag. Have a conversation with someone you don't agree with, stay calm and respectful. Press back against false narratives like the police enabled the rioters [iii]
Confusing isn’t it?
Confusing isn’t it? How do we know our anger is participation in God’s anger vs. an anger that is self-indulgent? When is not being angry a sin and when is being angry a sin? And how can we see it when an anger that begins “in God” turns into an anger that is self-indulgent?
Just a few thoughts.
First, humility. Beware of our human tendency to rationalize and justify ourselves. Use the practices of faith to keep a check on it—reflection and self-examination, sacramental confession.
Second, recall holiness of life is your destiny.[i] That the Holy Spirit is at work within you. Blessed Paul wrote, in Ephesians that we are to grow into the full stature of Christ; that the graces and practices necessary for that growth are humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance born of love, eagerness to maintain unity in the bond of peace, truthfulness mediated in love, mutual kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness; and in Galatians that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Also, recall your baptism into “an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love (God), and the gift of joy and wonder in all (God’s) works.
Finally, you're an Anglican! Complexity and paradox are part of how we understand God and the ways of God. Father Jim Fenhagen, one time Dean of General Seminary wrote, "Rather than doctrinal uniformity … being able to hold together seeming opposites." John Westerhoff wrote that "truth is known and guarded by maintaining the tension between counter-opposite statements concerning truth … personal freedom and communal responsibility … sacred and secular." This stance toward truth goes hand in hand with our tradition valuing ambiguity and openness. We tolerate a certain kind of theological messiness as we wait to see more clearly. We live with differences.
All this is what God is doing with each of us. Our task, call it virtue or call it learning emotional intelligence, is to cooperate with God.
And the connection with parish development?
The parish has three primary purposes: 1) the worship of God, 2) the formation of the People of God, and 3) to be a sanctifying presence in the community.
Guiding people in regard to anger is part of the formation task. Those at the center who are given to prayer and spiritual discipline will be quickest to understand. And, the seed needs to be planted for all to receive.
Learning to manage our anger is an essential aspect of the process of reconciliation. In all parishes people get angry with one another. The unity and harmony of the parish depends on enough people being proficient in the skills of reconciliation.[ii]
rag+
[i] See “What kind of person is being formed”.
[ii] “The Church’s way of reconciliation and forgiveness” and “Grumbling and Conflict”
[iii] Regarding false narratives - regarding the police: Officer Eugene Goodman leading the rioters away from the Senate Chambers, The officer attacked in a doorway, Officer Brian D. Sicknick murdered and rioters being tracked down and arrested. In other news articles you'll find partisan speculation, e.g., From the Right: if the protesters were Black they'd be allowed to set up an autonomous zone and would face no charges and From the Left: if they were Black the police would have killed many of them. Of course, either is possible. It's also possible that authorities would have learned from their earlier mistakes and neither of these scenarios would have happened. This kind of speculation is one step away from conspiracy theories. We're also getting a lot of updates on what actually happened. For example, the Washington Post initially reported incorrectly that the Pentagon had “denied” National Guard reinforcements.Then another story titled “Pentagon placed limits on D.C. Guard ahead of pro-Trump protests due to narrow mission.” The implication being that Trump appointees at the Pentagon decided to slow-walk reinforcements to overwhelmed police forces. The story was then updated to reflect that the restraints were placed on the National Guard “in response to a request from the D.C. mayor." I know that I had no trouble accepting the first story. Yet. as it turns out the story was wrong. It wasn't "fake news" as though someone was trying to mislead me. It was either what a reporter knew at the time or was speculation. On the other hand, we still don't know why Governor Hogan's offer to send in MD National Guard units was not quickly accepted. More is likely to be revealed in the coming days. We are called not only to be slow to anger but slow to assume that we understand complex and confusing events.
On 1-11-21 the New York Times published "Inside a Deadly Siege." The report notes failures at many levels of government. There will be a lot of competition in trying to spin the story so one party or another is made to appear more or less responsible. Many decisions appear to have been based on what some saw as an over reaction to protests in DC this summer. One thing is certain. The story will change in the days and months ahead as more information is gathered and there is time for reflection.
Resources
Here in Seattle there's a reporter who moderates a program called "The Divide." Today she offered useful advice that seems very aligned with Saint Paul.
On how we each can take responsibility for the division in our nation
On what happened to our Seattle Representative - the first segment in the broadcast
Then three other pieces
Capitol police were overrun, 'left naked' against rioters - Many acted with great courage that day. They did their duty.
Reader Comments (6)
Fear often lies under my own anger - fear that I’ll look foolish or, worse, that I’ll turn out to be wrong and might have to amend my most closely-cherished beliefs. Sadness is generally way below both the anger and the fear. Simply noticing the feelings, naming them (not necessarily or even usually out loud) is key to being able to manage them.
I spend a lot of time talking with people I don’t agree with about both politics and religion. That ability to recognize my feelings helps me calm them and reign in conversations that might otherwise go off the rails. Identifying the feelings also prepares me differently for prayer since I’m not as distracted by emotion. There’s more capacity for silence and contemplation. But it takes practice!
I found Michelle's comments on fear very helpful. Our anger may be a cover for many other feelings that we usually have a difficult time facing into.
Thank you both of your posts. We don't need to change our position or deny what is clearly in front of us when we practice companion and empathy for those who continue their support of the current president. We do need to recognize our own feet of clay and our own ability to be completely wrong about something. That helps us practice humility. The culture would lead us to draw lines and square off. We can hold strong positions without losing our capacity to be honest about our own "stuff" and thus not inflicting others with judgment however deserved we feel it to be. Belittling and dismissing people who disagree with me is not only an unacceptable Christian response, it also never works to move people to change. It only makes me feel superior. I am sure there is a bio-chemical rush I get when I do such things. Maybe that is why we keep doing it? It takes discipline on our parts, the kind Benedict's Rule prescribes, to step back, listen to ourselves, and then curb our tongues of the need to point out the log in another's eye.
Last Wednesday as I watched the unfolding horror at the Capital I was more angry than I remember being in a very long while. Underneath that anger is a sense of being violated, and betrayed ( the culmination of 4 years of feeling violated and betrayed by hateful speech and actions from our President and other top leaders ) , a horror at the violence unleashed by hateful rhetoric, and a sense of the vulnerability of our democracy and of our own lives. I am still processing that anger. In my position as a Rector I have called us to prayer and also in some channels given voice to the message, "This cannot stand. We cannot look away. We have to look honestly at what has happened as well as honestly at our own selves.so that we can move forward together."
Susan,
Your phrase on the "sense of the vulnerability of our democracy" hit me. It brought to mind being at Independence Hall in 1976 during the celebration of the bicentennial. It was the first time I heard someone talk about Ben Franklin responding to a question with "it's a Republic, if you can keep it." Until this week I don't think I ever really consider the possibility of losing it. It's almost enough to get me to want the flag restored to the liturgical space.
Sometime back in the 1960's or 70's I read something about the anger of God that stuck with me. Righteous anger is the appropriate response whenever anything or anyone we love is threatened. It is a stimulus to act to protect what we love. How we act? Ahh, there's the rub.
I had an odd experience "the morning after." Having stayed up late watching the drama of the attack on the Capitol, I woke up feeling purged. It was like something rancid and sour had belched from a deep inner darkness and been flushed out. Maybe a thin layer of bitter taste remained, but I felt a new breath of cleanness and hope.
Something ugly and poisonous that has been deep in the belly of our nation seemed spewed out into the open where we can see it and, hopefully, deal with it. For me, it was an old hangover. In fifth grade (1962) I saw these people's parents invade my hometown of Oxford, Mississippi to prevent James Merideth enrolling into the University of Mississippi. Same energy. Same ugliness. But that riot and the assassination of JFK led to the Voting Rights Act and some other progress.
So once again, something we love has been attacked. How can we use that energy for motivation to create something good, something that can better protect what we love?