One of the things that I regret about the way I raised my boys is
that I think I raised my voice too often.
As I reflect back, I understand now that on those occasions
when I had reached the limit of my patience with them,
I wasn’t often creative enough or sensible enough or rational enough
to find ways of discipline that didn’t involve a lot of yelling.
(Pause)
I remember one incident where my son Darren didn’t do what I asked.
I can’t remember what it was.
But I do remember that he was sitting on the couch in the living room
and I was pacing back and forth in front of him,
shouting like a mad man.
I had completely lost it.
He had come to my last nerve.
I can still see him as he was about 12 years.
He had on blue shorts and a stripped t-shirt.
I can see him sitting there with sort of a confused look
on his face because he couldn’t quite figure out
what had gotten into me.
In the middle of my tirade,
when I had stopped to take a breath,
he looked up at me and said,
“Dad, I love you.”
(Pause)
I was devastated.
Those four words from my son stopped me in my tracks
and made me face up to the fact that I had lost control.
My anger had passed into very dangerous territory.
(Pause)
To tell you the end of the story, I sat down on the couch,
took him up on my lap,
told him I was sorry and that I loved him too.
I still remember and regret that incident.
I continue to be ashamed of my behavior that day.
(Pause)
I ask all of you now to take a moment
and What makes you angry?
What sets you off?
There was also one occasion we read in Scripture where Jesus became angry.
It is recounted in the second chapter of John.
He was in Jerusalem and, as was his custom,
went up to the Temple.
There he found the moneychangers.
They were selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifice - at a handsome profit.
Jesus was furious at this abuse of the house of God
and so he made a whip of chords, over-turned their tables,
and drove them from the premises.
He brought his moral force, his moral power to bear on the situation.
He wouldn’t stand for the exploitation of the Temple that he had witnessed.
He had righteousness on his side.
Now when we look at our anger it is aimed at little things:
like being cut off in traffic
or like having have spilled something in our kitchen or on our living room floors.
(Pause)
The New Testament letter of James is actually more of a sermon than a letter.
In it, the author is intent on reminding Christians how
they ought to live once they have claimed Jesus as Lord of their life.
He writes this in 1:19-21.
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. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness,
and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
(Pause)
I like the way that this passage talks to us
It tells us….. to lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue,
and let anger straggle along in the rear.
God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger.
So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage.
In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word,
making a salvation-garden of your life.
(Pause)
James is being very blunt with his readers.
He is speaking to people who are part of the church;
people who have given their lives to Jesus;
people who are claiming the name Christian;
or simply people who ought to know these things already.
So what do we do about it?
What do we do when we become angry?
What happens when we lead with our anger instead of relegating it to the garbage dump?
(Long Pause)
We will never be able to rise above our anger if we continue to dwell on it,
continue to let it eat away at us.
Carry a grudge for a while and you soon discover
that it has become quite a heavy burden.
When we rehearse and replay the injustices which have been done to us,
we continue to live in the past.
The grudge never heals if we keep picking at it.
We need to let go of our anger.
If we don’t, it will surely trigger bitterness and resentment.
If we can’t put our anger behind us or leave
that heavy baggage in the past,
we will always remain imprisoned in it.
By letting go of our anger we can then realize
that forgiveness and anger cannot occupy the same space in our hearts.
Jesus said in during the sermon on the Mount:
So when you are offering your gift at the alter,
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 and offer your gift.
(Pause)
Don’t we then, as God’s people who have had our sins forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
have an obligation to imitate God’s forgiveness in our actions toward our brothers and sisters?
This week, I would invite all of us to examine our lives
and do our best to discern the anger places.
We need not let the anger to slowly destroying you,
slowly eating away at your faith.
We don’t want it to become a cancerous impediment
which stands in the way of our enjoyment of the salvation that has been offered by Christ.
So let us name our ange
put it away, seek forgiveness,
and begin living as you profess.
Begin living as those who have been themselves forgiven.
Begin living within the implanted Word that has the power to save your soul