Sermon

Rev. Robert A. Kem

Rector of St. Anne’s

Do Get Angry Part 3

3/11/07



All of a sudden this guy goes speeding by me on the right hand side, because I was in the passing lane on Interstate 80. He swerves and cuts back into traffic with only inches in front of me and tailgating the car in front of me. Enough so he had to brake.



“Geez,” I said to myself . “What a morron I yelled. So, I immediately moved into my James Bond 007 mode of operation. The machine guns begin firing at his back side of the car and bingo a rocket finished him off as he swerved and crashed his car off the road. Serves you right buddy.”



Anger is our natural response to a person or situation where we have been threatened or hurt. Most of us as humans want to strike back at the person who has hurt us. They offend you so you even the score.



What about the family member who makes a snide comment at a family gathering. You relive the conversation over and over again in your mind. I should have insulted them back. I could have gotten even and hurt them in return. A personal attack would even the score.



Anger happens when two children are playing. The one steals the others toy. The other two year old begins to cry, charges the other child and Ka POW. He lets him have it right in the nose.



Dennis Maynard this week says that anger is a natural part of the healing process towards forgivenss of another person. When another person invades our space, violates our trust, or steps on our hearts, it will make us angry.



Anger is not an easy emotion for me to deal with because as a child growing up our culture taught us “you are not to get angry. Never seek revenge against another.” You see, I was always bigger than most boys and girls my age. So being a big kid, it was not cool to get angry at others smaller than you.



Yet, anger is part of the created order. It is part of the forgiveness process and Marshall says “DO GET ANGRY.” But does this contradict the part of the Bible that teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount about loving your neighbor? Matthew 5:43-45



“You have heard that it was said ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But, I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”



Jesus himself was angry. John 2:13-21 it is worth reading. Jesus shows us his own display of anger when he went in and found the people being cheated of their money when they were to buy sacrifices for the Temple for forgiveness for their sins. His anger was against the injustice. His anger motivated him to do something about the injustice being forced upon the common people. John 2:13-22. Jesus entered the Temple and found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers at their businesses. And making a whip of chords, he drove them all, with sheep and oxen, out of the Temple; and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.” Now, this was a healthy _expression of anger. It was anger that was used to attack an injustice and not attack a person.



We have situations in our lives today where anger is not only acceptable, it is what God would have us do. Anger at the injustice in Sudan can cause us to cry out and motivate us to take action. We are to contact our politicians to stop the slaughter of innocent people. We are to be angry at those who kill the men and take children and women off in slavery.



God would have us be angry at the poverty in the world so we would help the homeless in Des Moines and set up a medical clinic in the Dominican Republic. In our baptismal vows we are asked on Page 305 “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”



This falls in line with the Millenium Development Goals that we are following as we reach out to correct some of the injustices of this world in which we live. MDG’s are set up to get angry enough to respond to these needs around the world.



Back to anger that is pointed towards ourselves or others. We hear that if we deny our anger and bury it that is swallow our anger we do not bury it dead we bury it alive.” What Dennis means is that we will multiply our anger and it will become like gangrene and spread throughout our entire body, our lives and the lives around us.



Anger turned inwards is very unhealthy. In the healing ministry we see it causing physical pain and suffering as we se people with migraine headaches, heart disease, blood pressure, cancer, colitis, should and back pain. This comes from us swallowing our anger.



Anger that is out of control can lead to homicide and suicide in the extreme. How do we deal with our anger?



When someone hurt us we must confront. If we don’t confront them then we are coconspirators in their behavior. We give them permission to behave in the same way over and over again.

When the kids were little, at the ages of 5 and 9, they would be fighting and someone would hurt the others feelings. I would tell them to settle it with one another. This means you are to follow some steps: See also Matthew 18:15-17



1) Face the person, tell them you are angry. Focus on the pain. Let them hear your anger and focus on their actions, not on the person.

2) Never are you to focus on the person by name calling and cutting remarks.

3) When we express our anger we discharge it and get rid of it.

4) When the person has heard about our hurt we may also ventilate to a professional counselor or pastor.

5) Finally, we can deal with our anger by getting some exercise.





What Dennis Maynard says expressing your anger towards a person is a necessary part of the forgiveness process. It is required for our healing. But to verbally abuse or physically abuse someone who hurts us is wrong. Often times when two married people deal with their anger they attack the other person verbally. Our anger becomes a weapon and our words penetrate to the person’s inner soul.



We are to use I statements. “I am embarrassed. I feel hurt. I am humiliated.” We are to avoid “you statements”. You statements fuel our anger, our emotion and block the healing process. I statements set us free from our hurt, resentment, and bitterness.



The last point that Maynard states is guard against getting stuck in our anger phase of the forgiveness process. Finally, even Jesus left this world freed from the emotional pain, humiliation by those who crucified him. He said from the cross; “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”



May God help you to deal with your anger in a direct way with those who have hurt you and not allow you to further injure yourself and your healing by ignoring the pain. This is the next important step in the healing process.