So our teaching Scripture this morning comes from Mark chapter
3, beginning in verse one again. He entered the synagogue and a
man was there who had a withered hand, and they were watching him
to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath so that they
might accuse him. And he came to the man, he said
to the man who had the withered hand come forward.
And then he said to them, Is it lawful to do good or to do harm
on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?
But they were silent. And he looked around at them
with anger. He was grieved at the hardness
of their heart. And he said to the man, stretch
out your hand. And he stretched it out and his
hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and
immediately conspired with the Herodians against him and Hound
to destroy him. This is the word of the Lord.
Gee, thanks for that warm welcome.
No, it's cool. I I'm obligated to remind you
that next week the time changes. You will set your clocks back.
45 minutes so that you can be on time for church.
The people who needed that one. Aren't here yet, so I I I at the
last church that I pastored before.
My family and I moved to Columbus in Oxford, OH.
There was always a a. Woman.
At the. Sort of time change moment in
the year, who would miss it? Like consistently with for the
whole 10 years that I was there. Her name is Linda and we joked.
About this a lot so you know I I actually hope that she catches.
Wind of this Linda would arrive in the room every week, just on
a normal week, looking like she had sort of been dropped out of
a whirlwind into church. Like her hair is just, you know,
everywhere. But then the two.
Weeks a year that the. Time had changed when she showed
up to church an hour early or an hour late.
The look of bewilderment on her face, as though this had never
happened before, was one of my favorite things.
To see so I haven't. Been here long enough yet to
know if. There is a Linda.
Among us. But I'm I'm watching, I'm paying
attention. So in the 19. 70s psychologists
started. Studying what happens in the
body when we get angry. I have a cartoon.
For you there, there's this, you know, series of.
Brain scans and what? They found was as they hooked
people up to. Monitors and sensors, the The
brain is flooded with energy when people become angry.
And I don't know if you know this about me, but I love New
Yorker cartoons. There's just something about
like the aesthetic of New Yorker cartoons.
And they're kind of. Clever wit that that just.
Does it for me so here you know the doctor's pointing at the
brain scan and says and this is the part that we'll never forget
the time you called your third grade teacher mom I'll I'll
bring more cartoons in the future It's fine and if if you
if. You don't get it.
You just need more social anxiety in your life I guess.
I don't know. The body is getting ready to do
something when we're angry. To fight, to protest, to protect
and. It's not just in your head, it's
a fully embodied alarm that something you love or something
you. Care about feels threatened and.
The strange thing is that the same burst of energy that can
lead someone to punch holes in the drywall can also lead
another person to pull someone from a burning car.
Anger, and this is very counter. To the way that a.
Lot of us have been taught to think about anger.
Anger is morally ambidextrous. Anger can serve all sorts of
functions in our personal lives, in society.
It can destroy or it can heal. And that's what.
Makes it so tricky to. Understand we live in a.
World that both feeds. On anger in the most unhealthy
way possible and fears it at the same time indignation has become
a kind of currency we. Reward whoever can be the.
Most enraged. Enraged the quickest and we also
don't know. What to do with our?
Own anger, we swallow it. We apologize for it.
We. Pretend it's not there and then
every once in a while. It kind of leaks out sideways.
And some of us express anger in loud, obvious, kind of
obnoxious. Ways sometimes others carry it
like a low grade fever. And sometimes it erupts in
traffic or in politics or in family life.
And for other people it can just seep out slowly as cynicism or
detachment. Sometimes the people who seem
the calmest on the. Surface are actually the
angriest. People in the room, they have
learned to translate their anger into something more socially
acceptable. And it's not all bad.
Anger has built hospitals, it has launched reform movements,
it's overturned oppressive systems, it's given ordinary
people the courage to stand against quiet injustices, and it
has driven profits into the courts of kings.
There's a true kind of anger that tells.
The truth about the world and about everyday life.
A kind of moral. Clarity that refuses to accept.
Cruelty and refuses to accept indifference.
So last week we talked. About despondency and how
despondency is just sort of like the turning down of kind of any.
Sort of hope. For the future, anything that
might happen, you know inside. Of us that would cause us to to
really. Feel anything on an emotional or
spiritual level and this week we're.
Kind of talking about. Despondency's counterpart on the
other side of the spectrum, the the sort of outsized feelings of
sort of one thing or another on an emotional or spiritual level.
That would cause us. To potentially even do harm in
its worst form to the people around us.
So we all know this one, the last.
Two weeks we've talked about Acedia.
And despondency and kind of, you know, had to make the disclaimer
like, well. If you read the Bible.
You're not going. To find the word acedia.
Anywhere you're not going to find despondency.
There's plenty of mentions of anger in the Bible.
And I think that's actually part of the.
Reason that some of us have so much kind of mental architecture
around this word that keeps us from understanding it properly
in its proper. Setting.
This is something that is so familiar to us.
Even when I say the word anger, something or someone probably
comes to mind for us. A moment, a voice, a face.
And yet, for something so familiar, we find that we may
not actually know what it is that we're dealing with when we
talk about the passion of anger. What is really at work?
Underneath what we feel when we experience anger, we know what
it looks like. We know sort of the signs to
watch for. But.
What are the forces? That are being unleashed inside
of us and what does it? Reveal about what we love.
And what we fear and what we ultimately believe should be
made right. We tend to think of anger as a
negative emotion, something to. Get rid of or control or
apologize for. And I am not a therapist.
I just want to provide that disclaimer for you.
Once again, I'm a pastor. I'm speaking as a.
Pastor, there are lots of. Good therapists who can help you
to understand what's happening in your body and in your nervous
system when anger shows up. Some of those deeper.
Questions of of why? But what I want to talk about is
the deeper spiritual. Dimension the life of the soul
and what's impacted inside of us when when we talk about anger.
So we've been saying throughout this series on the passions of
the. Soul that these are deep.
God-given capacities to feel and desire and respond to what's
good. And the early Christian writers
didn't see the passions as anything to be.
Suppressed or sidestepped or? But they're they're impulses.
To be sort of. Healed and reoriented.
By grace, they have a. Healthiest and best expression
in our life is maybe a helpful way to think about that.
And so each passion when it's touched.
By God's. Love can become a place where
real transformation begins inside of us.
Even anger, even this raw disruptive energy, can become.
Sort of a doorway. Into.
The work. Of God inside of us.
If we let the. Love of God get underneath
what's at work in us when we talk about our own anger.
So in literature and film and art and so on, anger, as well as
passion more generally often get.
Depicted as fire. And so today I want to talk
about two. Fires.
That we can find throughout the scriptures and we can find in
our own lives the fire of resentment and the fire of love.
Anger, untended curdles into resentment.
Resentment is anger that's devoid of any kind of hopeful or
redemptive energy. It's what happens when we keep
replaying a moment. That hurt us.
We. We sort of nurse it and we keep
it alive in our imaginations long after it stopped being
useful. To us.
Anger in the redeemed sense wants movement, wants action,
wants repair. Resentment wants to stay mad.
Resentment revels in the the reliving of the experience of
the anger. And so I know that in my own
life, there are moments where I've caught myself stewing over
something small. I don't know if you can relate
to this. Maybe I'm the only person
someone didn't follow through, or someone misunderstood me and
I find myself replaying that conversation on a loop in my
head. Or or sort of.
Looking. Back through the the text thread
and I realized. Eventually that it's not about
that person anymore. It's actually.
About me It's about the ache of not being seen or the fear of
being taken advantage. Of or or just.
Craving, being right. And that's when anger turns
inward and becomes resentment. It stops looking for healing and
it starts looking for justification.
And I want to acknowledge something here, especially for
many of the women in the room. In our culture, and often in
church, women are taught that anger isn't becoming that.
It's it's. Good to be agreeable.
And it's not good to be angry or to express anger and sort of the
typical ways that we would think.
And so anger often gets disguised as sadness or guilt.
Or. Exhaustion.
And so I would just invite you to even consider that as we move
through today. You know, you might find
yourself thinking, well, I'm not an angry person.
I don't really experience anger, but I would just encourage you
to be open to. The possibility that there
could. Even be some ways that you've
been conditioned in your church life or in your family life to
allow your anger to come through in ways that might be.
A little bit disguised. Or a little bit more.
Culturally appropriate for where you.
Found yourself in life. Over time, tamping down
something like anger or forcing it through a particular channel
kind of creates grooves in the soul.
And so when anger shows. Up it could look like.
Weariness or it could look like shame, but underneath it's still
anger and it's a signal that something that you love has been
has been violated or feels threatened in some way.
And so I just want to say this, your anger matters.
I'm aware that there have been countless sermons preached in
church. That sounds something like, you
know, don't be angry. You ought not feel like that,
and if you are, something's wrong with you.
Here are some Bible passages. To sort of.
Scaffold that claim and I just want to be really.
Clear about the fact that. That's not what we're doing
today, does. That help?
Great God isn't threatened by human anger, and it actually
might be. The very place where the.
Spirit wants to heal something in US.
The. Spark that when it's touched.
By the grace of God, actually. Becomes courage, becomes
compassion, becomes a powerful impulse for truth telling.
And so I want us to just imagine.
Together what what the healed? Passion of anger in our lives
might look like not this thing going away, but this thing being
transformed and sort of crafted. By the love of God.
Into. A powerful work of the Spirit.
In your life, that might. Cause you to show up.
In a way that's actually more courageous and more authentic to
the person that God is shaping you into.
So this fire of. Resentment.
It doesn't just stay personal, it also becomes cultural.
We live in a. World that's addicted to.
Outrage and is completely allergic to repentance.
There's an entire economy built on keeping us angry.
And I don't want to, you know, harp on this unnecessarily.
But we've brought up. You know, sort of some of the
ills of social media and cable news and so on in the context of
the series. And I just want to return again
to say that, you know, if we're not constantly putting in front
of ourselves the very fact that those things feed on anger, feed
on outrage, feed on an outsized emotion that keeps you coming
back to them, we're missing an important part of what it means
to live in this world. And so if you scroll through
social media or you turn on the news, we'll see it.
We're not being sold information.
We are being sold indignation. We're being sold something
inside. Of us that keeps us.
Coming back, that keeps us hungry.
For whatever it is that. That thing triggers inside of us
and we feel like we need more. Outrage.
Has become entertainment, and resentment has become the
identity of large swaths of the population.
It reminds me of Gran Torino, the 2008 film with Clint
Eastwood. It's not for the faint of
hearts, so I'll just give you that.
Disclaimer right now. But what happens is, you know,
Walt Kowalski, this grizzled old Korean War veteran.
Who treats his southeast? Asian immigrant neighbors
incredibly poorly, has built a wall around his heart.
He has. He has built a a.
Personality and a persona that depends on this kind of
resentment. Resentment for his family,
resentment for the other, and ultimately resentment for
himself because of the things that he's experienced and
internalized and never had the opportunity to heal from.
It cuts him off from everybody until he finally faces.
The choice to let that. Anger be redeemed.
And as his heart softens to his immigrant neighbors, he
ultimately makes a choice that is self sacrificial in their
favor. And so there's there's this
spiritual moment that I think we're invited into each one of
us. Will our anger continue to build
walls in our lives, whether it's in our relationships, our
personal lives, or just some aspect of our inside?
Life that's a little bit walled off, or will we let it?
Become something that heals our public anger.
Often sort of disguises itself. As righteousness.
You've heard the phrase righteous.
Indignation. And it's really just resentment
in disguise. We are not always fighting for
what's right, as much as we might want to think we are as
right as we might be. And that's the danger when anger
completely. Loses sight of the love of God.
It it calcifies, it stops. Hoping for change in other.
People, it stops. Hoping for change, even in
institutions it becomes bitterness.
And when it stops being honest about pain, it becomes
self-righteous. There's been this thread all
the. Way through this series that.
I think there's an invitation from God.
For us to just be. Honest about what's true about
our lives. And this is just another
invitation to say, you know what?
This this thing that I feel particularly angry about, this
righteous indignation that I carry with myself all the time.
It might actually have something to do with some pain, with some
brokenness, that God might actually want to talk to me
about. South anger for all.
The ways that it gets. Twisted into resentment has a.
Proper use. The church father said that
anger. Was the soul's watchdog.
Meant to guard what's good. Isn't that an interesting
thought? Properly directed, it defends.
Our love from harm. And misused it turns on us.
In the 4th century, John Cashin taught that anger.
Can serve a holy purpose. When it's aimed.
At the destructive. Forces of our own.
Thoughts and habits that corrode.
Love, that's a dense thought, so I'm going to say it again.
Anger can serve. A holy purpose.
When it's aimed. At the destructive forces.
Of our own thoughts and habits. That corrode love.
When Jesus enters the synagogue in Mark Three, I realized
nowhere in that. Passage.
Did it say that? Jesus was the man that I was
talking about. So Jesus is the one who comes,
comes into the place and heals the guy.
A man with a withered hand stands in the center of the
synagogue. And you know, commentators will
say that this man. Sort of serves as a a a
physical. Reminder that even in holy
places like the synagogue, even in the presence of Jesus walking
into that holy place, suffering still lingers.
And the Pharisees are watching this man with the withered hand,
not with compassion, not with any concern for what's happening
in his life. They're watching with suspicion,
and they're not hoping for healing.
They're hunting for a reason to accuse Jesus.
So that's just the setting of this story.
When we read what's beginning to happen, I want you to just kind
of start to paint the picture in your mind.
Why is this person here? Why are they watching?
Why is everyone paying attention to this interaction?
It's a setup. And the Pharisees in question,
their anger has hardened into resentment.
It's not hoping for any kind of restoration.
It's not hoping for any kind of healing.
And So what unfolds isn't. Just a miracle story.
You know, we're, we're a Vineyard church.
We. Love like the stuff?
That God does in our meetings the ways that people can be
healed and the ways that. You know the Holy Spirit shows.
Up and and acts sovereignly on people's bodies, on their minds.
Like beautiful stuff can happen. And so we can often just sort of
immediately think, OK, Jesus heals a person.
This is a story about. Physical healing.
But this is a wider. Kind of confrontation that's
getting set up in Mark's gospel. This is a confrontation over
what kind of world God wants for God's people.
It's this beautiful test case of the.
Redeemed passions in action. So Jesus, the Jesus way of life.
The Sermon on the Mount demonstrated he he knows the
the. Hearts of the people who are.
Watching, and he asks a question that slices right through sort
of the religious veneer. Of this whole story, he says, is
it lawful? To do good or do harm on the
Sabbath to. Save life or to kill?
And it's a question that exposes the hollowness of the sort of
moral calculus of the people who are trying to trap Jesus.
They've become so protective. Of a system of a particular way
of doing things that they have completely.
Lost sight of the. Purpose of that system.
Which is to do good. And to save life and to reflect
God's mercy for humans. All of the law, all of the
scriptures that that the Pharisees are.
Depending on to accuse Jesus in this moment exist for those
reasons, but they've missed it. And then comes the line that
sits at the emotional center of the passage.
He looked around at them with anger.
He was grieved at their hardness of heart.
And said to the man, stretch out your hand.
I just want to pause. What a beautiful picture of the.
Redemptive potential of anger. What a perfect sort of display.
Of what it might look like when what's inside.
Of us is actually courage is actually a refuse refusal to.
Accept a kind of way of being in the.
World that perpetuates harm and. Holds people down.
Jesus experiences anger. He looks around at the people.
He's angry with them, and the action that's born of that
anger, of the truly righteous anger of Jesus himself, is to
say to the man. Stretch out your hand.
And his physical body is healed in an instant.
He stretched it out. His hand was.
Restored the Pharisees. Went out and immediately
conspired with the Herodians against him.
How to destroy him. So it's one of the few moments
in the Gospels where. We're told outright that Jesus
was. Angry.
And I just think it's important to notice what kind of anger
this is. His His anger and his grief are
intertwined. He's angry because he loves.
He's angry because he loves humanity.
He's angry. Because he loves the.
One who's being singled out, who's being taken advantage of
in this situation. His anger is not the opposite of
compassion. It's compassion's heat.
You know, I think that's something that we've maybe even
walled. Ourselves off a little bit.
From is compassion ought to. Have a little bit of heat on it.
Because compassion kind of implies that there's an
injustice at work. And so to really be moved by
compassion, the way that I think the scriptures invite us to be
moved by compassion, to engage. Suffering as a church.
The way that we say we want to, I think to some degree that can
be animated by the healed and redeemed passion of anger in our
lives. When we look out in the world
and we see injustice, when we see things that need to be set
right, that's what's underneath. And so.
The early Christian teachers said that.
Holy anger is the souls watchdog, It's guarding love
from harm. And that's what's happening
here. That Jesus anger is not
explosive, it's not petty, it's not reactionary.
It's the fierce sorrow. Of love that's unreceived.
It's Jesus seeing. The love of God.
Extended to humanity. Sort of held.
At arm's length. By this legalistic religious
system sometimes. I think this is important to
note while we're talking about Jesus anger, divine anger.
People point to Jesus cleansing the temple, another instance
where Jesus is angry as justification for some kind of
righteous violence, as if divine anger must somehow eventually
spill out into physical force. But Jesus anger.
Never. Takes life, it gives it.
Back and even in the. Temple, His protest is
prophetic. It's not punitive it it disrupts
exploitation, but it doesn't harm anyone.
His anger clears space for prayer.
It clears space. For communion it.
Clears space for freedom. And so those same hands that
overturn tables will soon be nailed to the cross.
And I think it's. Important to to sort of set in
mind and actually even reclaim what anger might mean for us,
what anger might mean for God from those.
Who would say that? God.
Is an angry God. God is a punitive.
God. In this story we see.
The effect of God. 'S anger, and it's saying to the
man with the withered hand, stretch out your hand.
It restores and it brings life and it brings healing.
The Gospels give no picture of a violent Messiah, only a
suffering one whose power is found in love and surrender and
service. His anger is never divine
violence. It's divine sorrow that breaks
open into mercy, that breaks open into action in a moment,
that changes the circumstances around him.
Rowan Williams, The former. Archbishop of Canterbury said
that. Anger in the presence of love
becomes lament. It's God's fierce no?
To what distorts creation? That's the kind of anger that
we're invited to sort of embody. That's what we're seeing in
Jesus. His anger doesn't burn people
down it. Restores what's broken.
And he channels the fire of love toward healing rather than
destruction. Stretch out your hand.
And the man does. The withered hand comes alive
again. And the anger.
Of Christ restores. What's been broken?
It mends rather than memes, and I think we've been given a
picture of anger, whether it's in our family life or in our
church life. That sort of suggests.
That the only context for anger, the only sort of use for anger,
is destructive. It's to burn things down.
It's to. Sort of create more adversity.
For so long, we've been. Sold a story about what's.
Happening in the scripture when God gets angry and listen.
This is so with so many things. Throughout the long.
Narrative storyline of the Bible When we read from beginning to
end, there are just some things that are.
Said about God toward the. Beginning that find some
resolution, some clarity in the person of Jesus and So what I
want to suggest to you about anger in particular is when you.
Read some of that stuff. Toward the beginning of the
Bible about God's anger, what that might mean, and how people
understood that in that time and place, allow that understanding
to be filled in, to be informed. By a story like this.
Jesus anger causes the man with the withered hand to stretch out
his hand and then look. At the story how the.
Story ends. The Pharisees went out and
immediately conspired. With the.
Herodians against him? How to destroy him?
The contrast here is deliberate. What?
The author of the Gospel. Is trying to do is give.
You a picture of these. 2 fires. There are two different sort of
manifestations of anger at work, One that's redeemed and complete
and whole and holy in the way that Jesus responds to the man
who needed healing, and the unhealed passion of anger in the
way that the Pharisees respond at the end of the story.
One shows us the fire of resentment, the self-righteous
anger that can't bear to see mercy break its rules, and the
other one the healing and kind and redemptive and Invitational
anger of Jesus against injustice.
Paul sort of echoes. The same truth in his letter to
the Ephesians, and I think. These two scriptures work.
Really nicely side by side. So then putting away falsehood,
let. Each of you speak with.
Truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on
your anger and do not make room for the devil.
Those who? Steal must give up stealing,
rather let them labor doing good.
Work. With their own hands so as to
have something to share with the needy.
Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is
good for building up as there is need.
So that your words may give grace to those who hear.
And do not grieve. The Holy Spirit of God with
which you were marked with a seal.
For the day of redemption, put away from you all bitterness and
wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all
malice. Be kind to one another, tender
hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven
you. When Paul writes Be angry and do
not sin, he's making the same move that Jesus makes in the
synagogue. That scripture by itself.
Can be a little bit confusing. You know, I don't know if any of
you good Christian people ever had this experience, but when
Brie and I first got married, we knew that the Bible said don't
let the sun go down on your anger.
And so the number of times. That we were up until.
One or two or 3:00 in the morning, arguing with each other
because listen, we're not going to go to sleep until we figure
this out, you know, because the Bible says, listen, that's not
what it means. OK, I don't maybe.
Maybe you all figured that out a lot.
Faster than we did. But guys, this is what?
We're talking about don't let the sun go down on your anger.
This is a metaphor for like when this thing stays inside of you
and and it. Just is this sort of?
Seething like kind of almost contemplating your own anger,
letting it take root inside of your.
Physical body like the Apostle Paul.
Is trying to say, listen, that is when the passion of anger is
distorted into resentment. That's the kind of thing that
like, cultivates in us this, this attitude.
Of. Indignation toward the world.
And so, you know, you don't have to stay up late at night.
To figure it out the. Point is, deal with it when you
have the opportunity to deal with it.
Because later. It's a little bit more painful
and a little bit more complicated anger.
Is the soul. 'S energy for naming what's
wrong and seeking what's right. But inside of us, there is a
need for this kind of clarity. For this this truth.
That God might give us, and so we we don't.
Let it grow roots. We know that what's left
unattended in the dark begins to rot, and it's not the feeling of
anger that ruins us. It's the refusal to.
Bring anger into the light of love.
He says put away all. Bitterness and wrath and malice,
and be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one
another as God in Christ. Forgave you.
The spirit does not extinguish the fire of anger.
And so, you know, this is sort of a theme.
Throughout the series, but we're.
Going to turn to prayer ministry in a moment.
And I just want to encourage you.
I, I don't think the answer for us, you know, particularly those
of us who might have something that's kind of hooked into us a
little bit that we feel angry about, I don't think the answer
is that God's going to make it go away or God's going to make
you. Feel happy about that.
Thing I think the answer is. Something a little bit closer to
you know, the Spirit would give us courage.
Courage to tell the truth. Courage to stand up for the
hurting. Courage to forgive.
But not some sort of balm for our soul.
That would cause us to just kind of sidestep the real issue.
So if Mark. Three shows us what the fire of
love. Looks like in the person.
Of Jesus. Ephesians.
Four shows us what that. Same fire looks like when it
burns within the life. Of a church.
My hope is that. We would hear those words.
And even when we think about the the conflicts, the frustrations
that we have one with another, What do you mean everybody's
like. Perfectly happy with each other.
Here right? That we would like let.
That, you know, sort of settle in and go, OK, I think.
There's a there's a way. That we might operate as a
family, it could be a little bit messy, could be a little messier
than just sort of stuffing that stuff away and pretending like
there's nothing between myself and my brother or sister.
But I think there's real wisdom. Here the difference between
resentment and restoration, between a kind of consuming heat
and a refining flame. And I think that's the
difference between. The two fires the fire of.
Resentment and the fire. Of love, the fire of love.
Refines the fire of love, burns away what's not of God?
It deals with the. Stuff inside of us that's in the
way of having a full experience of.
The love of God, both for ourselves.
And in community with. Other people.
And so my my prayer. For this church this week as I
thought about. Talking about this is.
God, would you? Turn up the heat on the refining
fire of love. That would really.
Give us a clear understanding of what in US is not of you, what
in our church family, what in our community is not of you, and
would we? Would it actually be dealt?
With and burned away. By the.
Healed passion of anger and so when anger is.
Touched by grace. It does not go away.
It changes course. And I just feel obligated to add
here at the end, not every anger is holy.
And so if you've got some things that you like are feeling angry
about and you're starting to. Even feel a little justified.
You know, like. OK, well, maybe God's got a
good. Direction for this thing that
you know, some of what stirs in US is not born of love.
It is borrowed outrage last. Week we talked about
despondency. We talked about the idea of
false fire. That when we're not feeling much
inside of us. We sort of look.
Out at the world and we go, well, they seem to really be
feeling something. I'm going to hitch my wagon to
that and I just think it's important for us to keep in
focus that. We.
Absorb anger.
We absorb indignation from the culture around us, from the
endless churn of headlines and arguments and interpersonal
conflict, until we can't. Tell what has.
Genuinely grieved us and what we've just inherited from the
environment that we're living in and.
The spirits work. Is not just to purify anger,
it's. Also to sift.
It and to. Sort of let love separate.
What's worth keeping from what's not worth keeping and sifted
anger is what remains after pride and fear and tribal
loyalties have kind of fallen away from the equation.
It's the kind of anger that still burns clean because it's
not rooted in in some kind of contempt.
It's rooted in compassion. And so we can.
We can hold our anger up to the light of.
Love and say Lord. Is this grief that.
Belongs to you or is this just me?
And would you? Help me to know.
Which is which? When the.
Spirit gets a hold. Of anger, it becomes fuel.
For repair and it stops. Being a weapon and it starts
being a tool, it becomes strength to face what we'd
rather ignore and. The courage for us to tell the.
Truth and the energy that we need to continue.
To advocate for what's right. And some of us carry anger
that's been sitting for a long time and it's grown quite heavy,
but also quiet and complicated and.
For some others of us, it flares up quite easily and it lives
very close to the surface. And I just want to encourage
you. That it shows us what we care
enough about to grieve. And that it's not something to
hide. From God, it's something to.
Bring into the presence of God. With others who we.
Love and trust. So.
Want to invite the worship team back up?
And I encourage you to bring your anger before God.
Don't hide it. Don't.
Justify it, offer it, and ask the spirit to burn away whatever
is corrosive. Whatever.
Is not of God and only keep. The stuff that.
Longs for love that longs for justice that longs for the.
Jesus way of life because. Anger is not the.
Opposite of love, it is Love's heat.
When something precious has been profaned or has been threatened,
the gospel doesn't extinguish. That fire, it purifies it until
all that's left is the holy love of God.
So, friends, I'd invite you to stand and we're going to.
Just read that little. Confession that we started with
again. In the first person together.
I forgot this last week, so sorry.
I am infinitely loved by God, and God's infinite love is in
the process of healing everything in me that clings to
false things. The invitation.
Of God is to allow. God to be the divine physician,
the medicine. Of God is God's own love poured
out. Into my.
Heart through the Holy Spirit. Amen.