March 6, 2016 The Seven Deadly Sins: Envy

I Samuel 8:4-22

As we continue our journey through Lent we come to the fourth in our series of messages based upon the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth).  This week we study the sin of envy.

I am, unfortunately, an envier from way back.  In fact, thinking about envy has caused me to consider whether or not I should post on social media about upcoming sermons.  Last week, while talking with a friend of mine, the topic turned to something that caused me to reveal a bit of envy.  He turned to me, with a surprised look on his face, and said, aren’t you preaching about envy on Sunday?  I was busted!

But I take some comfort in knowing I am not the only one.  I believe all of us have an element of each of the Seven Deadly Sins within us, and the sin of envy is, I believe, the most universal.  Is there anyone who does not struggle with envy?  I don’t think so.

Our Scripture text for today comes from I Samuel, which tells of the time when the nation of Israel petitions the prophet Samuel for a king.  Once the people had settled into the land of Canaan, after the exodus from Egypt and a generation of wandering in the wilderness, the important matter of governance had to be determined.  During their early years of living in the Promised Land, the people were governed by a series of judges.  Unsatisfied with that arrangement, the people came to Samuel and expressed their desire for a king, so that they “will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles” (verse 20).  Is there a ring of familiarity in that verse?  A modern version would be but mom, but dad, all the other kids have an iPhone!  I want one too! 

Instead of reading this passage at one time, I am going to break it into sections and read a portion with each point I have to make.

1.  Envy preys upon dissatisfaction and the erroneous belief that possessing something that someone else either has or is will bring us satisfaction.

I Samuel 8:4-8

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.

7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.

There is an interesting tale of a custodian and CEO whose paths crossed one evening.  The CEO was working late one evening in his large, top-floor, corner office.  It has been a long, tough day for him.  He was facing budget and profitability pressures and had experienced a contentious meeting with his board.  The shareholders were unhappy and the board was unhappy.  He watched the custodian, working in the corner of his office, and felt a tinge of envy.  That guy has it made, he thought.  He comes in to work in the evening, when few people are here.  He doesn’t have a board to answer to.  He doesn’t have shareholders constantly demanding a greater return.  I wish I could have some of what he has!  The custodian, at the same time, was thinking of the CEO, that guy has it made.  A big, corner office.  A large salary.  Lots of people to do what he asks.  I wish I could have some of what he has!

It is important, I think, to note that there is a difference between envy and admiration.  In my first message of this series I mentioned my professor who taught my class about how good qualities have a shadow side.  A good work ethic, for instance, is a positive quality, but it has a shadow side – workaholism.  Envy is the shadow side to admiration.  Admiration is a positive quality.  Admiration allows us to learn from our teachers and role models and mentors.  We admire the good qualities of their lives and we seek to emulate those qualities.  Envy, however, is the dark side of admiration.  Envy twists admiration into something that is negative and destructive.

Looking at their neighbors, the people of Israel fell prey to envy, which led them to believe their lives would be better if they could only be like the nations surrounding them.  Be careful what you wish for would certainly be applicable to their situation.  Samuel warned the people that a king would take their sons and daughters to do his bidding and take their resources as well.  Despite his warning, the people were undeterred in their wish for a king, and they would quickly find Samuel’s warning to be accurate.

Envy is all around us, and that envy can, and often will, permeate every aspect of our lives.  Everywhere we turn are reminders of what we don’t have and we are awash in images of what someone – usually advertisers – believes we should have in our lives.  The overwhelming number of images will conspire to create envy within us.  As the character of Dennis the Menace once said, as he leafed through a catalogue, this catalogue’s got a lot of toys I didn’t even know I wanted.

Envy preys upon any kind of dissatisfaction we have in our lives.  Envy will cause us to think, if I get this thing I desire, then I will be satisfied.  My life will be complete in some way.  But that is seldom, if ever true.  Take a moment and reflect upon a time you greatly desired something, and eventually attained it.  Did it bring any lasting sense of satisfaction?  For a time, perhaps, but satisfaction can be very, very fleeting experience.  We too easily fall for the deceit that if I get something I desire – a new car, a new job – I will finally be satisfied, but this is rarely the case.  Envy is unique among the Seven Deadly Sins in that all the others can bring some sense of satisfaction, but envy can never do so.

Envy preys upon dissatisfaction. The great tragedy of envy is that it prevents any level of satisfaction.  Nothing is ever enough.  There is no level of achievement and no amount of gain that is enough.  Someone always has more, and as long as we see someone with more, envy will never allow us to be satisfied.

2.  Envy is built upon illusion.

I Samuel 8:9-17

9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.

11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.

12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.

14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.

15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.

16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.

17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

Magicians, or more correctly, illusionists, perform their tricks by the use of misdirection.  Misdirection uses some type of distraction that keeps one from seeing what is really taking place.  It’s relatively easy for an illusionist to fool an audience, because they want to believe that what they see is real.  I once saw an illusionist perform a very impressive trick, and after performing it asked the audience how many people believed there was some type of magic involved.  Quite a few raised their hands, and I have to admit, it was so impressive that it was tempting to believe something else must have been at work.  He told the audience he would perform it again, but before doing so, he gave a partial explanation of how he did it and reminded them it was only an illusion.  After performing the illusion a second time, he asked the audience how many believe it was more than a trick and a number of people still raised their hands.  Envy finds its power in our desire to believe that an illusion is true.

Envy asks us to believe that what we see elsewhere is reality.  It asks us to look at the life of another person and to imagine how much better our life could be if it were like the other person’s.  I wish my family could be like theirs.  I wish I had such a great job.  I wish I lived in such a great neighborhood and house.  I wish I had a spouse like that.  Their life appears to be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as one can get. 

What we do not want to believe, however, is that what we see in another person’s life may be far from reality.  While on the surface we might see success, financial blessing, family harmony, and many other wonderful things, the reality might be far different.  I have worked with people for enough years to become convinced that what we see in the lives of others is not always reality.

I spent a number of years in great envy of a childhood friend of mine.  I envied his athletic ability, his outgoing personality, his large number of friends, and many other aspects of his life.  There was a time when I would have gladly traded lives with him.  I was wrong.  Behind the public face of his life was a great deal of difficulty and struggle.  And, sadly, the envy that captured my heart and mind blinded me to the gifts that were in my life.

Samuel gave the people a very stern warning about the reality of placing themselves under a king.  The king will take your sons and require of them to become his soldiers, and they will be the first ones to run into battle and the first ones to die.  He will take others of them and force them into indentured servitude for him, working his land, while still others are forced to manufacture the implements that he needs in his kingdom.  And he’ll take your daughters and force them to become his cooks and his bakers, and he’ll take the best of your land, and he’ll take the best of your vineyards and he’ll give them to members of his court to curry favor with them.  And then he’ll take a portion of the best of your flocks and herds and eventually you will become a slave to this king.  But the people wouldn’t hear of it.  No, they wanted to believe the illusion that somehow a king would give them a great life.

In spite of the fact that Samuel was telling the truth, the people could not believe it, and it was not long before they found that he did indeed speak the truth and all his warnings came true.

3.  Envy promises something better, but in the end delivers nothing of good.

I Samuel 8:18-22

18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us.

20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord.

22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

There is a fable of an eagle who was envious of another eagle that could fly higher and further than all others.  One day, the envious eagle saw an archer with his bow and arrow and said to him, I wish you would bring down that eagle up there.  The man said he would if he had some feathers for his arrow, so the jealous eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but it didn't quite reach the rival bird because he was flying too high. The archer said he needed another feather and the first eagle pulled out another, then another, and still another until the archer had come to his final arrow.  It was then that the archer turned his bow and took aim at the eagle on the ground, and that eagle could not fly away to safety because he had given away too many of his feathers.

So, if envy does nothing positive for us, how is it that envy can have such a powerful hold over us?  Rosanne Cash, in her song World of Strange Design, sings a line that gets to the heart of the question – we talk about your drinking, but not about your thirst.  The question is, what creates that thirst within us that then drives our desire, our envy, for what others have?

Envy is very much about failure and comparison.  We compare our lives to the lives of others, and we only see the ways in which we come up short.  We imagine a version of ourselves that we wish we could be, and that version of who we wish we could be is created by the comparison that we make between ourselves and other people.  Sadly, we convince ourselves that we almost always come out on the short end of the comparison.

Compared to someone else, we never seem to be happy enough, smart enough, attractive enough, wealthy enough, spiritual enough, blessed with enough friends or success, and never, then, are satisfied with who we are.

I officiated a funeral the other evening, for a family with whom I have long been acquainted.  At the conclusion of the service, the funeral directed gave opportunity for all the guests to pay their respects to the departed and to the family.  When the guests had exited the room, it was just myself, the funeral director, and the family remaining in the chapel.  Such a moment is a bit awkward for me, as I feel as though I am intruding on a family as they say their final good-byes to their loved one.  And this will sound a bit odd, but it was a time when I felt blessed by the observation of the family.  It was, certainly, a time of sadness and grief, but there was a shared connection among that family that was a blessing to experience.  There were hugs all around, and it was a blessing to watch sons hug their fathers, their uncles, and grandparents (it was a blessing because men often struggle to show their emotions).  There was an obvious bond of love among the family and a shared faith that connected them in a very deep way.  Their family will not be remembered in a hundred years or more, and they don’t care.  What mattered to them was one another, their loved one, and their faith.  It was a beautiful to witness what they experienced, and I admired them even more because of it.

It is easy in life to spend a great deal of time desiring the things that do not add blessing to our lives.  We too often desire – we envy – the tangibles of life rather than the intangibles.  We want the things that might bring a brief time of satisfaction and even joy, but do not add any real quality to our lives.

We must stop comparing our lives to those of others, we must stop believing in the illusion that some product or possession will bring us lasting satisfaction in life, and we must realize there are things that, instead of bringing us blessing, will only bring us difficulty.  Turn away from envy, and turn toward the blessings God has provided!

February 28, 2016 The Seven Deadly Sins: Greed

As we continue our series of messages on the Seven Deadly Sins, this morning we come to the sin of greed.  This morning’s text is one that is no doubt familiar to you, although most of us are more accustomed to Matthew’s version (Matthew 6:25-34).  I use Luke’s version today because it follows the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21).  That parable helps to set up the passage that serves as today’s text, as it tells of a man who had enough resources to tear down his barns and to build larger ones.  I have often wondered why he didn’t build more barns.  Why tear down the existing ones simply to build new ones?  Because he could.  It was a demonstration of his wealth.  But it also reminds us that no matter how much money one has, it can never insulate us against every potential problem in life and it can only provide a limited amount of security.

Luke 12:22-34

22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.

23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.

24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.

30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.

31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

This passage is what I would call the castor oil of the Bible.  Has anyone here every taken castor oil?  I don’t know what it is, but I used to hear of it often when I was younger.  It sounded nasty to me and I hoped I would never have to take it.  My dad, my brothers, and I used to ride motorcycles, and in our two-stroke motorcycles we used Castrol Oil, and because it sounded so much alike I knew I never wanted to have to take castor oil.  This is a passage that is theologically beautiful, but very challenging on a practical level, as it sets the bar of life so very high.

It’s easy to read this passage and think, you know, it takes a lot of money to live.  And I can’t help but worry about having enough money to get by.  It’s expensive to raise kids, and medical care is very expensive, and when my kids get to college, how will we afford what that costs?  That’s why this passage is so difficult, because we simply cannot help but worry about having enough, and Jesus tells us not to worry.  How are we supposed to set aside our worries?  We worry about our lives and we worry about what we will wear, and we worry about food and we can’t get over our fear of tomorrow – or today – and we don’t want to sell our possessions, and our heart is often with our treasure. 

With those as some introductory comments, I have three brief points to make about greed this morning.

1.  Greed is sometimes – sometimes – shown in a desire for money.

It is often said that money cannot buy happiness, but in the words of one comedian, it can help us to look for it in much better places.

Greed is almost universally connected to money.  Many of you will remember the 1987 movie Wall Street, and the character of Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas.  In the movie, as he addresses a group of stockholders, he offered a phrase that became the buzz phrase for that movie, and, perhaps, the decade of the 80s – greed is good!  And, amazingly, a lot of people who saw the movie believed that statement to be correct.  But it’s what we call a false equivalency, where someone make a statement that appears to have an element of truth, but the fundamental assertion of the statement goes unchallenged.  A good work ethic is good; greed is not good.

We saw in 2008 that greed is not good, as it played a central role in the development of the financial instruments that led to the financial crisis, which crippled the lives of millions of people (by the way, has anyone yet figured out what a credit default swap is?)

We all feel the desire to have more money.  We all dream about hitting the big lottery prize.  Imagine what one could do with the winning ticket!  But what if I did win the big lottery prize, what would it do for me?  I have a house.  I could buy a bigger house, or more houses, but I already have one.  I already buy a car but I could buy another one.  I already have some guitars, but I could buy more of them.  Most of what I could do with sudden wealth would be to get more of what I already have.  Make no mistake, more money could make some things easier.  More money could help reduce the stress of financial emergencies and the constant worry of paying the regular bills, but money would certainly not provide me with any lasting answer, because it cannot bring a sense of ultimate satisfaction to my life.

So, greed is sometimes connected with money, but –

Greed is really about insecurity. 

Greed is not so much about getting more money as it is a search for security.  While money can take care of many of the tangibles in life (a house, car, etc.), it cannot assure us of the intangibles of life (security, for example).

In Luke 11:13-21, Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool.  This parable is often misread because of the way in which verse 20 is translated.  Verse 20 reads, in English, as this very night your life will be demanded from you.  While it sounds as though the man has been consigned to a physical death that is not what is meant.  The original language uses a verb tense that indicates a spiritual, not a physical, death.  The warning to the man is this – you are no longer the possessor, but are the possessed.  You do not own your things; they own you.  You have fallen into the trap of which Jesus speaks when he said “what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew16:26).  The man had covered all the tangibles in life, but even with his vast well he was unable to provide for the intangibles.

Mark 10:17-31 is another passage that is often misread (this passage tells us of the exchange between Jesus and a rich young man).  Containing the famous verse it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (verse 25), Jesus is telling us not to have unrealistic expectations and beliefs about wealth, most notably, that it is not necessarily a sign of God’s blessing upon a person’s life.  In the time of Jesus many people believed that a wealthy person had arrived at that state because God had blessed them, so it was a shock when Jesus said that a wealthy person could not enter into the kingdom of God.  That belief is still alive and well in what is commonly referred to as the prosperity gospel.  The prosperity gospel interprets the words of Jesus about an abundant life – I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10, NASV), as referring primarily to material wealth and possessions.

Greed is really about insecurity. Greed is often seen as the desire to accumulate more of something – money or possessions, for instance.  But greed goes deeper than simply accumulating for the sake of accumulation.  Greed is a driving force in our lives, really, because of insecurity.

Insecurity is the feeling that enough is never really enough to protect us against all the possibilities we might encounter, so we try and accumulate even more, with the hope that we will some day have enough to protect us against every potential difficulty, but there is no amount of money that can protect us against every difficult of life.

Our hearts are always searching for something deeper, and filling that desire with stuff and with money will never bring ultimate satisfaction. Insecurity drives us to seek more of something – money, love, affirmation, or possessions, for example – that we believe will fill what can be a gaping hope within us that longs to be filled.

I’m not naïve enough to say that a certain amount of money won’t relieve some stress and make life simpler in some ways, but it’s not the ultimate answer in life, I can assure you of that.

Greed is a matter of what owns our hearts.

I told a friend of mine that I often wondered what it would take for me to take a prized possession, bring it to church, and place it on the communion table and say it’s yours God.  He thought that was a great idea, and added that maybe I should encourage people to do just that, and load it all into a truck and take it all away and donate it.  My first thought was hold on a minute.  Let’s not go crazy.  I was simply thinking out loud!

About eight months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, I traveled with a group to Waveland, Mississippi, where we worked for a week helping to clean up and to rebuild.  The town of Waveland is smaller than Shelbyville and many of its residents had left for other areas, leaving a population of less than half what it was before the storm.  Even though it was months after the storm, the town was still overwhelmed by the destruction. 

The week we were there we stayed in the back of an auto parts store, or what was left of it.  There were about 75 – 100 people sharing that space, which was one big, open room in the back where we slept, men on one side and women on the other.  There were two restroom facilities and two showers for all those people, which certainly made things challenging.  We slept on cots, that bowed down in the middle, so that when you got in your sleeping bag it was like getting swallowed up to the point that it was difficult to move.  And out of all those people, I believe I was the only person who did not snore.  It was a choir of people snoring and creaking in folding cots, every night, all night.  

In one way, it was a crazy way to spend a week, but it was such a fulfilling week!  Why?  Because it spoke to our hearts.  Everyone there had given of their time and resources.  We slept in one big, open space, in uncomfortable surroundings, getting little sleep after long, hard days of work.  But we were doing the work of God.  We were the hands and feet of Christ in a community that has suffered much devastation.  Our hearts were not given over to the accumulation of earthly treasure, but to heavenly treasure.

Our hearts are indeed searching for treasure, but it is treasure of the heavenly sort, not the earthly type.  Allow God to fill your heart with the treasures of his kingdom! 

February 21, 2016 The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath

I’m pleased to be back this week, after accompanying Tanya on her business trip to Florida.  Last Sunday we had the pleasure of worshipping with First Christian Church in Melbourne, Florida.  I had previously visited that church in the spring of 1988.  Two friends and I were in Florida on spring break and we eventually made our way to Melbourne, where we camped in an orange grove for several nights.  I enjoyed visiting again, almost 38 years later (and enjoyed better accommodations) and was pleased to see the church continuing to thrive. 

Visiting churches while on vacation is a real blessing to me.  We sat on the back row so let me say these to those of you sitting on the back rows today – you are my people!  It’s a great vantage point from which to observe all that goes on.

This morning, we continue our journey through our Lenten series of messages based upon the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth).  Today, we come to the second in the series – wrath.  Our Scripture text for today comes from Romans 12:9-21, which offers an antidote to all of the Seven Deadly Sins, and certainly you will hear the ways in which Paul speaks to the dangers of wrath –

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 

10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 

13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I offer four points this morning related to the deadly sin of wrath.

1.  Anger is an emotion, but it is also a seed, a seed that once planted, can grow into wrath.

When I was in either late junior high or early high school, an interesting question was posed to our youth group.  A young man had been visiting for several weeks, with interest in one of the young ladies in the group, and he often challenged our adult leaders with his questions.  On this particular occasion he asked, with a level of indignation, how could Jesus have been perfect?  When he cleansed the Temple he demonstrated anger, and anger is a sin, so how can you claim he was perfect?

Our leaders were stumped by his question, so one of them asked that one of us would go in search of our minister’s wife.  I can remember her standing in the doorway of the room looking perplexed by the question, as she also had no answer.  She said she would be back in a few minutes with her husband, our minister.  He was a wise, good man, and a very important role model and example to me.  I was surprised when he didn’t have an answer either.  Though I didn’t accept that the young man was correct, I struggled for a number of years to formulate an answer to his challenging question.  Finally, when I told someone the story some years later, I was given an answer that should have been immediately obvious.  Who ever said anger was a sin a friend of mine asked.  He was exactly right.  Anger is not a sin.  Anger is an emotion, just the same as joy or sadness.  Where, when, and how did we ever come to the conclusion that anger equated sin?  It’s simply not true.  Reading the Bible one will find many, many instances of anger, as it is part and parcel of the human condition. While there are Scriptural warnings about the dangers of anger, such as Ephesians 4:26, where Paul writes in your anger do not sin, it is a mistake to connect anger and sin together; they are not one and the same.  Some lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, in fact, substitute anger for wrath, but this is a false equivalency.  Anger is an emotion, not a sin, but the manner in which anger manifests itself can lead to sin.

The photo on the screen this morning (and at the top of this manuscript) is taken from a sculpture in Venice, Italy, and the inscription is translated as a cruel anger is within me.  That inscription is a good way to describe the sin of wrath.  Wrath is so much more than anger.  Wrath is a type of anger, but is goes much further than the manner in which we typically think of it.  Wrath is anger on steroids.  Anger that is left unchecked can quickly translate into wrath, which does indeed become a cruel anger within us, and is particularly dangerous because it always ratchets up destructive tendencies and feelings.  While anger can allow room for some form of equitable justice for a harm suffered, wrath is not content until is has destroyed the other person.  Wrath is never satisfied to restore a damaged relationship; instead, it seeks to inflict only harm and destruction.

I think all of us have a growing sense of unease about the amount of anger in our society. There is anger about our politics and our political system, about our economy, about the role of government in our lives, there are many contentious social issues, and it seems more and more that we live in a world swallowed up by anger, and it is transforming into something far deeper and more menacing.

Some of that anger based in the way in which we sometimes feel diminished and marginalized, which will lead to anger.  We feel threatened by others and the gains they make and this causes us to feel insecure about what might happen to our freedoms and our liberties, as though one person’s gain must necessarily lead to another person’s loss.  For others, their religious beliefs or political views are rejected by many others and the marginalization that they feel feeds anger, and that anger can grow into something far more troubling.  I think it is a safe assumption that the shooter who killed six people, and wounded several others, yesterday in Kalamazoo, Michigan allowed his anger, his sense of marginalization, and his feeling of marginalization to turn into wrath, a wrath that was tragically turned to innocent bystanders.

Anger is not the same as wrath, but it is a seed, and too often that seed is watered, fertilized, and nurtured until it grows into wrath.

2.  Wrath will eat you alive.

After the early service someone texted me this saying – the rage you feel does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than to the object on which it is poured.  Wrath wreaks much havoc upon the lives of others, but it does the most damage to the person whom it controls.

Even the word is ugly – wrath.  That’s a word that sounds menacing.  If you are a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings trilogy, you are familiar with the wraiths.  The name of wraith finds its root in wrath.  The wraiths were beings who were distorted by their anger, their hatred, and their wrath.  This is what wrath will do to us; it will distort our nature that reflects the image of God and turn it into something destructive.

I don’t think any of us really know the way in which we are perceived by others, but I would guess that most people see me as a fairly laid back person who operates on an even keel.  I wasn’t always this way.  When I was younger I had a bad temper.  I had a nasty temper.  I remember vividly when I was late in high school getting very upset with a couple of my friends, out of a larger group who were gathered in my family’s yard.  I can still see my friends standing around looking at me as though thinking who is this possessed person?  And possessed is a word that is very applicable to wrath, as we become possessed, we become consumed by this desire to extract revenge, or to cause harm, or hurt another person or persons.

When anger is allowed to run unchecked in our lives it becomes something very different; it becomes wrath. Wrath turns into an all-consuming desire for revenge, to bring about destruction and pain.  Wrath will repudiate the core virtues of Christianity – love, forgiveness, and grace.

A Scripture passage that comes to mind when thinking about wrath is that of Genesis 4:2-7, part of the story of Cain and Abel, which I have quoted often in messages – 2 Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

I find God’s warning about anger and sin in this passage to be very instructive.  Anger was present in Cain and he watered, fertilized, and nurtured that anger until it grew into wrath.  Sin is a force that is always crouching, always seeking an opportunity to pounce upon us and to bring destruction to our lives.  It will use our anger, twisting it into wrath and seeking to use that wrath as a destructive force in our lives and the lives of others.  Anger will eat us alive.

3.  Be aware of your unresolved grief. 

I started to leave this point out, because I don’t know that it fits in the flow of this message, but I think it is an important point for all of us, because all of us have some element of unresolved grief in our lives.  I am now well into my fourth decade of ministry, and over the course of those years I have observed the one does not have to scratch the surface of anyone’s life very deeply before that grief becomes very apparent.  And, in my experience, everyone – yes, everyone – has some measure of unresolved grief that is at work under the surface of their life.

It is important to understand that grief does not always stem from the loss of a loved one.  There are many sources of grief – a broken relationship, the remnants of being bullied, being treated unjustly the loss of a job, a health issue – anything that is traumatic in our lives leads to grief, and that grief must be addressed.

Many years ago I read an article in Parade magazine.  Does anyone remember Parade?  It came in our Sunday newspaper.  Did you receive it here?  One Sunday there was an interview with a psychologist that has stayed with me, because of something she said.  In talking about the hurts that children suffer, she said that children will say to us, I hurt.  If that hurt is not dealt with, their words I hurt will change from a description of emotion into a predictor of behavior.

Whatever the source of your unresolved grief, learn to deal with it.

4.  There is a time for anger.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 is one of the most famous passages of Scripture.  It contains the words there is a time for everything, and you know those words from your study of Scripture and from the song popularized by the Byrds.  In verse 7 Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to be silent and a time to speak.  We could add that there is a time for action as well.

Anger is not always a negative or destructive force, but one that God places within us to move us to action.  This is what we call righteous anger, as Jesus demonstrated when he cleansed the Temple, turning over the tables of the moneychangers and driving them from that holy place.  They had turned the holy place of God’s people into a place of crass commerce, cheating others in the name of God.  Jesus was incensed by what was taking place there.  If we fail to become angry at the violence and injustice in the world we have allowed our hearts to become either too calloused or we have allowed ourselves to grow blind to the suffering of others.

God seeks to redeem anger, as he is always working to bring about redemption.  Instead of allowing anger to become wrath and become destructive, God’s aim is to turn our anger into a positive force in order to work against the injustice and suffering.  God seeks to redeem that anger which plagues the world.  The prophets of the Old Testament often burned with anger as they sought to bring about the end of injustice.  The prophet Nathan, for example, in bringing to light David’s sin with Bathsheba (II Samuel 12:1-14), burned with righteous anger about David’s abuse of power, which had led to the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband.  In one of the Bible’s most dramatic scenes, Nathan says to David, you are the man!  Nathan was unafraid to challenge the king and to reveal David’s murderous treachery. To make such a stunning pronouncement required Nathan to summon all of the righteous anger he could muster.

Tanya and I went to see the movie Risen yesterday.  People often ask me my opinion of faith-based movies.  I don’t see them all, but I did enjoy Risen.  The movie was well done and contained some scenes that were very moving.  If you like movies, and if you have contemplated seeing this movie, I recommend it to you.  We went to the new theater off of Blankenbaker Drive in Louisville.  If you have not been to that theater, it is different from others in the seating.  This theater has recliners, and I’m not talking about recliners like the raggedy old one that used to sit in our den, and that required a hard pull on the lever to allow it to lean back.  These are large, leather, electric, and very comfortable recliners.  You push a button and it will stretch out until it is completely flat.  I’m tempted to go back to the theater and pay for a ticket, find an empty theater, and take a nap in one.  Although they are very comfortable, there is something very strange about looking around at a theater full of people, with their 15 gallon buckets of popcorn, 10 gallon Cokes, and bushel boxes of Milk Duds, all leaning back in those recliners.  I couldn’t help but think, is this what we’ve become?  But at the same time I also thought, I really like this!  It is as if the world is conspiring against us, but not to make us hard-hearted or calloused towards humanity; it is as if we are being lulled to sleep, made indifferent, or apathetic about the blight of so many of our brothers and sisters.  It’s not that we don’t care; it’s that we don’t see or notice the sufferings of others because we have been lulled to sleep in our own very comfortable cocoon of existence.

It is time to wake up from our slumber, to allow the struggles of others to call to us through any indifference and apathy that might have set in upon us.  There is a time for anger – righteous anger – and a time to allow that anger to move us to action, just as it did Jesus.

Do not allow your anger to consume you and to turn into wrath.  Instead, allow that anger to move you outward, and into the lives of those brothers and sisters who need you to minister to them in the name of Christ!