Based on Matthew 5: 21-26
Dorothy Day, well known Catholic activist and journalist said,
“If each of us could just remember that we are all created in the image of God, then we would naturally want to love more.” (From Learning Together time)
Usually things are pretty calm in Canadian news, aren't they. When the lead story is on who is NOT running for leader of the Conservative party, you know CBC is getting desperate. Normally you have to go to other countries for exciting news. Goodness knows, the US is always good for something crazy.
But for the past week, our news cycle has been dominated by a homegrown story, the protests that began to show support of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs' stance on pipeline in northern BC, but which have grown into something far more complex.
Even the Wet'suwet'en band are not in agreement on the situation, 5 of the 6 elected band councils are actually in favor of the pipeline, but the hereditary chiefs are against it. So are many layers of disagreement: pipeline vs anti-pipeline, protesters vs CN, BC legislature and commuters in various places across the country, even disagreement between First Nations groups and within bands.
Through it all wind centuries of hurt and distrust and at times it lays bare an ugly racism in our country.
All I could think as I was following these stories, was - that's a lot of anger coming from a lot of different people and groups. And I kept circling back to the reading for today. Because Jesus had quite a bit to say about anger.
At first I planned to focus on the personal aspects of anger, but with this conflict and anger going on across our country, I had to admit Jesus was probably addressing this kind of situation too.
So let's just look at anger as a concept first. Is there anyone here who has never felt angry? Anyone who has ever felt like you aren't supposed to get angry?
That's a tough one, isn't it. Our society has problems with anger, and as Christians we often feel anger is frowned upon. I know that many women feel it isn't “nice” for them to get angry.
So anger often has negative connotation, yet if we look closely at this passage, Jesus is not saying anger is bad. He's saying, be careful what you do with your anger, how you manage it. After all, Jesus got angry! We see that in various stories, especially the one where he chases all the money changers and vendors out of the Temple.
It's what we do with our anger that makes the difference. Unmanaged anger creates conflict and division. Managed anger has the potential to create positive change. In this passage, Jesus is essentially saying, manage your anger because if you don't, it will be as destructive as murder. That's something to sit with, isn't it.
Often we feel our anger is justified, but Jesus doesn't say, anger is okay if it' s justified, he just says, if you don't manage your anger, it will destroy you and others. Then he gives some suggestions on how to deal with anger. He says if someone is angry with you, go to them and be reconciled. Presumably it's the same if you are angry with someone, go talk to them before festers into something destructive.
Jesus also basically says, make a deal with people when there is anger involved. Seems odd, doesn't it? But perhaps what he is saying is, don't get hung up on being right. As someone in Bible study said, well, you know what Dr Phil says about being right, you can be right or you can be happy. We all agreed we don't want to quote Dr Phil too often, but he really has a point with that one. A point that just might be echoed by Jesus.
If your anger is poisoning relationships, if it is interfering with living a meaningful life, it doesn't matter how right you think you are, you need to let go of it.
That can be a very difficult thing to discern, is my anger motivating me to take important action or is it destroying relationships and my ability to embrace life.
And even if anger is motivating you to meaningful action, there is still danger of it becoming destructive if you are unable or unwilling to dialogue with people of differing opinions.
Jesus clearly encourages reconciliation, reaching out to those with whom we are in conflict. I had a powerful experience of that in own life. In one of my previous churches, we had a church administrator who really didn't like me for quite awhile. She did some things that were unethical and borderline illegal, to the point that the Ministry & Personnel committee felt they had to let her go, but she anticipated that and got letter from a lawyer saying that if the church let her go, she would have the right to sue.
So I had to keep working with her. It was not easy, as you can imagine. At first I was VERY angry. I nurtured that anger, and it got to the point where I was looking for her to do hurtful things so I could validate my anger. Finally I realized that not only would I never have resolution with her at that rate, but the relationship was becoming more and more toxic and I was becoming someone I didn't like.
I prayed for help, and I had the image of handing God this twisted, black object that was my anger. Whenever the anger started to come back, and believe me it did so many times, I imagined handing it back to God, over and over.
That made it easier to work with her, and eventually I did have a conversation with her where we both talked about our experiences and our feelings. She told me why she had behaved that way. We apologized to each other for having caused hurt, and relationship had some healing.
These principals of reconciliation apply to the wider world too. A lot of people are feeling anger at Trump, at climate deniers, at those who have different political views. Social media doesn't help, it encourages us to connect with like minded people, so we have less exposure to other points of view and feel more and more justified in our anger. So it's easy to keep anger on the boil instead of trying to resolve it.
Of course, we can't resolve our anger with Trump by talking to him. But we can try to figure out positive ways to use that anger, maybe to take action in some area that matters to us, even as simple as modeling another way of being with family and friends.
And I think it's really important to do exercises like we did during Learning Together, pushing ourselves to realize that people whose beliefs are very different from ours are still God's children, still deserving of love and acceptance.
I have to tell you, I was so moved when two weeks ago, Stewart Crerar asked that we pray for Trump, during the prayers of the people. He didn't say let's pray that Trump change or that he not get re-elected, he just said, let's pray for him. There is so much wisdom in that, and it echoes the reading for today, pray for those who make you angry, because they too are children of God.
Biblical scholar Marcia Riggs puts it so well, “Jesus recognizes that humans do get angry; rather than prohibiting anger, he teaches that it can be transformed by living as a peacemaker, initiating acts that manifest the reign of God in our midst.”
In other words, let your anger motivate you to do something positive, not just stir up more anger.
There are no easy solutions to the situation in Canada right now, with protests stopping trains, the Wet'suwet'en divided on who speaks for them and a host of unresolved issues between various levels of government and indigenous peoples.
There are no easy solutions with how to deal with Trump and his approach to the world that so many are buying into.
And there are no easy solutions on how to deal with situations of hurt and anger in our own lives, where we are angry or others are angry with us.
Jesus may not offer easy solutions, but he does offer an approach to all of these situations, hard as it may be to embrace his ideas. It's an approach based on seeing the other person, the other group, as being a child/children of God, as being worthy of love and respect, worthy of open, authentic dialogue.
And if dialogue isn't possible, as is sometimes the case, then we're called to let go of our anger so it doesn't become destructive to us and to others.
It's not easy at all, but then again, most of what Jesus teaches isn't easy, is it?
May we all listen with open ears and hearts, and trust God to guide and help us as we try to live with respect and compassion in a world of anger.