Thought for Today
Psalm 103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Daniel 9:16 O Lord, in view of all your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath, we pray, turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors,
Luke 4:24 And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. 25 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.
Matthew 21:12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
Neither anger nor rage are my ‘go-to’ emotions. Generally, I don’t handle either anger or rage very well, whether I am feeling either or am the recipient of the anger or rage of others. It has always seemed to me that anger and rage are inconsistent with living the Christian life.
All of that being said, there are issues and events which do provoke anger and rage in any thinking and caring person. Are anger and rage synonymous? For me, rage has always represented extreme anger, more violent than simple anger. Is it worth while to differentiate between the two? Yesterday, I encountered a situation that has left me teetering between anger and rage. The situation particulars are irrelevant to my thoughts at this moment. The question on my mind this morning is the appropriateness of my anger.
The poet Dylan Thomas famously wrote, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, which ended with, “Do not go gentle into that good night./Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Sometimes, all of us encounter issues, events and even people seeming to evince the dying of the light. What is the proper Christian response to such encounters? Is it acceptable, proper or even permissible for Christians to be angry, to rage?
Scripture does not speak a lot to questions of anger and rage. There are suggestions that God is sometimes angry, sometimes wrathful. Does God truly become angry, or was that merely an expression of our human inability to fully comprehend the mind of God?
When Jesus went home and worshipped in his home synagogue, Jesus was the recipient of the anger and rage of his fellow congregants. Reading that event in Luke, it is obvious that the emotion that swept through that synagogue was a murderous rage. The neighbors and family friends with whom it was his custom to worship fully intended to kill Jesus.
What was Jesus’ emotional state when he “drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves?” Anger? Rage? “21:13 He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’" I believe Jesus was angry!
How are Christians to respond to wrong? How to evil? How to the injustices we encounter? I believe it is fundamental to our Christianity that we respond just as Jesus himself responded. We must drive out the wrong, overturn the evil and injustice. Christians must “not go gentle into that good night.” It is appropriate for us to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Of course, we must carefully analyze the issues, the events, the actions of the individuals. We must carefully discern the wrong, the evil and the injustice. And when we do rage against the dying of the light, we must also remember Jesus’ words about loving God and loving our neighbors. Our anger and rage cannot descend into violence. “It is often said that ‘First do no harm’ (Latin: Primum non nocere) is a part of the original Hippocratic oath. A related phrase is found in Epidemics, Book I, of the Hippocratic school: ‘Practice two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient’". (en.wikipedia.org) Christians, in our anger, should also always remember, “First do no harm.” But, it is appropriate that we be angry at sin, at evil, at wrong, at injustice.
Fortunately, Christians can pray to God and we can consult with other Christians. We can even vent to each other. We can be angry. We must also love.
Stay safe, do not go gently into the night, rage against the dying of the light, trust God,
Pastor Ray