The Rev. Jack Alvey - March 9th, 2025 - First Sunday in Lent

of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts.

Be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength

and our redeemer. Amen. Well, if you really want

to, you can find plenty of reasons to be outraged

these days. I know that sounds curious, not the

part about being outraged. Yes, there are plenty

of reasons to be outraged. The curious part is

about finding reasons to be outraged. Why would

we want to be angry? Do we really seek it? Don't

we want to be happy? Don't we want to feel at

peace? I read an article recently that talks

about how outrage is addictive. Outrage produces

those feel -good chemicals in your brain. that

help you feel better. The same kind of chemicals

that heroin and opiates produce. No wonder outrage

is often sought. It's a powerful form of self

-medication. If we've learned that outrage makes

us feel better, then anytime we start feeling

bad, we will seek it in order to try and feel

better. But it's better than heroin, I guess.

Like any fix, any quick fix, or addictive behavior,

we only end up feeling worse in the long run,

which only compounds the problem, because we

want to seek it to feel better again. Let me

just go down that downward spiral into the abyss.

Outrage as a form of self -medication has gotten

a lot easier these days, especially with access

to social media. For starters, social media,

as you know, creates algorithms that feed...

the most controversial stories, the stories that

everyone's talking about, which are usually controversial,

as do traditional forms of media. These controversial

stories leave us feeling outraged, thus further

feeding our addiction. It's no secret that all

forms of media will often weaponize topics to

fuel outrage. Why? Because outrage sells. Secondly,

social media feeds us with a heavy dose of confirmation

bias. by feeding us what we already believe to

be true in order to satisfy our ego. Social media

creates echo chambers and silos. Social media

draws lines in the sand. This is really just

the devil at work with social media. Better yet,

social media draws trenches in the sand. We are

right and you are wrong. This creates a toxic

environment where no one wins. Sometimes I'll

find myself in conversation with someone on a

somewhat controversial topic. And sometimes the

other party has no idea what I'm talking about.

I've since learned that this is because the other

party either relied on social media for their

news or they just got their news from one source.

So if we have different interests and different

biases, then we might never read the same story.

Therefore, we are informed by two very different

stories. And in the end, this creates space where

we both think we're right and the other is wrong,

only perpetuating this outrage. Perhaps the most

dangerous consequence of outrage it seems is

that it feels like we're changing the world.

Well, I have news for you. If outrage could change

the world, then we'd be in heaven already, right?

Not that outrage is bad in and of itself. Not

that anger is bad in and of itself. As anger

and outrage serves as a way to tell us there's

something wrong. There's something wrong around

us or inside of us. However, as self -centered

human beings, our first instinct is to point

the finger elsewhere when something goes wrong.

Before we point the finger, however, what does

Jesus remind us? Before you judge the speck in

your neighbor's eye, deal with the log that is

in your own. And while there are plenty of reasons

to be outraged at the other, and many of them

justified, I have learned that this feeling is

usually less about them and more about me. My

level of anger or outrage tells me, how I'm doing

physically or emotionally or spiritually. Unresolved

anger, after all, has devastating effects on

your physical, mental, and spiritual health and

the health of the community. And so this season

of Lent, it seems, calls us to take a look inward

and to take stock of how our own heart and soul

are doing. This season compels us to look at

the log in our own eye before we judge the speck

in our neighbor's. Regardless of your political

affiliation, I imagine most of us are experiencing

a heightened sense of outrage these days with

what's going on around the world. And if this

is you, I gently invite you to turn your attention

toward your heart and your soul. The power of

God's word working in you has a much better chance

of changing the world outside you and inside

of you than does your outrage at whatever injustice

or perceived injustice is being perpetrated.

As we will explore on Wednesday nights and Lent,

the Word of God working in us will cultivate

the fruits of the Spirit, which are faithfulness,

gentleness, peace, goodness, joy, self -control,

love, patience, and kindness. Notice what's not

on the list. Outrage. During the season of Lent,

we will also gather on Sunday mornings to explore

various disciplines that help cultivate the fruits

of the Spirit. Using a book called Celebration

of Discipline by Richard Foster, we will explore

how the disciplines of prayer, study, simplicity,

service, confession, and worship create fertile

ground for the fruits of the Spirit to grow.

Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, which we

read about here this morning, paints a vivid

picture of how God's Word working in us, can

extinguish even the most seductive of human desires.

And the devil sort of gives us three of those

most powerful desires. Our need for instant gratification,

our need for power and control, and our need

for popularity. While these are nice things,

they aren't needs. And that's what the devil

does. The devil tries to convince us that wants

are needs. and our wants have the power to blind

us from the true needs of others, even our own

needs. If I were to identify the biggest need

for humanity today, it would be spiritual maturity.

As Richard Foster suggests in his book, we are,

as a people, spiritually bankrupt, at least in

developed countries, countries that have taken

the devil up on his offer for instant gratification,

for power and control, for popularity. These

are the desires and yearnings that God truly

wants us to let go of or give up this Lent. These

are the desires that corrupt our soul and prevent

us from loving God and our neighbor. But let

me be clear. God does not demand you let go of

these desires using your willpower. For starters,

your willpower isn't strong enough. You might

be strong enough to let go of some of the symptoms

of these desires, but not the desires themselves.

Letting go of the symptoms of the desires is

like pulling a weed at the stem. Those desires

will find a way to grow back in other ways unless

they are pulled up by the root and extinguished.

Even more, trying to conquer these desires on

your own suggests that you have more faith in

your own strength than in God's. And finally,

even the best of us fall victim to temptation.

Sin is not merely a choice. It's a part of the

human condition. condition of sin using a verse

from Isaiah. The wicked are like the tossing

sea, for it cannot rest, and its waters toss

up mire and dirt. He goes on reflecting, the

sea does not need to do anything special to produce

mire and dirt. That's just the result of the

natural motions. This is also true of us when

we are under the condition of sin. The natural

motion of our lives produce mire and dirt. But

this does not mean we should just stand idle,

hoping God will show up to save us. Instead,

we can participate in the various God -given

disciplines. And this is our most fundamental

work as followers of Christ, to engage in those

disciplines that put us in God's presence, where

we can be changed from inside out. Fun fact,

the word liturgy, which is what we're doing here,

literally means the work of the people. This

is our work. These disciplines in and of themselves

don't change us. If we believe it's the disciplines

that are changing us, we've simply created another

idol that will not produce the fruits of the

Spirit, but only hardness of heart. And that's

what Jesus' problem with the Pharisees was all

about. Consciously or unconsciously, the Pharisees

approached disciplines kind of like hand sanitizer.

It was less about inward transformation and more

about outward appearances. Approaching the disciplines

in this way doesn't lead to changed hearts. Rather,

this approach simply breeds judgment and contempt

for the other because they aren't doing it right.

Again, we are not changed or saved by our good

works, even our disciplines. Rather, these disciplines

are vehicles of God's grace. They make space

for us to experience the power of God's word,

which does have the power to change us from inside

out. And that's the key. Just as anger tells

me that my inner life is in chaos, so do the

fruits of the Spirit tell me that my inner life

is being ordered by God's goodness and grace.

If I feel angry and outraged all the time, that's

a red flag, right? That means that I'm grasping

after instant gratification, power, popularity.

If I feel at peace, that peace that passes all

understanding, then I know that God is alive

and at work in me. And as God's Word grows in

us, our sinful nature begins to give way to God's

nature working in us and through us. Foster says

it like this, just as the natural motions of

our lives once produced mire and dirt, now they

produce righteousness and peace and joy in the

Holy Spirit. So no, I don't think we want to

be outraged in our heart of hearts, but in a

world that makes us feel so helpless in the face

of so much pain and suffering, outrage sometimes

feels like the only option. It can make us feel

better, but like sugar, it's going to eventually

see us crash. But in Christ and through Christ

and with Christ, we have another option. We can

live lives that are marked by joy and patience

and kindness, by peace and gentleness and faithfulness,

by goodness and self -control and love. And that's

the good news of Jesus. God in Christ, the Word

made flesh, living in us, does in us what we

are unable to do on our own. The fruits of God's

word working in us is a community that begins

to reflect the answer to the Lord's prayer. Thy

kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it

is in heaven. Amen.