The Anger of Man — Sermon by Rev. Bryan Biba

let us

pray Lord may my speech and my message

not be plausible words of human wisdom

but a demonstration of the spirit and a

power so that our faith may not rest in

the wisdom of men but in the power of

the Living God we ask this in the name

of the father and of the son and of the

holy spirit amen you may be seated

I've always been good with words ever

since I can remember I've Loved reading

words and speaking

words growing up I quickly learned that

words have great power words could be

used to influence people's thoughts

influence their

actions words can also be used to cause

great

harm harsh Angry Words can cut to the

heart in high school and college I also

discovered that my words could be used

to win

competitions and so I joined debate team

Model United Nations Student Government

anything I could do to use my words to

win and boy was I good I won all kinds

of awards and

accolades

um but the more I

debated the more success I

found the more I realized that beneath

my words was

anger a deep cutting anger that wanted

to dominate other people to put others

down for me to prove my superiority over

others as someone cross me man they

better watch out I was going to come at

them I realized that debating with

others was not good for my soul the

anger Within Me poisoned me moved

through throughout my heart throughout

my

body and the awards and accolades they

only fueled the

fire more and more as I prayed and

became a more devout follower of Jesus I

wanted to use my words for the kingdom

to bless others to not curse

others and that's partially what led me

to my calling to be a preacher to use

words to proclaim the goodness and glory

of God

now you may not have competed on a

debate team but all of us know the Power

of Words all of us use our words all the

time to influence people our spouses our

co-workers right and sometimes yes

sometimes each one of us we use our

words to cause great

harm the Book of James is very clear

about Angry Words is one of the great

dangers of the Christian Life throughout

his letter he warns Christians about the

anger beneath many of our words today

we're going to look at uh his first

chapter James chapter one where he talks

about the source of this sin and warns

us against it so open your Bibles with

me to James chapter

James 1 · chapter mention

1 let's

begin my uh setting the background here

by looking at the context of this

letter it was written by James the

brother of Jesus who was also the First

bishop of

Jerusalem first leader of the Christian

church in the city of God most Scholars

think that this book was written

sometime between 62 and 66

ad which was a great time of social and

political

unrest soon after the death of Jesus the

Romans imposed heavy taxes on Judea and

this led to increasing economic

disparities between the very wealthy

aristocracy and the very poor and this

fostered deep resentment resentment

against the authorities resentment

against the Romans resentment against

the Jews who collaborated with

them this led to civil discontent and a

revolutionary spirit in the air we know

this from Josephus the great historian

of the first century Josephus wrote that

around this time a group of zealots who

called them themselves the zakari

decided to take up arms they were

militant group who sought to overthrow

the Roman government and establish a

Jewish Kingdom once again and in ' 66 ad

that's exactly what they did Josephus

recounts about the first Jewish Revolt

the Sakari members of the Sanhedrin the

high priest they collaborated together

to arrest the local Roman governor and

they set up their own provisional

government in

Judea which for Rome was tantamount to a

declaration of war so it's no surprise

that in 70 AD a few years later later

the Roman Emperor Titus himself

personally led a military expedition to

Judea Titus besieged Jerusalem for 7

months he captured the city and burned

down the temple in Jerusalem and since

then there has been no temple in

Jerusalem the zakari retreated to their

Fortress at Masada on the Dead Sea a

place I have been very neat place but

after a year-long Siege at msada 72 to

73 ad

the Sakari decided to take their lives

in a mass suicide event so yeah this

time of the first century the time of

James's writing challenging

time but it's in this context that James

writes these words verse 19 know this my

beloved Brothers let every person be

quick to hear slow to speak and slow to

anger now this is not new or Innovative

advice James is quoting the Proverbs

Proverbs 14: 29 whoever is slow to anger

has great understanding he who has a

hasty temper exalts

folly or Proverbs 15:18 a hot-tempered

Proverbs 15:18

man stirred up Strife but he who is slow

to anger quiets

contention and then finally Proverbs

Proverbs 16:32

16:32 whoever is slow to anger is better

than the mighty he who rules his Spirit

than he who takes a

city so as a Jewish leader in Jerusalem

during this very difficult time James is

reminding God's people about what the

word of God says that we must be slow to

anger slow to speak quick to

listen but as a Christian leader James

is also reminding this new church that

their anger will will undermine their

witness to Jesus

Christ whatever situ situation we Face

social ills economic challenge political

instability religious persecution our

anger at the issue doesn't actually

help in fact as he writes in verse 20

the anger of man does not produce the

righteousness of

God this advice was countercultural then

and it's countercultural today because

we live in a culture that says if you

don't like something get angry about it

that's how you prove you really care

about

something the righteousness of God were

told was one of the mots of the Sakari

that's what they wanted to do they

wanted to reestablish the righteousness

of God in Judea reestablish the kingdom

of God on Earth bringing Israel back to

its former glory Josephus writes that

the Sakari had an invaluable attachment

to

Liberty and say that God is to be their

only ruler and Lord

anger does not produce the righteousness

of God in fact for James it produces the

exact opposite look with me at verse 21

therefore it's connecting to the

previous verses right put away all

filthiness and rampant

wickedness filthiness and rampant

wickedness that's what anger is to

James not the righteousness of

God see our anger makes it difficult for

us to hear the word of God to remember

God's word in our hearts anger makes it

difficult for us to pray to love God and

neighbor if we persist in our anger we

will only become more sure of our own

self-righteousness you can't be angry

and humble at the same

time those two cancel each other

out so the question for us this morning

the question I have of this text is how

can I become a person who does not speak

in Anger how can we all become people

who do not speak in anger and for an

answer we have to back up to the

beginning of our text this morning verse

12 see

James explains here the nature of

Temptation the nature of sin and its

growth and also the nature of obedience

and he does this as a way of explaining

to us how anger works so that we can run

from it and avoid it look with me James

chapter

1:2 blessed is the man who remains

steadfast under trial for when he has

stood the test he will receive the Crown

of Life which God has promised to those

who love

him right off the bat there in verse 12

we get two words we get trial and test

later on we'll get the word

temptation these are all different words

in English but in Greek it's actually

the same word

pereo and pereo can mean many different

things depending on the context and

that's why our English Bibles render

different

words the basic meaning of Paro is to

test it comes from metal

working blacksmiths had to test metal

ore in the fire in in order to refine it

to be burn away its impurities and once

a metal is refined it's stronger it's

more malleable and it could be shaped in

fashion to the blacksmith's

desires so James is taking this word

from a very

practical vocation and he's applying it

to the spiritual life that the people of

God are the metal ore that must be

tested we must be refined in the fire

and after all of our purities are burned

away our faith is stronger and more

malleable we can be used by our maker

for his good shaped and fashioned

according to his

purposes but pereo is not unique to

James it's all over the Old Testament

especially in the book of Exodus and the

Book of Numbers the two great testings

of the people of Israel when they were

LED out of Egypt by Moses and then LED

in to the Wilderness to wander

so listen again to what James says verse

12 blessed is the man who remains stead

fast under trial for when he stood the

test he will receive the Crown of Life

which God has promised to those who love

him now like Israel whenever we faced

trials Temptations we should see these

as tests as opportunities to grow in our

faith if I'm honest hon with myself

that's not how I see trial right when I

have a difficult time I want to pray it

away right I want God to take it

away but that's not what James is saying

here that when we experience trial we

are blessed we are happy if we remain

steadfast so who is the cause of our

testing well on this point James is very

clear verse 13 no one can say when he is

tempted I am being tempted by God for

God can not be tempted with evil and he

himself tempts no

one God does not tempt or test anyone

God wants nothing more than for us to

put our faith in him in fact every trial

every Temptation every test is all about

the same

thing will you put your trust in

God or are you going to put your trust

in something

else that's what it's about folks it's

that that's simple everything we face in

our lives is a test of our faith who do

we really trust

in God is not out to get us he wants

nothing more than for us to trust him

and that's why God allows trials in our

lives he allows us to be

tested so that he uses them for his good

purposes that we could be people who

trust him more who have a deeper richer

faith

so where do trials and testing come from

well for that we are blessed this

morning by our collect of the day on

page four of your order of

service listen look with

me oh Lord God grant your people Grace

to withstand The Temptations the pera of

the World the Flesh and the devil and

with pure hearts and Minds to follow you

the only God

I love it when the lectionary and the

Liturgy sink up together I did not plan

that so yeah the World the Flesh and the

devil those are the three sources of our

Temptation the world the effects of sin

all around us the flesh the sinful

Desires in each one of our hearts and

the devil the evil enemy of God and the

church Christians are constantly

assaulted by these three forces we're

tempted in every instance to abandon our

faith in God and to return to sin and

death to put our trust in other

Idols last week father PR preached about

the full armor of God and the way that

the devil assaults the church this week

though James is focused on the flesh our

own sinful desires both of these are

influential in the Christian life but

for

James it's our own sinful desires that

the most common form of Temptation look

with me at verse

14 but each person is tempted when he's

lured and enticed by his own

desire in the day-to-day trenches of

life for most of us the primary struggle

is against our own selfish Desires in

fact that's the main way that the devil

and the world work against us they

manipulate our own selfish desires my

favorite example of this is in CS lewis'

screw tape letters if you haven't read

it worth a read but it recounts uh these

two demons who are corresponding

together about how to tempt humans and

you see very clearly in that book Lewis

imagines that the Devils have no real

power over

us we only have the power they only have

the power that we give them when we are

enticed by our own desires true they put

things before us they give us things

that we can choose but it's ultimately

us who decide to seek out selfish

desires God wants nothing more than for

us to trust him more and that's why he

allows trials in our lives but if we

respond to the trials of our lives in

Anger well it will not produce the

righteousness of God we will fail the

test and our faith will be weaker more

rigid inflexible

fible will not be of much use for Christ

in his

kingdom the good news Friends The Gospel

is that Christ has set us free free from

the devil free from the world but most

of all free from the sinful desires of

our

flesh we do not have to be angry before

Christ we had no choice but now in

Christ we can choose the

good the Holy Spirit has poured his love

love into our hearts disarming Satan of

their power to tempt us and now by Grace

by the Holy Spirit we can grow in Christ

likeness and become people who love God

and love neighbor people without

anger so how does this work how do we do

that James Goes On he

explains two parallel kinds of growth

each with three steps the growth of our

selfish

desires and the growth of faithful

obedience when we understand how both of

these grow then we can better understand

what anger does to our hearts first

verse

14 James

writes each person is tempted when he's

lured and enticed by his own desire then

desire when it has conceived gives birth

to sin and sin when is fully grown

brings forth death there it is there's

the three

steps selfish desire when conceived

leads to sin and sin when conceived

leads to

death let's start with the first step

all of us have

desires some of them are good some of

them are selfish some of them are

neutral you know I'm really looking

forward to a burger this afternoon

that's not like a selfish desire I just

I'm kind of hungry you know um it could

become a selfish desire if my desire for

a burger leads me to sin against

you if we Embrace and entertain our

selfish desires they will give birth to

sin think about this in terms of sex

right our lustful desires in our hearts

when conceived will give birth to

adultery and sexual immorality our

greedy Desires in our hearts when

conceived will give birth to

theft in the Sin of Ang

the desire in our

hearts is a desire for justice we

perceive an injustice that's been uh

committed against us some kind of injury

or wrong and when we selfishly feel that

we've been wronged we take matters into

our own hands and that's when it becomes

a

sin and sin when it's

conceived leads to Vices in our hearts

habits of selfishness it permeates our

lives and eventually it leads to

spiritual death and physical death

too James's words for us today are

sobering do not be deceived my beloved

Brothers he writes we cannot because

Christians cannot afford to dabble in

our selfish desires you know little bit

of lust over here little bit of greed

over here little bit of anger over here

it's not that big of a deal right

but those selfish desires when conceived

they will bring forth sin and death in

our hearts the more we feed them the

more they will grow and this is

especially true of anger I learned this

in my debating days it only takes a

little bit to light a fire and that fire

will consume you and it will consume

your

enemy contrast this growth of sinful

Desire with the growth of faithful

obedience the growth that Christ wants

for us by his Spirit verse

17 James Begins by reminding us that

every good gift every perfect gift is

from above coming down from the Father

of Lights with whom there is no

variation or Shadow due to

change our faith our trust in God is a

gift our growth in faithful obedience is

also a gift it's not something that we

you do is something God does in Us by

his

Spirit In Christ God has destroyed sin

and death he has saved us from our

selfish desires why so that we can walk

in the light so that we can receive his

good gifts so that we can be made more

and more like

Jesus God is always at work he's always

giving us good gifts it's you and I that

are

blind deaf and mute to his gifts in our

lives so once we acknowledge that all of

this is a gift from God how then do we

grow in faithful obedience well it's a

three-step process we receive the word

of Truth we become doers of the word and

then we practice True

Religion look with me at Verse 18 James

writes of his own will he brought us

forth by by the word of truth that we

should be kind of first fruits of his

creatures the spiritual life growth and

obedience begins with the word God gives

us his word and he brings it forth in

US rather than embracing our own selfish

desires we Embrace God's

word why well as he writes in verse 21

right receive with meekness the

implanted word which is able to save

your

souls instead of being angry that's what

we need to do we need to Feast on this

word we need to receive it with meekness

because it's this word not our anger

that will save us it is this word not

our anger that is the righteousness of

God we receive the word of God every

Sunday here in word and Sacrament but we

should also receive God's word daily

through the Daily Office morning evening

prayer through our own personal

devotions the more we read and learn and

meditate on the holy word of God is the

more that his truth will be planted in

our

hearts and only then will it lead to the

Second Step being doers of the

word look with me at verse 22 James

writes but be doers of the word and not

hearers only deceiving yourselves for if

anyone's a hearer of the word and not a

doer he is like a man who looks intently

at his natural face in the mirror for he

looks at himself and goes away and at

once forget what he was like but the one

who looks into the perfect law the law

of freedom of Liberty and perseveres

being a hearer no no hearer who forgets

but a doer who acts he will be blessed

in his

doing the more that we receive God's

word

meditate on it spend time in it the more

the spirit in us will move us to act

this is what James means later when he

talks about faith without works being

dead it's our faith in God our trust in

him stirs us up in the spirit so that we

can act on the word that we hear if we

don't put it into practice well then the

word of God will go in one year and out

the

other over time

we will become by God's grace habitually

obedient to the word of God we will see

real growth real Victory real

transformation real freedom from sin in

our

lives but it only begins when we apply

the word of God to our hearts first and

foremost I mean often times I don't know

about you but when I hear the word of

God my first thought is how does that

apply to the other people you know how

does it apply to them they're the ones

not do in the word of God right I mean

that's a hearing that leads to

inaction when we hear the word of God

and we examine our own hearts that leads

to repentance that leads to doing of the

word the result the third step is what

James calls religion look with me at

verse

26 if anyone thinks he is religious and

does not Bridle his tongue

but deceives his heart this person's

religion is

worthless religion that is pure and

undefiled before God the father is this

to visit orphans and widows in their

Affliction and to keep oneself unstained

from the

world today religion is a bad word right

people want to say oh I'm spiritual I'm

not religious right but in the ancient

world religion was a virtue

it was something a habit of mind and

heart connected to the virtue of

Justice religion meant giving God what

he is due what he is owed and what is

God

owed everything our worship Our lives

our money our whole selves that's what

true religion is he is the Creator and

as the Creator we have to act justly

towards him

for James True Religion the fruit of

hearing and doing the word of God looks

like two specific things it looks like

taming the

tongue and visiting and caring for the

vulnerable and for James this is no

accident planting the word of God in our

hearts putting into action it always

leads to Humble Christlike service it

looks like Jesus I mean take our Gospel

reading from Mark 7 here Jesus

encounters a man who is vulnerable he

cannot hear he cannot speak up for

himself and what does Jesus do he gets

up close and personal he touches his

ears he licks his hands and touches his

tongue he speaks a word of blessing a

word of healing to this man and he's

opened up his life is

changed Jesus doesn't speak in

anger but he is a doer of the word

because after all he is the

word yet the good news friends is that

we too by the power of the spirit

working in us can act like Jesus act in

Mercy and Grace and blessing towards

those in our lives towards the

vulnerable in our

lives so where does this leave us well

let me end with a couple of

thoughts looking at James's day and this

situation he faced I think it's fair to

say it's not too dissimilar from what we

Face there's a lot of social unrests a

lot of political discontent

revolutionary Spirit

right people want change people want to

bring about a new thing some people are

even willing to take up violence for

it in the midst of these many trials

that we Face we could be tempted to act

in Anger to take matters into our own

hands to seek Justice for ourselves but

if we do

that we are no different than the Sakari

and the

zealots

instead then and now we need to hear the

teaching of James at the anger of man

does not produce the righteousness of

God if that is what you want then you

got to let go of your

anger you have to seek the word to plant

it in your heart to put it into action

to be with those who are vulnerable and

to hold your tongue that's how we

respond to the social discontent we are

all living

in selfish desires like anger will only

poison our own Hearts they will

inevitably bring forth sin and death we

must be doers of the word quick to hear

slow to speak slow to

anger when confronted with the trials

and temptations of the world true

religion is about shutting

up and about being with those who suffer

and speaking a word of blessing to

them you know a lot of people are

calling for justice today on both sides

of the political aisle right and they're

doing so in Anger right friends anger is

the anti-

Justice if you want Justice cry out to

God he is the only just judge wait

patiently for him patience is the

ability to suffer wrong for the sake of

the right and with all meekness and

humility we must wait for God to act

because he is the only one who can

render true

judgment anger is easy I

know anger is the wide way that leads to

death okay but the narrow way the way of

St James the way of

Jesus this is the way to

life let us seek that way follow the

spirit hear God's

word let us be people who do the

word in the name of the father and the

son and the holy spirit amen