The Passions of the Soul | Anger

So our teaching Scripture this morning comes from Mark chapter

Mark 3 · chapter mention

3, beginning in verse one again. He entered the synagogue and a

man was there who had a withered hand, and they were watching him

to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath so that they

might accuse him. And he came to the man, he said

to the man who had the withered hand come forward.

And then he said to them, Is it lawful to do good or to do harm

on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?

But they were silent. And he looked around at them

with anger. He was grieved at the hardness

of their heart. And he said to the man, stretch

out your hand. And he stretched it out and his

hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and

immediately conspired with the Herodians against him and Hound

to destroy him. This is the word of the Lord.

Gee, thanks for that warm welcome.

No, it's cool. I I'm obligated to remind you

that next week the time changes. You will set your clocks back.

45 minutes so that you can be on time for church.

The people who needed that one. Aren't here yet, so I I I at the

last church that I pastored before.

My family and I moved to Columbus in Oxford, OH.

There was always a a. Woman.

At the. Sort of time change moment in

the year, who would miss it? Like consistently with for the

whole 10 years that I was there. Her name is Linda and we joked.

About this a lot so you know I I actually hope that she catches.

Wind of this Linda would arrive in the room every week, just on

a normal week, looking like she had sort of been dropped out of

a whirlwind into church. Like her hair is just, you know,

everywhere. But then the two.

Weeks a year that the. Time had changed when she showed

up to church an hour early or an hour late.

The look of bewilderment on her face, as though this had never

happened before, was one of my favorite things.

To see so I haven't. Been here long enough yet to

know if. There is a Linda.

Among us. But I'm I'm watching, I'm paying

attention. So in the 19. 70s psychologists

started. Studying what happens in the

body when we get angry. I have a cartoon.

For you there, there's this, you know, series of.

Brain scans and what? They found was as they hooked

people up to. Monitors and sensors, the The

brain is flooded with energy when people become angry.

And I don't know if you know this about me, but I love New

Yorker cartoons. There's just something about

like the aesthetic of New Yorker cartoons.

And they're kind of. Clever wit that that just.

Does it for me so here you know the doctor's pointing at the

brain scan and says and this is the part that we'll never forget

the time you called your third grade teacher mom I'll I'll

bring more cartoons in the future It's fine and if if you

if. You don't get it.

You just need more social anxiety in your life I guess.

I don't know. The body is getting ready to do

something when we're angry. To fight, to protest, to protect

and. It's not just in your head, it's

a fully embodied alarm that something you love or something

you. Care about feels threatened and.

The strange thing is that the same burst of energy that can

lead someone to punch holes in the drywall can also lead

another person to pull someone from a burning car.

Anger, and this is very counter. To the way that a.

Lot of us have been taught to think about anger.

Anger is morally ambidextrous. Anger can serve all sorts of

functions in our personal lives, in society.

It can destroy or it can heal. And that's what.

Makes it so tricky to. Understand we live in a.

World that both feeds. On anger in the most unhealthy

way possible and fears it at the same time indignation has become

a kind of currency we. Reward whoever can be the.

Most enraged. Enraged the quickest and we also

don't know. What to do with our?

Own anger, we swallow it. We apologize for it.

We. Pretend it's not there and then

every once in a while. It kind of leaks out sideways.

And some of us express anger in loud, obvious, kind of

obnoxious. Ways sometimes others carry it

like a low grade fever. And sometimes it erupts in

traffic or in politics or in family life.

And for other people it can just seep out slowly as cynicism or

detachment. Sometimes the people who seem

the calmest on the. Surface are actually the

angriest. People in the room, they have

learned to translate their anger into something more socially

acceptable. And it's not all bad.

Anger has built hospitals, it has launched reform movements,

it's overturned oppressive systems, it's given ordinary

people the courage to stand against quiet injustices, and it

has driven profits into the courts of kings.

There's a true kind of anger that tells.

The truth about the world and about everyday life.

A kind of moral. Clarity that refuses to accept.

Cruelty and refuses to accept indifference.

So last week we talked. About despondency and how

despondency is just sort of like the turning down of kind of any.

Sort of hope. For the future, anything that

might happen, you know inside. Of us that would cause us to to

really. Feel anything on an emotional or

spiritual level and this week we're.

Kind of talking about. Despondency's counterpart on the

other side of the spectrum, the the sort of outsized feelings of

sort of one thing or another on an emotional or spiritual level.

That would cause us. To potentially even do harm in

its worst form to the people around us.

So we all know this one, the last.

Two weeks we've talked about Acedia.

And despondency and kind of, you know, had to make the disclaimer

like, well. If you read the Bible.

You're not going. To find the word acedia.

Anywhere you're not going to find despondency.

There's plenty of mentions of anger in the Bible.

And I think that's actually part of the.

Reason that some of us have so much kind of mental architecture

around this word that keeps us from understanding it properly

in its proper. Setting.

This is something that is so familiar to us.

Even when I say the word anger, something or someone probably

comes to mind for us. A moment, a voice, a face.

And yet, for something so familiar, we find that we may

not actually know what it is that we're dealing with when we

talk about the passion of anger. What is really at work?

Underneath what we feel when we experience anger, we know what

it looks like. We know sort of the signs to

watch for. But.

What are the forces? That are being unleashed inside

of us and what does it? Reveal about what we love.

And what we fear and what we ultimately believe should be

made right. We tend to think of anger as a

negative emotion, something to. Get rid of or control or

apologize for. And I am not a therapist.

I just want to provide that disclaimer for you.

Once again, I'm a pastor. I'm speaking as a.

Pastor, there are lots of. Good therapists who can help you

to understand what's happening in your body and in your nervous

system when anger shows up. Some of those deeper.

Questions of of why? But what I want to talk about is

the deeper spiritual. Dimension the life of the soul

and what's impacted inside of us when when we talk about anger.

So we've been saying throughout this series on the passions of

the. Soul that these are deep.

God-given capacities to feel and desire and respond to what's

good. And the early Christian writers

didn't see the passions as anything to be.

Suppressed or sidestepped or? But they're they're impulses.

To be sort of. Healed and reoriented.

By grace, they have a. Healthiest and best expression

in our life is maybe a helpful way to think about that.

And so each passion when it's touched.

By God's. Love can become a place where

real transformation begins inside of us.

Even anger, even this raw disruptive energy, can become.

Sort of a doorway. Into.

The work. Of God inside of us.

If we let the. Love of God get underneath

what's at work in us when we talk about our own anger.

So in literature and film and art and so on, anger, as well as

passion more generally often get.

Depicted as fire. And so today I want to talk

about two. Fires.

That we can find throughout the scriptures and we can find in

our own lives the fire of resentment and the fire of love.

Anger, untended curdles into resentment.

Resentment is anger that's devoid of any kind of hopeful or

redemptive energy. It's what happens when we keep

replaying a moment. That hurt us.

We. We sort of nurse it and we keep

it alive in our imaginations long after it stopped being

useful. To us.

Anger in the redeemed sense wants movement, wants action,

wants repair. Resentment wants to stay mad.

Resentment revels in the the reliving of the experience of

the anger. And so I know that in my own

life, there are moments where I've caught myself stewing over

something small. I don't know if you can relate

to this. Maybe I'm the only person

someone didn't follow through, or someone misunderstood me and

I find myself replaying that conversation on a loop in my

head. Or or sort of.

Looking. Back through the the text thread

and I realized. Eventually that it's not about

that person anymore. It's actually.

About me It's about the ache of not being seen or the fear of

being taken advantage. Of or or just.

Craving, being right. And that's when anger turns

inward and becomes resentment. It stops looking for healing and

it starts looking for justification.

And I want to acknowledge something here, especially for

many of the women in the room. In our culture, and often in

church, women are taught that anger isn't becoming that.

It's it's. Good to be agreeable.

And it's not good to be angry or to express anger and sort of the

typical ways that we would think.

And so anger often gets disguised as sadness or guilt.

Or. Exhaustion.

And so I would just invite you to even consider that as we move

through today. You know, you might find

yourself thinking, well, I'm not an angry person.

I don't really experience anger, but I would just encourage you

to be open to. The possibility that there

could. Even be some ways that you've

been conditioned in your church life or in your family life to

allow your anger to come through in ways that might be.

A little bit disguised. Or a little bit more.

Culturally appropriate for where you.

Found yourself in life. Over time, tamping down

something like anger or forcing it through a particular channel

kind of creates grooves in the soul.

And so when anger shows. Up it could look like.

Weariness or it could look like shame, but underneath it's still

anger and it's a signal that something that you love has been

has been violated or feels threatened in some way.

And so I just want to say this, your anger matters.

I'm aware that there have been countless sermons preached in

church. That sounds something like, you

know, don't be angry. You ought not feel like that,

and if you are, something's wrong with you.

Here are some Bible passages. To sort of.

Scaffold that claim and I just want to be really.

Clear about the fact that. That's not what we're doing

today, does. That help?

Great God isn't threatened by human anger, and it actually

might be. The very place where the.

Spirit wants to heal something in US.

The. Spark that when it's touched.

By the grace of God, actually. Becomes courage, becomes

compassion, becomes a powerful impulse for truth telling.

And so I want us to just imagine.

Together what what the healed? Passion of anger in our lives

might look like not this thing going away, but this thing being

transformed and sort of crafted. By the love of God.

Into. A powerful work of the Spirit.

In your life, that might. Cause you to show up.

In a way that's actually more courageous and more authentic to

the person that God is shaping you into.

So this fire of. Resentment.

It doesn't just stay personal, it also becomes cultural.

We live in a. World that's addicted to.

Outrage and is completely allergic to repentance.

There's an entire economy built on keeping us angry.

And I don't want to, you know, harp on this unnecessarily.

But we've brought up. You know, sort of some of the

ills of social media and cable news and so on in the context of

the series. And I just want to return again

to say that, you know, if we're not constantly putting in front

of ourselves the very fact that those things feed on anger, feed

on outrage, feed on an outsized emotion that keeps you coming

back to them, we're missing an important part of what it means

to live in this world. And so if you scroll through

social media or you turn on the news, we'll see it.

We're not being sold information.

We are being sold indignation. We're being sold something

inside. Of us that keeps us.

Coming back, that keeps us hungry.

For whatever it is that. That thing triggers inside of us

and we feel like we need more. Outrage.

Has become entertainment, and resentment has become the

identity of large swaths of the population.

It reminds me of Gran Torino, the 2008 film with Clint

Eastwood. It's not for the faint of

hearts, so I'll just give you that.

Disclaimer right now. But what happens is, you know,

Walt Kowalski, this grizzled old Korean War veteran.

Who treats his southeast? Asian immigrant neighbors

incredibly poorly, has built a wall around his heart.

He has. He has built a a.

Personality and a persona that depends on this kind of

resentment. Resentment for his family,

resentment for the other, and ultimately resentment for

himself because of the things that he's experienced and

internalized and never had the opportunity to heal from.

It cuts him off from everybody until he finally faces.

The choice to let that. Anger be redeemed.

And as his heart softens to his immigrant neighbors, he

ultimately makes a choice that is self sacrificial in their

favor. And so there's there's this

spiritual moment that I think we're invited into each one of

us. Will our anger continue to build

walls in our lives, whether it's in our relationships, our

personal lives, or just some aspect of our inside?

Life that's a little bit walled off, or will we let it?

Become something that heals our public anger.

Often sort of disguises itself. As righteousness.

You've heard the phrase righteous.

Indignation. And it's really just resentment

in disguise. We are not always fighting for

what's right, as much as we might want to think we are as

right as we might be. And that's the danger when anger

completely. Loses sight of the love of God.

It it calcifies, it stops. Hoping for change in other.

People, it stops. Hoping for change, even in

institutions it becomes bitterness.

And when it stops being honest about pain, it becomes

self-righteous. There's been this thread all

the. Way through this series that.

I think there's an invitation from God.

For us to just be. Honest about what's true about

our lives. And this is just another

invitation to say, you know what?

This this thing that I feel particularly angry about, this

righteous indignation that I carry with myself all the time.

It might actually have something to do with some pain, with some

brokenness, that God might actually want to talk to me

about. South anger for all.

The ways that it gets. Twisted into resentment has a.

Proper use. The church father said that

anger. Was the soul's watchdog.

Meant to guard what's good. Isn't that an interesting

thought? Properly directed, it defends.

Our love from harm. And misused it turns on us.

In the 4th century, John Cashin taught that anger.

Can serve a holy purpose. When it's aimed.

At the destructive. Forces of our own.

Thoughts and habits that corrode.

Love, that's a dense thought, so I'm going to say it again.

Anger can serve. A holy purpose.

When it's aimed. At the destructive forces.

Of our own thoughts and habits. That corrode love.

When Jesus enters the synagogue in Mark Three, I realized

nowhere in that. Passage.

Did it say that? Jesus was the man that I was

talking about. So Jesus is the one who comes,

comes into the place and heals the guy.

A man with a withered hand stands in the center of the

synagogue. And you know, commentators will

say that this man. Sort of serves as a a a

physical. Reminder that even in holy

places like the synagogue, even in the presence of Jesus walking

into that holy place, suffering still lingers.

And the Pharisees are watching this man with the withered hand,

not with compassion, not with any concern for what's happening

in his life. They're watching with suspicion,

and they're not hoping for healing.

They're hunting for a reason to accuse Jesus.

So that's just the setting of this story.

When we read what's beginning to happen, I want you to just kind

of start to paint the picture in your mind.

Why is this person here? Why are they watching?

Why is everyone paying attention to this interaction?

It's a setup. And the Pharisees in question,

their anger has hardened into resentment.

It's not hoping for any kind of restoration.

It's not hoping for any kind of healing.

And So what unfolds isn't. Just a miracle story.

You know, we're, we're a Vineyard church.

We. Love like the stuff?

That God does in our meetings the ways that people can be

healed and the ways that. You know the Holy Spirit shows.

Up and and acts sovereignly on people's bodies, on their minds.

Like beautiful stuff can happen. And so we can often just sort of

immediately think, OK, Jesus heals a person.

This is a story about. Physical healing.

But this is a wider. Kind of confrontation that's

getting set up in Mark's gospel. This is a confrontation over

what kind of world God wants for God's people.

It's this beautiful test case of the.

Redeemed passions in action. So Jesus, the Jesus way of life.

The Sermon on the Mount demonstrated he he knows the

the. Hearts of the people who are.

Watching, and he asks a question that slices right through sort

of the religious veneer. Of this whole story, he says, is

it lawful? To do good or do harm on the

Sabbath to. Save life or to kill?

And it's a question that exposes the hollowness of the sort of

moral calculus of the people who are trying to trap Jesus.

They've become so protective. Of a system of a particular way

of doing things that they have completely.

Lost sight of the. Purpose of that system.

Which is to do good. And to save life and to reflect

God's mercy for humans. All of the law, all of the

scriptures that that the Pharisees are.

Depending on to accuse Jesus in this moment exist for those

reasons, but they've missed it. And then comes the line that

sits at the emotional center of the passage.

He looked around at them with anger.

He was grieved at their hardness of heart.

And said to the man, stretch out your hand.

I just want to pause. What a beautiful picture of the.

Redemptive potential of anger. What a perfect sort of display.

Of what it might look like when what's inside.

Of us is actually courage is actually a refuse refusal to.

Accept a kind of way of being in the.

World that perpetuates harm and. Holds people down.

Jesus experiences anger. He looks around at the people.

He's angry with them, and the action that's born of that

anger, of the truly righteous anger of Jesus himself, is to

say to the man. Stretch out your hand.

And his physical body is healed in an instant.

He stretched it out. His hand was.

Restored the Pharisees. Went out and immediately

conspired with the Herodians against him.

How to destroy him. So it's one of the few moments

in the Gospels where. We're told outright that Jesus

was. Angry.

And I just think it's important to notice what kind of anger

this is. His His anger and his grief are

intertwined. He's angry because he loves.

He's angry because he loves humanity.

He's angry. Because he loves the.

One who's being singled out, who's being taken advantage of

in this situation. His anger is not the opposite of

compassion. It's compassion's heat.

You know, I think that's something that we've maybe even

walled. Ourselves off a little bit.

From is compassion ought to. Have a little bit of heat on it.

Because compassion kind of implies that there's an

injustice at work. And so to really be moved by

compassion, the way that I think the scriptures invite us to be

moved by compassion, to engage. Suffering as a church.

The way that we say we want to, I think to some degree that can

be animated by the healed and redeemed passion of anger in our

lives. When we look out in the world

and we see injustice, when we see things that need to be set

right, that's what's underneath. And so.

The early Christian teachers said that.

Holy anger is the souls watchdog, It's guarding love

from harm. And that's what's happening

here. That Jesus anger is not

explosive, it's not petty, it's not reactionary.

It's the fierce sorrow. Of love that's unreceived.

It's Jesus seeing. The love of God.

Extended to humanity. Sort of held.

At arm's length. By this legalistic religious

system sometimes. I think this is important to

note while we're talking about Jesus anger, divine anger.

People point to Jesus cleansing the temple, another instance

where Jesus is angry as justification for some kind of

righteous violence, as if divine anger must somehow eventually

spill out into physical force. But Jesus anger.

Never. Takes life, it gives it.

Back and even in the. Temple, His protest is

prophetic. It's not punitive it it disrupts

exploitation, but it doesn't harm anyone.

His anger clears space for prayer.

It clears space. For communion it.

Clears space for freedom. And so those same hands that

overturn tables will soon be nailed to the cross.

And I think it's. Important to to sort of set in

mind and actually even reclaim what anger might mean for us,

what anger might mean for God from those.

Who would say that? God.

Is an angry God. God is a punitive.

God. In this story we see.

The effect of God. 'S anger, and it's saying to the

man with the withered hand, stretch out your hand.

It restores and it brings life and it brings healing.

The Gospels give no picture of a violent Messiah, only a

suffering one whose power is found in love and surrender and

service. His anger is never divine

violence. It's divine sorrow that breaks

open into mercy, that breaks open into action in a moment,

that changes the circumstances around him.

Rowan Williams, The former. Archbishop of Canterbury said

that. Anger in the presence of love

becomes lament. It's God's fierce no?

To what distorts creation? That's the kind of anger that

we're invited to sort of embody. That's what we're seeing in

Jesus. His anger doesn't burn people

down it. Restores what's broken.

And he channels the fire of love toward healing rather than

destruction. Stretch out your hand.

And the man does. The withered hand comes alive

again. And the anger.

Of Christ restores. What's been broken?

It mends rather than memes, and I think we've been given a

picture of anger, whether it's in our family life or in our

church life. That sort of suggests.

That the only context for anger, the only sort of use for anger,

is destructive. It's to burn things down.

It's to. Sort of create more adversity.

For so long, we've been. Sold a story about what's.

Happening in the scripture when God gets angry and listen.

This is so with so many things. Throughout the long.

Narrative storyline of the Bible When we read from beginning to

end, there are just some things that are.

Said about God toward the. Beginning that find some

resolution, some clarity in the person of Jesus and So what I

want to suggest to you about anger in particular is when you.

Read some of that stuff. Toward the beginning of the

Bible about God's anger, what that might mean, and how people

understood that in that time and place, allow that understanding

to be filled in, to be informed. By a story like this.

Jesus anger causes the man with the withered hand to stretch out

his hand and then look. At the story how the.

Story ends. The Pharisees went out and

immediately conspired. With the.

Herodians against him? How to destroy him?

The contrast here is deliberate. What?

The author of the Gospel. Is trying to do is give.

You a picture of these. 2 fires. There are two different sort of

manifestations of anger at work, One that's redeemed and complete

and whole and holy in the way that Jesus responds to the man

who needed healing, and the unhealed passion of anger in the

way that the Pharisees respond at the end of the story.

One shows us the fire of resentment, the self-righteous

anger that can't bear to see mercy break its rules, and the

other one the healing and kind and redemptive and Invitational

anger of Jesus against injustice.

Paul sort of echoes. The same truth in his letter to

the Ephesians, and I think. These two scriptures work.

Really nicely side by side. So then putting away falsehood,

let. Each of you speak with.

Truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on

your anger and do not make room for the devil.

Those who? Steal must give up stealing,

rather let them labor doing good.

Work. With their own hands so as to

have something to share with the needy.

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is

good for building up as there is need.

So that your words may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve. The Holy Spirit of God with

which you were marked with a seal.

For the day of redemption, put away from you all bitterness and

wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all

malice. Be kind to one another, tender

hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven

you. When Paul writes Be angry and do

not sin, he's making the same move that Jesus makes in the

synagogue. That scripture by itself.

Can be a little bit confusing. You know, I don't know if any of

you good Christian people ever had this experience, but when

Brie and I first got married, we knew that the Bible said don't

let the sun go down on your anger.

And so the number of times. That we were up until.

One or two or 3:00 in the morning, arguing with each other

because listen, we're not going to go to sleep until we figure

this out, you know, because the Bible says, listen, that's not

what it means. OK, I don't maybe.

Maybe you all figured that out a lot.

Faster than we did. But guys, this is what?

We're talking about don't let the sun go down on your anger.

This is a metaphor for like when this thing stays inside of you

and and it. Just is this sort of?

Seething like kind of almost contemplating your own anger,

letting it take root inside of your.

Physical body like the Apostle Paul.

Is trying to say, listen, that is when the passion of anger is

distorted into resentment. That's the kind of thing that

like, cultivates in us this, this attitude.

Of. Indignation toward the world.

And so, you know, you don't have to stay up late at night.

To figure it out the. Point is, deal with it when you

have the opportunity to deal with it.

Because later. It's a little bit more painful

and a little bit more complicated anger.

Is the soul. 'S energy for naming what's

wrong and seeking what's right. But inside of us, there is a

need for this kind of clarity. For this this truth.

That God might give us, and so we we don't.

Let it grow roots. We know that what's left

unattended in the dark begins to rot, and it's not the feeling of

anger that ruins us. It's the refusal to.

Bring anger into the light of love.

He says put away all. Bitterness and wrath and malice,

and be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one

another as God in Christ. Forgave you.

The spirit does not extinguish the fire of anger.

And so, you know, this is sort of a theme.

Throughout the series, but we're.

Going to turn to prayer ministry in a moment.

And I just want to encourage you.

I, I don't think the answer for us, you know, particularly those

of us who might have something that's kind of hooked into us a

little bit that we feel angry about, I don't think the answer

is that God's going to make it go away or God's going to make

you. Feel happy about that.

Thing I think the answer is. Something a little bit closer to

you know, the Spirit would give us courage.

Courage to tell the truth. Courage to stand up for the

hurting. Courage to forgive.

But not some sort of balm for our soul.

That would cause us to just kind of sidestep the real issue.

So if Mark. Three shows us what the fire of

love. Looks like in the person.

Of Jesus. Ephesians.

Four shows us what that. Same fire looks like when it

burns within the life. Of a church.

My hope is that. We would hear those words.

And even when we think about the the conflicts, the frustrations

that we have one with another, What do you mean everybody's

like. Perfectly happy with each other.

Here right? That we would like let.

That, you know, sort of settle in and go, OK, I think.

There's a there's a way. That we might operate as a

family, it could be a little bit messy, could be a little messier

than just sort of stuffing that stuff away and pretending like

there's nothing between myself and my brother or sister.

But I think there's real wisdom. Here the difference between

resentment and restoration, between a kind of consuming heat

and a refining flame. And I think that's the

difference between. The two fires the fire of.

Resentment and the fire. Of love, the fire of love.

Refines the fire of love, burns away what's not of God?

It deals with the. Stuff inside of us that's in the

way of having a full experience of.

The love of God, both for ourselves.

And in community with. Other people.

And so my my prayer. For this church this week as I

thought about. Talking about this is.

God, would you? Turn up the heat on the refining

fire of love. That would really.

Give us a clear understanding of what in US is not of you, what

in our church family, what in our community is not of you, and

would we? Would it actually be dealt?

With and burned away. By the.

Healed passion of anger and so when anger is.

Touched by grace. It does not go away.

It changes course. And I just feel obligated to add

here at the end, not every anger is holy.

And so if you've got some things that you like are feeling angry

about and you're starting to. Even feel a little justified.

You know, like. OK, well, maybe God's got a

good. Direction for this thing that

you know, some of what stirs in US is not born of love.

It is borrowed outrage last. Week we talked about

despondency. We talked about the idea of

false fire. That when we're not feeling much

inside of us. We sort of look.

Out at the world and we go, well, they seem to really be

feeling something. I'm going to hitch my wagon to

that and I just think it's important for us to keep in

focus that. We.

We. Absorb anger.

We absorb indignation from the culture around us, from the

endless churn of headlines and arguments and interpersonal

conflict, until we can't. Tell what has.

Genuinely grieved us and what we've just inherited from the

environment that we're living in and.

The spirits work. Is not just to purify anger,

it's. Also to sift.

It and to. Sort of let love separate.

What's worth keeping from what's not worth keeping and sifted

anger is what remains after pride and fear and tribal

loyalties have kind of fallen away from the equation.

It's the kind of anger that still burns clean because it's

not rooted in in some kind of contempt.

It's rooted in compassion. And so we can.

We can hold our anger up to the light of.

Love and say Lord. Is this grief that.

Belongs to you or is this just me?

And would you? Help me to know.

Which is which? When the.

Spirit gets a hold. Of anger, it becomes fuel.

For repair and it stops. Being a weapon and it starts

being a tool, it becomes strength to face what we'd

rather ignore and. The courage for us to tell the.

Truth and the energy that we need to continue.

To advocate for what's right. And some of us carry anger

that's been sitting for a long time and it's grown quite heavy,

but also quiet and complicated and.

For some others of us, it flares up quite easily and it lives

very close to the surface. And I just want to encourage

you. That it shows us what we care

enough about to grieve. And that it's not something to

hide. From God, it's something to.

Bring into the presence of God. With others who we.

Love and trust. So.

Want to invite the worship team back up?

And I encourage you to bring your anger before God.

Don't hide it. Don't.

Justify it, offer it, and ask the spirit to burn away whatever

is corrosive. Whatever.

Is not of God and only keep. The stuff that.

Longs for love that longs for justice that longs for the.

Jesus way of life because. Anger is not the.

Opposite of love, it is Love's heat.

When something precious has been profaned or has been threatened,

the gospel doesn't extinguish. That fire, it purifies it until

all that's left is the holy love of God.

So, friends, I'd invite you to stand and we're going to.

Just read that little. Confession that we started with

again. In the first person together.

I forgot this last week, so sorry.

I am infinitely loved by God, and God's infinite love is in

the process of healing everything in me that clings to

false things. The invitation.

Of God is to allow. God to be the divine physician,

the medicine. Of God is God's own love poured

out. Into my.

Heart through the Holy Spirit. Amen.