Letting Go of Anger

Letting Go of Anger

Ephesians 4:30-32

            If you read this blog regularly you know I frequently return to this Scripture passage.  It is the text of a wonderful church anthem I was privileged to sing many years ago.  The words are anchored in my memory and in my theology.  I believe they are some of Paul’s best.

            This passage came back to my mind recently when I read something the Buddha said.  There’s a lot to learn from studying other religions.  Sometimes the words of their theologians contain the same truths we find in the Bible, but stated in new ways—ways that may give us new insight and understanding.

            The Buddha said: “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” 

            Paul understood the damage anger can cause.  You’ll recall that he was dead set against the Christ movement.  His goal was to wipe it out.  He saw it as the enemy of the Judaism in which he had been raised.  It was a stain on God’s people that needed to be erased.  He received permission to travel to Damascus and arrest any followers of “The Way” he encountered there.  He was to bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. 

            Luke tells us that Paul left Jerusalem, “breathing fire.”  Can’t get much angrier than that.  He was carrying a load of hot coals, and he was going to toss them at any Christian heretic he could find.

            We know what happened.  He had a vision of Jesus, who turned his anger inside out.  In the bright light of God’s presence, the heat of Paul’s anger dissipated.  He was able to see how futile and how misplaced his anger was.  Instead of persecuting the new religion he joined it, and became one of its leading exponents.  God changed him from angry opponent to ardent supporter.

            Paul also saw what anger could do to a church.  He wrote to the Philippians, “I entreat Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord.”  These two women had labored side by side with Paul and the Philippian church, but some disagreement had occurred between them.  Now there was a rift.  Paul not only urged them to come to agreement, but urged the other members of the church to help them end their quarrel.  They didn’t realize how much the burning coals they were holding could damage them, as well as everyone around them.

            Many of us have seen such disagreements in churches; perhaps we’ve even been part of one.  Some of us have learned how much our burning coals of anger can hurt us.  The Buddha was wise enough to see the pain anger can cause.  He warned his followers about anger’s effects.

            Paul adds another dimension.  “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,” he says, “by which you have been sealed until the day of redemption.”  Let go of all your anger, whatever form it takes.

Jesus said it best.  If you want to be forgiven you must forgive.  There’s no other way.  Otherwise those coals stay in your hands, burning you and making it impossible to be at rest.

            Unresolved anger can damage a church faster and more completely than any other problem.  There’s no room for anger in a community of love. 

Don’t get burned.