The Effects of Anger

The Effects of Anger

James 3:3-12

            I came across a story recently while cleaning out some files.  I have no idea who the author is.  I suspect this came in an email with no indication as to who wrote it.

***

            There was a little boy with a bad temper.  His father gave him a bag of nails and a hammer and told him that every time he lost his temper he was to hammer a nail in the back fence.

The first day the boy drove 37 nails into the fence.  Day by day the number dwindled as he discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into that fence.  Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all.  When he told his father about it, the father suggested the boy pull out a nail for each day he was able to control his temper.  The days passed, and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.  The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. 

He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.  This fence will never be the same.  When you say things in anger they leave scars, just like these.  If you stick a knife in someone and draw it out, no matter how many times you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ the wound is still there.  A verbal wound can be as bad as a physical one.”

A wise father!  He taught his son a valuable lesson, one we can all profit from.  I believe angry words have torn apart more families, more business relationships, more friendships—more churches—than any other force.  And as the father pointed out to his son, the wounds can be impossible to heal.

James understood the power of temper.  His metaphors for the trouble an angry tongue can cause are spot on.  As one little spark can ignite a huge fire, as a small rudder can turn a much larger ship, as a small bit in a horse’s mouth can make it do the rider’s bidding, so can the tongue change the course of affairs—for good or evil.

Most of us don’t have a fence we can hammer nails into.  Especially if we live in close quarters with our neighbors such a practice might not be convenient or welcome; but we can do two things to control our tempers.  First, we can erect a mental fence, and see ourselves pounding in a nail whenever the temptation strikes to let our anger loose.  The time it takes to visualize that fence might prevent us from saying something we will regret.

Second—and infinitely more important—we can make our temper a matter of prayer.  We should begin praying about our anger issues when they are not imminent.  Daily prayer asking for God’s help to curb our temper is hugely beneficial.  The more we pray the more God will give us strength to resist setting the spark that will ignite a destructive fire.  Also, if we pray about our anger issues when they are not an issue, we will be more likely to ask God for help when they threaten to become an issue.

Paul also understood the power of the tongue to cause trouble.  He often listed anger along with murder and adultery as sinful behaviors.  In his letter to the Ephesians (4:31-32) his instructions are even more pointed.

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

Amen! 

A Failure to Communicate

A Failure to Communicate

John 3:1-21

            Recently I had the chance to perform with a local theatre company.  Although I began the process with fear and trembling (I don’t do much acting), I had a great time.  I also learned a lot from the other actors, many of whom were far more experienced performers than I. 

            During performances we sat backstage in what is known as the Green Room.  It’s a space where actors wait for their next entrance.  Our green room was an open area close enough to the stage so we could hear what was going on.  There was a TV monitor so we could see what was happening onstage, thus able to gauge how long we had until we went on.

            The cast got along beautifully (those of you who have ever performed in a play know that this is not always the case).  We supported each other, complimented each other on our performances, and had some interesting discussions on a wide range of topics—when we talked.

            Many times, when I came offstage, I found people staring at their phone screens.  What they found so interesting I’ll never know.  I should point out that they weren’t talking on their phones, they were just staring at them.   

Perhaps they were communicating with someone, but I couldn’t help feeling they were passing up great chances at live conversations with the people around them.  As I said, when everyone put their phones down, we learned a lot from each other and shared some meaningful dialogue. 

The Bible is full of meaningful communication, right from the start.

·        In the beginning God spoke—and creation happened.

·        God had meaningful conversations with Abraham,

·        And Moses,

·        And the prophets,

·        And David.

·        Paul was a great communicator, as were Peter and the other apostles.

And then there was Jesus:  the Master Communicator.  He healed often with a touch, but sometimes with a word.  He taught.  He challenged the religious authorities and slipped out of every verbal trap they laid for him.  His words echo down over two thousand years, telling us how we should live and what ought to be important in our lives.

Nicodemus, who John tells us was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night.  Perhaps he wanted to avoid criticism from his fellow Pharisees.  Perhaps he wanted Jesus’ undivided attention.  Perhaps, like anyone visiting a counselor he needed the privacy of a one-on-one encounter.  Whatever the reason, he was there, and from what we can gather, the two were alone.

Jesus presented what at first seemed to be a conundrum.  He confused his listener with words Nicodemus couldn’t understand.  He didn’t get the concept of being born again (I’m not sure we always get it either).  When Jesus explained in words Nicodemus could understand, the answer rang down through the ages to us and beyond.  John 3:16-17 is often called “the gospel in a nutshell.”  I have seen these verses written on a piece of paper sticking out of a walnut shell.  Pretty ingenious.

Shouldn’t we sharpen our communication skills so we can, like Jesus, help others hear the gospel in ways that will help them respond? 

Cell phones won’t help.  We have to talk to them.

Vacation

Ken Sipley will be on vacation for the next two weeks.  Check out some of the old posts at your leisure while he's taking his.  Look for his next post on June 19.

The Waters of Baptism

The Waters of Baptism

Luke 3:1-9

            In the past two years my church has baptized seven children.  In each case, before the Sunday they were to be baptized, I tried to impress upon them two important points to remember about the act.  First, when they offer themselves to be baptized, they are making a commitment:  They are saying, “I want to walk through my life as a Christian.”  People will expect their behavior to change.  Somehow they should be different from what they were before, and different from other children—not that anyone will expect them to be perfect, but, as Paul says often, they should be a “new creature” in Christ Jesus.

            Second, they should not expect anything magic to happen when they come up out of the water.  It may.  They may feel like a new creature, with new attitudes, new behaviors, new ways of looking at life.  But they may not.  There’s no way of predicting how someone will react.  If they feel new—great!  We must help them build on that newness to make a permanent change.  If they don’t feel changed, we have to help them understand that they are at least partly responsible for making themselves new creatures.  God expects each of us to do our part in walking the Christian journey.

            Martha Grace Reese says the first group of people we should evangelize is our youth.  If we lose them, if they don’t see the value of being Christians, we’ve lost the generation that will carry the church forward.  I’ve seen churches like that, churches that are dying because a generation was lost.  It’s always sad, but once the process has begun, it’s difficult—if not impossible—to stop it.

            Sooner or later, however, we have to look outwards.  Even if we baptize every young person in our churches we’ll at best only maintain the status quo.  We won’t grow.  More importantly, we won’t fulfill the Great Commission Jesus gave his followers before his ascension.  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,”  Jesus says (Matthew 28:19-20),  “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

            This is a commandment we cannot escape.  There is no equivocating here.  If we call ourselves Christians we must spread the gospel and bring people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, eventually helping them reach the point where they will want to be baptized—to become new creatures in Christ Jesus.

            We might not want to use John the Baptist’s approach, however.  It has been my experience that if you begin your sales pitch for any product by insulting your listeners they won’t stay around very long.  John had a rather different audience than we have today, one that, to a great extent, knew they had gone wrong and needed correction.

            Today we need to remember that many out there have either not heard the gospel, or have heard a version so distorted that no thinking person would want to adopt it.  Instead we must remember that actions speak louder than words.  If we live the gospel more people will be willing to listen to the gospel.

            Like the young people I counsel before baptism, adult Christians must remember that only as we demonstrate by our actions that we are new creatures in Christ Jesus will we be able to get people to listen to the message that has made a difference in our lives.

            Have you felt the difference Jesus Christ can make in your life?  If so, how are you living out that difference?

The Devil Made Me Do It!

The Devil Made Me Do It

Genesis 3:1-7

            In the 1970’s one of the hottest stars on television was Flip Wilson.  Originally a stand-up comic, Wilson developed characters and routines that resonated with people.  In 1972, Time magazine called Wilson “TV’s first black superstar,” in an issue that featured him on the cover.

            One of his most endearing characters was a sassy young black woman named Geraldine.  She spoke often of her boyfriend, “Killer,” and was fond of saying, when caught doing something she shouldn’t, “The devil made me do it!”  It was a good routine, and a good line, one you would think should get anyone off the hook in a pinch.  After all, Satan is a powerful persona.  Shouldn’t we be able to claim satanic influence when we go astray?  Was Flip Wilson/Geraldine on to something?

            Unfortunately, no!  It’s not a good defense, either in a court of law or in God’s court.  The devil may be powerful, but we must understand where his power comes from.

            Everything was going along fine in the Garden of Eden.  God had created the perfect setting for two people.  There were beautiful flowers.  There were peaceful animals to watch as they played.  Everything had been thought of for the comfort and pleasure of Adam and Eve.  What could go wrong?

            According to John Milton (Paradise Lost), Satan was still smarting from his demotion.  Until he led an angelic rebellion against the Almighty (sounds like a fool’s errand, doesn’t it?) he had been Lucifer, chief of all angels.  Now he languished in hell, surrounded by those who had rebelled with him, living in the gloom of the netherworld cut off from God’s presence, and changed from the angel of light to the prince of darkness.  With the creation of the cosmos and humanity Satan saw his chance to get even.

            God had given one instruction to the first couple:  Do not eat the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden.  Catching Eve unawares one day, Satan played on her ego, convincing her that, rather than death, the fruit would bring wisdom.  He didn’t make her eat the fruit.  He couldn’t force it down her throat.  He could only suggest the possibility that the consequence of eating that fruit would not be negative, but positive.  She made the decision to pluck the fruit and take a bite.

            This is Satan’s power:  the power of suggestion.  That’s the only weapon he has, and he wields it well.  No one makes suggestions that sound as convincing as the ones he makes.  He’s a master.  But Satan can’t make us do anything!

            In his first epistle, Peter (5:8) tells his readers:  “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  Sounds pretty terrible—but Satan can’t devour anyone without that person’s permission.  If we spend time in lion country we’re likely to get eaten.  Of course, Satan is a lion impossible to stay away from.  He doesn’t stay in his territory; he’s constantly invading ours.  Still, he has no power over us except that which we give him.

            Had Eve remembered God’s command rather than yielding to her ego, humanity might still be living in paradise; but it wasn’t to be.  We have a chance to rectify the situation, and perhaps to move a little closer to paradise in our own lives.  When temptation comes, first remember that God’s power outstrips Satan’s power—always and all ways!  God can give us the strength to resist temptation.  All we have to do is:

            Step 1—remember the devil can’t make us do it.

            Step 2—rely on God’s strength to resist and not our own.

Don't Do the Math

Don’t Do the Math!

John 16:12-15

As I write this, it is the closing hours of Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost.  Trinity Sunday is celebrated by those churches that follow the liturgical calendar of the Christian year.  It is the Sunday set aside for remembering the Trinity and what it means for the Christian church.

The question many of us ask is, “How do you explain, and how do you understand the Trinity?”  It is important to remember that the Trinity is an attempt to explain the unexplainable.  The Trinity is a doctrine of the Christian Church—that is, it is one of the tenets of our faith on which the church stands.  In fact, Philip W. Butin, in his book The Trinity (Geneva Press, 2001), states that it is the tenet on which our faith stands or falls. 

The Trinity is a theoretical model intended to help Christians understand several expressions in the Bible.

            There is only one God.

Each of the three divine persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is recognized to be God.

            God’s self-revelation recognizes distinctions among the three.

            There are interactions among them

            All are eternally present in the Godhead.

Having said that, are we any closer to understanding the Trinity?  Probably not, and John helps us understand why.  Chapters 14-17 of the Gospel of John are Jesus’ farewell address to His disciples at the Last Supper.  In the 16^th chapter, verse 12, Jesus says, “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.”  In other words he is saying, “I’ve told you all you can handle for now.”  It reminds me of one of my favorite Far Side cartoons.  There is a class full of students, and one boy says to the teacher, “Mr. Jones, may I be excused?  My brain is full.”

   The spiritual immaturity of the disciples prevented Jesus from saying more.  Throughout the Gospels, Jesus faced this problem.  We often sense his frustration and share it, wondering how the disciples could be so stupid.  What we fail to realize is that spiritual immaturity is our problem, too.  It will always be humankind’s problem, because it is so easy for our brains to be full.

We’re still left with the problem of understanding how the Trinity works.  How can three persons be one entity?  The simple answer is, don’t do the math!  This is a distraction from the real question.

   To understand the Trinity, or anything about God, we need metaphors.  One metaphor that may help us understand the Trinity is the dance.  We have all seen Snoopy in the Peanuts comic strip dancing with unrestrained joy.  I suspect that many of us wish we could share his freedom to “dance as if no one was looking.” 

The dance I’m talking about is not for one person, and not for a couple, but for a larger group.  Henri Matisse, the French artist painted a picture of five dancers moving in a circle while holding hands.  The figures are nude—and that’s important, because it signifies the complete freedom and complete openness of the dancers to each other and to the dance.

   Square dancing comes close to the kind of dancing I’m talking about, but it’s not exactly right because there is a caller.  The kind of dance I mean is closer to what we see in movies about life in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries, where the dancers perform intricate patterns.  These dances are executed without commands because everyone knows the steps.

One of the words that theologians use frequently to describe the relationship within the Trinity is perichoresis.  It’s a Greek word. It’s also a compound word.  The first part, peri, means “around” (think perimeter).  The second part, choreia gives us our word “choreography.”  Perichoresis, therefore, means “to dance around.”

This is the way God dances:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in complete freedom, complete understanding, with unrestrained joy, knowing the patterns and steps so well that they need no commands.  They understand the dance perfectly because they made up the steps.

   The wonderful part about this is that we are called to be part of this dance.  This is, in part, I believe, what Paul means when he says we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).  We dance clumsily, of course, because we don’t understand the steps; but that’s all right with God, just as long as we dance.

On the Cutting Edge

On the Cutting Edge

Hebrews 11:32-38

            The quote I remember most clearly from my church history professor is, “The seed of the church is the blood of the martyrs.”  The church tends to grow stronger when it’s under pressure.  When its members are co-opted by society they grow fat, comfortable, and lazy.  I think even those who are fighting in defense of a false version of Christianity understand this principle.  This is why they keep setting up straw opponents and see devils at work in cultural changes that are making society more human—and therefore more Christian.  If they can feel like martyrs they can pretend they are on the cutting edge of Christianity when they are really fighting backwater battles in a war that has moved ahead of them.

            Ralph Bukiewicz must have had this principle in mind when he said: “If you are not facing risk, could it be that you are not close enough to where God wants you to be?  Because where God is, there is always risk.”

            That’s a different take on Christianity!  We sing about being “happy in Jesus.”  We pray for the “peace that passes all understanding.”  We talk about being “at rest in God.”  We’d rather avoid the risk of being on the front lines.  After all, that’s where people get hurt.  When we begin our spiritual journey I don’t think many of us consider the dangerous aspects of the road.  This is especially true in our society, where to be a Christian is to be a part of the majority.  No matter how vocal our opponents may be, we know there are fewer of them than there are of us.  The physical perils associated with being a Christian are for other times and other places.  No need to worry about that kind of danger.

            When we read the words of today’s Scripture passage the first thing we notice is that it’s about physical danger.  According to the writer of Hebrews, many conquer in the name of God, but many are tortured, beaten, imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword.  Those things don’t happen in our society.

            But there are other punishments, and there are other forms of torture than to the body.  Some of them can be even more devastating than physical abuse.  What other types of risk might a Christian have to endure on the cutting edge?

            There is the risk of ostracism.  Sometimes that ostracism comes from other Christians.  If you live where God wants you to live, those culturally comfortable Christians aren’t going to like it.  You’ll make them look bad because they aren’t as committed as you.  The worst part is that it might not be you that suffers.  When people become vindictive they often take their anger out on our family members because they know they can hurt us more that way.

            There is the risk of retaliation.  When Christians stand up to the powers that rule this world they unleash the dark forces behind those powers.  Businesses can respond by making your life financially difficult.  Government agencies can target you for retribution.  Employers can not only terminate you but make it difficult for you to find future employment.  Again, the targets may be not just you but those you love.

            There is the risk of religious reprisal.  If the powers you stand against involve a church, be prepared for some of the worst possible abuse.  No one can be quite as ugly as religious people when challenged.  Look at Martin Luther.  Look at Paul.  Look at Jesus.

            But Bukiewicz is right.  To be where God is means to encounter risk.  To be where God is means to serve the disenfranchised, the dispossessed, the “least of these.”  God risked God’s Son for our salvation.  Can we avoid risk and still call ourselves Christians?