Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] February 12, 2023 “The Dangers and Virtues of Anger” Matthew 5: 21-26 - Common English Bible “You have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago, Don’t commit murder,[a] and all who commit murder will be in danger of judgment. 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be in danger of judgment. If they say to their brother or sister, ‘You idiot,’ they will be in danger of being condemned by the governing council. And if they say, ‘You fool,’ they will be in danger of fiery hell. 23 Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift at the altar and go. First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift. 25 Be sure to make friends quickly with your opponents while you are with them on the way to court. Otherwise, they will haul you before the judge, the judge will turn you over to the officer of the court, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 I say to you in all seriousness that you won’t get out of there until you’ve paid the very last penny. This is the first of six “you have heard that it was said, but I say to you” teachings of Jesus. Just to be clear, Jesus is not trying to abolish or overturn these laws. Instead, he invites us to take it more seriously. He asks, why stop at murder? What about anger? What about just calling someone a name? What about simply calling someone an idiot or a fool? You have heard that it was said, do not murder. But, Jesus said, I say to you, everyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be in danger of judgment. It made me think: What are the dangers of anger? I asked our Lunch and Lectionary bible study on Thursday and they had a great list:
I’m sure you could name many more. But, I also wonder, isn’t there sometimes a danger in not being angry? Isn’t that also a danger, for example, to our mental health? I’m reminded of the poem by Langston Hughes called “Harlem.” What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore – and then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over – like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? The “dream deferred” Hughes speaks of is not simply wishes for a better life but basic, fundamental, human dignity and freedom. In 1961, James Baldwin was asked about being Black in America. He responded, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage, almost all the time. And part of this rage is this: It isn’t only what’s happening to you. It’s what’s happening all around you and all of the time in the face of the most extraordinary criminal indifference…” Cruel indifference, for example, in how some people are more upset about people being angry than oppression. Stereotypes of angry Black men and angry Black women deflect just how logical anger would be as a reaction to daily microaggressions or out and proud white nationalism so vividly on display. Why isn’t everyone angry? On the other hand, there is so much anger in our country right now, I certainly don’t want to encourage more. The lack of civility is astounding. The constant grievances and attacks. I’m not encouraging more anger. Rather, I’m talking about the vision of shalom and peace and wellbeing of the biblical prophets – of Micah and Amos and Jeremiah and Isaiah and more. Their anger over the lack of justice, the care of widows and orphans, the welcome of strangers and foreigners. Anger at the lack of wellbeing for everyone. The prophets call for a religious practice that is demonstrated in compassion and not in compliance with empty religious practices devoid of love. When Jesus said, “You have heard it was said but I say,” he was painting a vision of the kingdom of God, a world full of people with mercy. And if not, as we witness a denial of justice and welling for our neighbors, how could we not be as angry as the prophets? It is good to be wary of anger, of not stoking anger, of not provoking anger. But there can be something very good about anger. Virtuous, even. Poet Audre Lord shared how when “focused with precision, anger can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change. Anger is loaded with information and energy.” Dr. Myisha Cherry is a professor of philosophy at the University of California Riverside. Her most recent book is The Case for Rage: Why Anger is Essential to Anti-Racist Struggle.[1] In it, she makes a case for anger. She wrote after George Floyd’s murder about how anger can build a better world. Anger is not, she said, antithetical to love.
I’m not sure I’ve ever thought of anger as hopeful or as a virtue. Still, I wonder what the voice of non-violence might think. Surely, Dr. King never advocated anger. But it’s not about advocating anger. It’s recognizing the power in it. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was in high school he won an oratorical contest. As he and his teacher were returning home in triumph, riding on a bus, some white passengers got on. The white bus driver cursed at them and ordered King and his teacher to give up their seats. King wanted to stay seated but his teacher urged him to obey the law. They had to stand in the aisle for 90 miles back to Atlanta. Dr. King told an interviewer decades later that it was “the angriest I have ever been in my life.” His daughter Bernice told the story too about how extremely angry her father had been at that particular incident. She said he came dangerously close to hating all white people. It was when he was in college and seminary that he discovered non-violent resistance as a channel for that anger – to move it into positive forms of protest. “If you internalize anger, and you don’t find a channel, it can destroy you.” That’s why he said, “Hate is too great a burden to bear.” He continued to wrestle with anger throughout his life but tried always to use it as a motivating force for change; as well, to contain its potential for destruction.[3] Feel angry when it’s what you feel. Anger is not the opposite of love. It is part of the process of redemptive love. Without anger we could become numb to injustice. And that’s not loving. We could become desensitized to racial terror. And that’s not loving. We could succumb to despair. We simply won’t get to love without going first through the anger we rightfully feel. Surely Jesse Owens was rightfully angry with the racist philosophy of Aryan superiority. At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, he used it set world records in front of Hitler’s face.[4] Surely Marian Anderson was rightfully angry at the denial by the Daughters of the American Revolution to sing in Constitution Hall. She used it to instead triumph in front of a massive crowd of 75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939.[5] Surely Mary McLeod Bethune would have been rightfully angry that her formerly enslaved parents weren’t allowed to learn how to read. She used it as fuel to found a college in 1929 and eventually became a nationally known educator, philanthropist, and adviser to five U.S. presidents. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman, Bethune was the only woman of color at the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945.[6] Her parents were slaves. I could keep going with examples of rightfully-angry injustices that became triumphs, but my point is, you may have heard it was said that anger is bad for you. I say, use it as the fuel to change the world – to advance the Kingdom of God. Anger is necessary to the condition of living as a human being with empathy. It’s the price of being fully human. In addition to the fight for racial justice, where else might this apply in your life? Where are you angry?
But remember,
[1] Oxford University Press: 2021 [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/how-anger-can-build-better-world/615625/ [3] https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/20/691298594/the-power-of-martin-luther-king-jr-s-anger [4] https://olympics.com/en/athletes/jesse-owens [5] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eleanor-anderson/ [6] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune
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