Anger Issues

I’m guessing you don’t have to go back too long in history to find a time when you were angry

When was the last time you were angry?

What ridiculous thing makes you angry?

I will have to be careful to not sound too angry during this podcast

We get angry at an inanimate GPS that 99.9% of the time leads us to exactly where we need to go

We get mad at slow wifi

We get mad that the computer that is inside of our phone is too slow

We get mad that La La Land didn’t end like we wanted.  At least I did

Jesus quotes.  Do you hear anger in his voice.

You hypocrites

You shut the door of the kingdom in people’s faces

You blind fools

You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel

You are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean

You snakes

You brood of vipers

How will you escape being condemned to hell?

You are like unmarked graves

When you find a convert you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are

Clearly Jesus got angry.  Here’s the difference. When Jesus got angry, he got angry at real issues.

As Christians we have gained a reputation as an angry people.  But again, are we angry like Jesus?  Are we angry over important issues.

Christians got angry and protested the new Starbucks holiday cup, which they say is conspicuously devoid of images of both Christmas and Jesus Christ himself.  That blew up Christian social media

Last year Blogger Veronica Partridge wrote a piece informing the world that she had made a decision to not wear yoga pants in public. Her intention, as she explained it, was to keep men from looking at her lustfully.  That blog blew up Christian social media and she and her husband ended up on Good Morning America. 

The latest target of Christian rage is the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast.  They are angry that Gaston’s sidekick Lafou appears to be gay.

Meanwhile this is going on in the world.

Fourteen million Iraqis and Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid. Almost half are children.

There are 379,000 children in foster care in the US.

1,505,200 men, women and children have been displaced in South Sudan since December 15, 2013.

Malnutrition is identified as the root cause of death among 3.1 million children. 

100 million Christians around the globe are under persecution, enduring physical beatings, torture and rape.

That’s what’s going on in the world, but sure, let’s talk about Colin Kapernick. 

You see I don’t think the problem is that we have anger issues.  I think the problem is that we have anger about the wrong issues. 

4 Four things that made Jesus angry

1. People who are more concerned with looking good than doing good

2. Abuse and neglect of the poor

3. Injustice for those who can’t fight for themselves

4. Making it difficult for people to follow God by focusing on rules not relationship

Bryan Stevenson in his book Just Mercy,

Spending on jails and prisons by state and federal governments have risen from $6.9 billion in 1980 to $80 billion today.  Private prison builders and prison service companies have spent millions of dollars to persuade state and local governments to create new crimes, impose harsher sentences, and keep more people locked up so they can earn more profits.

People are over us because they grew up in a church that got angry about these things

The rules of how you cut your hair

The rules about what you can drink

The rules about what you watch

The rules about yoga pants

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything ― Albert Einstein

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may wish for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. A Franciscan blessing