Lent 5 – Anger unleashed
Our Lenten journey has taken us into
the wilderness where we have confronted our own inner demons and we have
thought about how those classic seven deadly sins impact our corporate
lives. This fifth week of Lent finds us dealing
with wrath – anger unleashed.
Five weeks into Lent we find
ourselves within sight of the cross. It
stands before us in its stark reality ready to receive the One who has taught
us – has led us – has shown us God’s Love at work in the world. The cross stands before us reminding us that
we, in our actions, in our attitudes, have erected that cross just as surely as
did the Roman Empire two thousand years ago.
As we approach the cross we become aware that hate and anger tried to
suppress Love.
We are seeing anger unleashed in the
ways we relate to one another in our country.
Wrath is fueling the “us”/”them” mentality. It starts out small with seemingly petty
disagreements or resentments. It feeds
itself with narratives. Some of those
narratives are the way we choose to read history. Some are based on the ways we read the
Bible. And yes in today’s world the buzz
words – are “Alternative Facts” and “Fake news”. Ultimately rage or wrath has the power to
kill. We have seen it in the Holocaust. We see it in extermination and genocide
programs around the world. We see it as
laws and civil liberties are ripped away because judgment has deemed some
persons are unworthy of existing in the same world as we live.
Our Lenten journey into the wilderness
compels us to combat the winds of hate and wrath. We don’t want to admit that we are capable of
hate, yet we know that we are. The words
racism, misogyny, homophobia, classism make us very defensive and very
uncomfortable. We try to gloss things
over and talk about how we are really good people and think the best of
people. We only dislike those who do
something wrong. Yet we feed our
negative attitudes and hate grows. We
justify our positions and rage results.
We act out our thoughts and we see wrath knocking everything down in its
path.
When we confront our God in the
wilderness we will be asked about our attitudes. We will have a choice. Will we fuel our strongly held angers? Will we choose to add more nails to the cross
of Christ?
Can we,
will we, fall on our knees before the God of Love and be transformed into a new
creation?
Grace
and Peace
Rev.
Clara
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