If there
was ever a time for anger in America, it is now. For what should be a Constitutional government has been
usurped by a tyrant so obnoxious that he would evict the elderly from their homes, Barrycade citizens and veterans from even viewing their memorials and
more, much more.
Further
I am convinced this is a time for non-violent civil disobedience. I am heartened to see good gumption
like the man who tossed Barrycades from Badlands viewpoints, and WW2
veterans who went through Barrycades blocking their war memorials. May such simple acts of courage and
resistance multiply.
By the
way, Dave Carter’s “When the Bleeding Heart Becomes the Iron Fist” is an excellent summary of where we are now as a nation.
But
there is a problem with anger, even righteous anger.
Us men
(and women) do not handle anger well.
Even our righteous anger too easily becomes very unrighteous and harmful. It’s not for nothing that St. James
warned, “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” (James 1:20)
I know
that all too well from my own experience.
But I’ve also received two timely and needful reminders over the
weekend.
The
Epistle Lesson yesterday (the 19th Sunday after Trinity) from
Ephesians 4 admonishes “Be angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your
wrath; neither giver place to the devil.”
St. Paul acknowledges there are times to “be angry,” but when those
times come we must be careful to “sin not.” For either through prolonged anger
eating us (and/or those around us) up or through our fallen nature and Satan
using what may have begun as righteous anger and twisting it into evil, it is
difficult for us to keep our righteous anger righteous. And our nature is such that anger often
goads us into committing hateful and harmful sin.
(By the
way, I taught this passage to my Sunday School. Yes, I confessed as I did so.)
This
morning, my readings in the Psalms came to Psalm 37, which begins in Coverdale’s
translation, “Fret not thyself because of the ungodly”. Verse 8 elaborates, “Fret not thyself,
else shalt thou be moved to do evil.”
And prolonged anger about evil, particularly the evil of tyranny, can
indeed so easily lure us into committing evil ourselves.
And
tyrants have a history of using that tendency to further increase their
power. A most infamous example
is the Nazis’ use of the Reichstag Fire to push through the Enabling Act.
So,
while standing up against tyranny, we are to trust in the Lord as Psalm 37
repeatedly and warmly exhorts.
Instead of fretting and being eaten up by anger, we are to remember that
He has the final say and will make things right in the end. And He can and will make things right
far better than any rash angry lashing out on our part.
The
beginning of Coverdale’s Psalm 57 has become particularly meaningful to me in
that respect:
Be merciful unto me, O God, be
merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee;
And under the shadow of thy
wings shall be my refuge, until this tyranny be overpast.
2 comments:
I am surprised that we have not seen paid ads highlighting these injustices. They would be both good citizenship and good politics.
Hi Lisa. Thanks for the invite. However I'm Anglican, NOT Episcopalian.
But if KJS repents in dust and ashes, feel free to get back to me.
wannabe
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