�鶹��

Available for over a year

Good morning. We’ve become an angry society. Social media is full of furious posts and responses. So many of us seem to have something that frustrates and enrages us, whether it’s to do with Brexit or the visit of Donald Trump or the destruction of the environment or some vast amorphous threat that we can’t even name. Many Christians struggle with anger. In the Catholic tradition, wrath is one of the seven deadly sins. As a child I was taught to pray to gentle Jesus meek and mild. Yet the New Testament tells us about Jesus raging against the money changers in the temple, and he had a ripe vocabulary of insult for religious leaders who abused their power. I’m reading a book called Holy Anger by Lutheran theologian and pastor Lytta Basset. She explores how profoundly the stories of scripture reveal the significance of anger and its cathartic power to heal. She argues that anger is part of discovering who we are, particularly if we’ve been conditioned to repress our emotions and have learned to deny our sense of self. But expressing anger needs somebody to listen and remain loyal to us even as we rage and cry out. Good friends can provide such support, but we might have nobody to rage against but God. Basset shows how it’s through expressing their anger to God that biblical characters such as Job find healing. There’s much in life to be angry about, whether it’s individual distress and suffering or vast global injustices. The challenge is in learning to channel our fury creatively, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist or allowing it to become a destructive force of violence against ourselves and others. In Psalm 139, the psalmist reflects on what it means to be known by God. Towards the end he rages against his enemies and prays for their destruction. The psalm is often used by people leading prayers and meditations, but these verses are usually left out as if admitting our fury and darkness even to God is forbidden. The psalm ends on a note of surrender and trust: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The path to healing leads through and beyond anger. In our divided society, that’s a challenge I believe we face – to discover that the power of anger is sanctified through trust in the greater power of love to bind our wounds. Then we can channel our rage into creative energy that empowers us in the struggle for justice.