Sermon for Sunday March 28, 2004

About Lightning, Anger and Forgiveness by Eloy Gonzalez

Isaiah 12:1-6

Malcolm, a man with a terrible temper, was playing a round of golf with his pastor. After leaving three straight putts on the edge of the cup, Malcolm exploded. “I missed!” he screamed. “How could I miss?” With that he heaved his putter into a nearby lake, kicked a wheel on the golf cart and drove his fist into a nearby tree. The pastor was shocked. “Why I’ve never seen such a terrible display of anger,” he said to Malcolm. “Don’t you know that God doesn’t like it when we are angry? I have heard that there are angels whose one assignment is to search out people who express their anger so ferociously and to send lightning bolts from heaven to burn them to a crisp.”

Malcolm was embarrassed. Heeding the warning of Pastor, on the next few holes, he managed to control himself. However, on the last three holes his putting failed him again. When the last putt veered off to the right just in front of the hole, Malcolm went crazy. “I missed!” he screamed. “How could I miss?” He broke his club across his knee and threw it as far as he could. He kicked up several large clumps of dirt on the edge of the green, and once more drove his fist into a nearby tree. Suddenly the sky grew dark as an ominous cloud passed over. There was a clap of thunder and an awesome burst of lightning-and the pastor was burned to a crisp! An eerie silence filled the golf course. All that could be heard was a voice from heaven saying: “I missed! How could I miss?” (Contributed by David Lansdown, SermonCentral PRO)

Today we are going to talk about an emotion that is really tough to understand - anger. Most of us have felt it. Most of us have been on the receiving end of it. Many people have an anger response when they are actually feeling something else. By that I mean that many people express things like hurt feelings or embarrassment with anger instead of showing their true feelings – especially us guys.

I don’t understand how anger can well up so quickly, often even against those whom we love. This message will consider anger from a few perspectives. First, is there such a thing as righteous anger? Or we could ask this question this way: Does God get angry? Secondly, what do the Scriptures teach us about expressing our anger? And finally, what’s the ultimate solution for folks that have a hard time dealing with anger?

In verse one of our text from Isaiah, we read: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me.” (Isaiah 12:1) Have you ever thought about God being angry? It is a frightening thought to think of a being that is all-powerful - God - expressing anger. Remember Moses at the burning bush? When Moses stubbornly refused to obey God, the Bible says this: “Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses.” (Exodus 4:14) Would you want to be in Moses’ shoes at that time? Not me!

God has the capacity to feel anger – a holy anger that is much different than ours. It’s an anger that is kindled by sin. It’s an anger that is fiercest when his people - the redeemed - pursue other gods. He is enraged when we forsake Him. When God told his people, “You shall have no other gods,” He also warned them: “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me…” (Exodus 20:5b) And when the Israelites trusted the Baals and put up pagan idols, God’s fury burned against them. He permitted trials and suffering to come into their lives. His wrath burned against their idolatry.

How about the most humble and meekest of servants – Jesus? Remember that day in the Temple? When Jesus saw God’s house being defiled, He was enraged. Jesus felt a holy anger because the things of God were reduced to cheap mercantilism. He took a scourge and overturned the tables of the money changers and drove people out of the temple.

God’s holiness is offended at idolatry and sinfulness and worship that is impure. It’s been that way from the time of Moses until today. When Jesus made a way for people to have a relationship with God through the Cross, people found another way to make God angry. In fact, one of the scariest verses in the entire Bible speaks of God’s wrath at the willful rejection of his mercy to us in Christ. The writer of Hebrews says:

“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-31)

Is there any doubt that the Lord's wrath is expressed against sin? Now, how about us? Do we have the right to be angry at other people? Because it is so clear from the scriptures that God becomes angry – sometimes incredibly so – it seems that sometimes people feel that getting angry is a privilege that we too should have. Doesn’t it seem that Christians often behave as if we think it is our duty to lash out at those who live contrary to our standards? And so we need to deal with the question: Is it OK to annihilate with our anger a person or a people who have dared to cross us?

No! The divine standard is so very different, beloved. Paul writes: “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.” (1 Timothy 2:8) James, the Apostle writes: “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” (James 1:19-20)

Where we would feel it is ok to rule with an iron fist and to let our wrath burn against people, God calls for just the opposite. He calls for meekness and doing good, even to those with whom we are angry. The Proverbs say: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.” (Proverbs 25:21-22)

This is what God requires of us. But it’s so hard for us to live this way! I cannot count the number of times that I’ve gotten angry over the silliest things. I imagine most of us have. We see it in the Gospel Lesson today as the older brother became inflamed and angry because his father forgave his younger prodigal brother. Anger is easy, forgiveness is not. Anger comes from our fallen, sinful nature. Which brings us to the third part of this message: What is the ultimate solution to our anger?

I will skip over the trite techniques and methods taught to control our anger response: count to 10 before saying anything; write a letter and express your rage at it then pretend to read it aloud to the person with whom you are angry. These methods are OK - but they deal with the symptoms of anger. I’d like to tell you what the scriptures teach about the solution.

Listen: When the anger passes, once we realize that we’ve exploded and hurt someone because we just wanted to get even or to get in our punches – there’s remorse. Rightfully so because the Spirit in us leads us to recognize that anger at other people is sin – no other way to slice it. Christ equated being angry at another person with murder. And so we feel guilty and sorry for ever having hurt others.

And so there, in our repentance, is where we begin to find answers. It is in God leading us to forgiveness through Christ that we find hope. Forgiveness and mercy and avoiding anger come from the Spirit of God living in us. It begins with God working a change on the inside that our anger response is truly addressed.

Isaiah’s word to us today begins by saying that God, even though He has all the reason in the world to be angry with us, sets aside his wrath: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me.” (Isaiah 12:1) God’s willingness to forgive and console us brings real peace and the solution to our anger. Listen to the rest of the Lesson: [Read the rest of the OT Lesson here: Isaiah 12:2-6]

What a beautiful picture of God’s love. Even though God was angry at our sin, his compassion caused Him to turn from it. More rightly said, God redirected his wrath at his only begotten Son. When the sin of the world was heaped upon Christ, every ounce of God’s anger was expended on Jesus. As Jesus became sin for us, God even turned his face from his Son so that He could turn toward us in love and forgiveness. And in this we find the beauty of Jesus’ work of salvation – He becomes the shield that keeps us from being toasted by God’s wrath. Jesus steps between us and a God that abhors sin. And instead of an angry God, we face a loving Savior. Can you see why Isaiah would say: “Sing praises to the LORD, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great I your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Isn’t that great news?

And so we come back to Malcolm, the angry golfer. Even though it’s a facetious little story, it sure communicates the sense of what really happened as Jesus hung on the Cross. God’s anger at our sin was directed at Christ. Our Savior took the punishment for our sin. The ‘lightning bolts of God’s wrath” struck Him. And as we receive this gift by faith - we are strengthened to live in love and peace instead of anger. And more importantly, in Christ we are forgiven – and become children of the Kingdom. Amen.