Imitators of God Sermon by C. Richard Mills August 9, 2009 Psalm 130 Ephesians 4:25 5:2

Transcription

1 Imitators of God Sermon by C. Richard Mills August 9, 2009 Psalm 130 Ephesians 4:25 5:2 A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. They were Presbyterians. The wife said, You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don t have to wait as long to get our coffee. The husband said, You re in charge of the cooking around here so you should do it, and I can just wait for my coffee. The wife, being a good Presbyterian, responded, No you should do it because the Bible says that you should do it! The husband, also being a good Presbyterian, replied, Show me where in the Bible it says that the man makes the coffee! The wife fetched the family Bible, opened it to the New Testament and showed her husband the top of the page, that said: HEBREWS! Sometimes it seems like we Presbyterians just like a good fight it gives us something to do between Sunday morning services! In each and every church I have served as a pastor there have been fights over little things like the color of the new carpet in the sanctuary all the way to big things like the way we understand the Bible and how we treat our brothers and our sisters who are different from us We Presbyterians seem to be always fighting over something or other and other denominations seem to be doing the same thing! Some members of the First Presbyterian Church take a stand on something and a splinter group gets so angry they go off to start Second Presbyterian Church!

2 In a few years, the good folks over at Second Pres. get riled up over something else, and before you know it a splinter group is starting up Seventh Presbyterian Church! Just what s going on here? How does all this fighting and feuding effect the way other people perceive the Christian Church? Who would want to join up with a bunch of folks who seem to be so very angry with one another all the time? How have we gotten so very far from the Bible? But wait just a minute if we look closely, the Bible is full of anger and good fights! God got angry with Adam and Eve and cast them out of the Garden of Eden. Cain got angry with God for seeming to love Abel more. Abraham was terrified that God would allow him to sacrifice his only son. Jacob literally had to fight it out with God in a wrestling match at the river Jabbok. God got very angry with King David because of Dave s sin of rape, adultery and murder. Jesus himself got violently angry with the moneychangers in the temple and drove them out with a whip. If you read the Bible you will find all kinds of examples of anger and fighting. So why are we good Church folk so bad at expressing our own anger, and not so good at fighting fair?

3 Do we put on our Sunday morning faces and try to cover up any feelings of anger when we come together? People should not express anger in Church Good Church folk shouldn t fight. Is it any wonder that so many congregations just don t know how to express their anger in constructive ways how to fight fair so that the outcome is one that draws us together rather than splitting us apart? In each of the seven Presbyterian congregations in which I have been involved over my thirty-six years of ministry, there have been expressions of repressed and destructive anger that led to divisions and pain The preacher says something from the pulpit that makes me angry. But instead of telling the pastor about it talking to the preacher about how I feel and why I feel that way Instead of taking the risk of listening to why the minister feels the way they do I go home and nurse that anger in myself and I only talk to those who will agree with me and I refuse to even try to listen to someone with another point of view. Someone says something to me in church that makes me feel bad But because I do not want to hurt anyone s feelings I take my own hurt home and let it fester and never try to find out just what was meant by the remark and whether or not there might simply be a misunderstanding A church committee makes a decision with which I disagree and I get angry about it before I even try to go to the committee to talk about my differences or to try to find out just why the decision was made in the first place The Presbytery or the General Assembly takes a stand on an issue and I disagree but I do not go to my Presbytery or Assembly delegate to

4 try to better understand why the action was taken, or to become personally involved in the decision-making process so that things will change for the better I don t attempt to talk to and pray with those with whom I disagree I just get angry about the decision and let that anger fester until I begin to wonder whether or not I even want to be a Presbyterian any more. Perhaps we need to read again the wonderful words of the Apostle Paul, who wrote in Ephesians 4: Be angry but do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger Be angry, wrote Paul to the Church But do not sin! Anger itself is not a sin, it can be a constructive and a good thing but anger held beyond the setting of the sun is a sin! God s anger and the anger of Jesus Christ, is a good thing that can get our attention and bring us together and lead us to repentance and new life (That by the way is always the ultimate purpose of God s anger, and the anger of Jesus) But anger that is held and nurtured past sunset is an occasion for sin, and it leads to hatred and disunity and death. Therefore, writes Paul: Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up so that your words may give grace to those who hear Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and wrangling and slander and malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. And do it before it gets dark!! Good advice, don t you think! Psychologists are now saying that it is good for us to forgive others to let go of our own anger and forgive those who have hurt us

5 Medical journals are telling us that we will live longer and happier lives if we can just learn to deal constructively with our anger and use it to build up rather than to tear down So what s our problem? If Paul tells us that we must never let the sun go down on our anger and if the medical community assures us that we will live longer and healthier lives if we just learn to let go of our anger Why are so many of us still so very angry well past the setting of the sun? I have a theory I believe that angry folks are really way deep down angry with God They re angry because of something bad that has happened to them or to someone they love They re angry because life just is not fair angry that good people suffer and bad people don t It s very hard to be angry with God very scary because God is God and we are not God holds all the cards and we do not God s in charge and we are not So rather than express our anger to God we surpress it and swallow it and try to hide it And our pent-up anger comes out in all kinds of indirect and inappropriate ways. Usually on other people even the people we love the most or those we choose to lead. And ultimately our repressed anger eats away at ourselves! Frederick Buechner writes: Of the Seven Deadly sins anger is the

6 most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over the grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. (Wishful Thinking) And right here is where Jesus saves us from ourselves and from all our long-held anger Did you hear it there in Ephesians 4? Be imitators of God, as beloved children and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. God in Christ has forgiven us! God has forgiven you and God has forgiven me! Really! And it is that precious gift of loving forgiveness that leads us to new life, as imitators of God! Because we know that we have been forgiven we can openly express our anger to God fully confident that God loves us always even and especially at those times when we are angry with others with God! God loves us so much that God sent the Son to live and die for us! Because God loves us that much we are able to express our own anger in more healthy ways and receive God s forgiveness in Christ that leads us to changed lives! Look what the love of God can accomplish: Thieves must give up stealing rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.

7 This loving forgiveness of God through Christ not only changes the lives of thieves so that they no longer steal This love and forgiveness changes lives so completely that even thieves can now work with their own hands, not just to serve themselves and their own needs but also to share with the needy! And if this kind of love can change a thief so much as that just imagine how much this love can change you and me! Wow! Even our own anger can be put to good use! Remember all those folks with whom we disagree those people who make us so angry Christ died for them! Christ died for us all! And because God loves us all that much and because God sent Jesus into the world to save us sinners all of us We who turn to God confessing our own sin and seeking God s precious gift of loving forgiveness we are given the gift of new life changed life life able to both express anger in healthy ways and also able to work through differences together in Christ! We who are a part of the Church can continue to worship together, and study together, and talk to each other, and pray together We can learn how to better express our anger in loving ways when we disagree not in a secret dark place after sundown but openly and in the light of day thereby growing together into the Kingdom of God. We can learn how to speak the truth to one another in love not avoiding conflict, but openly moving through our disagreements using words and actions that build one another up gracefully not grieving the Holy Spirit of God Putting away all bitterness and wrath and wrangling and slander and malice

8 Being kind to one another tenderhearted forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven us! Be angry but do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger So that when others see us members of IPC on Padre Island they will say: See how much they love one another I want to become a part of that family! And I ll brew the coffee! Amen.