Anger Management
a sermon by John W. Wimberly, Jr.
Pastor, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
April 27, 2008

Text: Exodus 32:7-10 Mark 11:15-19

Anger has emerged as a theme in the 2008 presidential election.  John McCain’s legendary temper is being examined by journalists.  Barack Obama’s comments about a group of supposedly bitter Americans has received even more attention.  Some of the supporters of Senators Clinton and Obama are angry, threatening not to support the Democratic ticket if their candidate doesn’t get the nomination. 

All of this talk about anger is highly appropriate in a presidential campaign.  How a candidate reacts to anger directed at her or him is determinative of a leader’s success.  Reacting to public anger against his policies, Richard Nixon sought to punish those who opposed him.  Facing anger around the world over our Iraq policy, George Bush has chosen simply to ignore the anger.  In both cases, the inability of Presidents Nixon and Bush to process anger directed at them has resulted in a failed presidency and done great harm to the nation and the world.

How a politician handles his or her inner anger is also crucial.  It can be healthy or reveal a character weakness.  As he stood amidst the ruins of the World Trade Tower, President Bush expressed personal outrage at what he saw about him.  His healthy anger was representative of the outrage of an entire nation.  By verbalizing his anger, the President momentarily rallied us together as a nation.

President Clinton, whose temper is almost as legendary as Senator McCain’s, got angry when reporters and attorneys pressed him about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.  His finger-waving outbursts were the immature response of a guilty person.

In the presidential campaign, we need to watch closely how Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama react to anger directed at them and how they process their own anger.  Do they respond to anger with anger?  Do they help the public deal with our anger over various matters or do they attempt to exploit our anger for their own political gain? 

As is usually the case, what is true for our politicians is true for us.  How we respond to anger directed at us and how we respond to anger building within us is critical to living a faithful, healthy life.  Mismanaged anger can distort and untrack even the best of people.  If we do not learn how to get a grip on anger, anger will most definitely get a death grip on us. 

For 34 years, I have been watching my clergy colleagues closely, attempting to learn from them.  I think the best way to learn is to watch what people do, what happens when they do it, and then act accordingly.  I have tried to emulate colleagues who are successful while avoiding the mistakes of colleagues who crash and burn (and, sadly, the latter’s number is legion). 

Looking at what makes for a successful or unsuccessful pastorate, I find anger management to be crucial.  Congregations are oftentimes flash points for anger, especially in this highly competitive, angry, stressed out city. 

For example, a church member may be having a hard time at home or work.  They can’t allow their anger to explode in those environments.  The price for getting angry would be too high.  So they explode at church (The same phenomenon is visible in condo associations, PTA meetings, and charitable organizations where people blow up at odd times over unlikely issues.). 

When this happens in church, we have a wonderful opportunity.  To the extent a person’s anger and frustration are absorbed by the Body of Christ, it can be healing.  Certainly, we can’t allow ourselves to be abused by people with abusive tempers.  But the church can be a place where, rather than recoiling from anger, instinctively striking back at anger or isolating angry people, we attempt to help people understand and cope with their anger.  If the church can’t deal with angry people, who will?

As we help people with anger management, we have some wonderful biblical models, don’t we?  I have selected two for us to consider this morning.

The first case study involves God.  In chapter 32 of Exodus, we encounter a God whose ears have holy steam coming out of them.  Imagine how angry you are when someone cuts you off for the third time on the Beltway; how angry you are when your computer crashes; how angry you are when you call a company about a problem and can’t get a human voice with whom you can communicate.  Imagine all of that happening simultaneously and, since God is Infinite, multiply our anger an infinite number of times and we have the enraged, infuriated God on Mt. Sinai.

God was fuming mad because, while God was giving Moses the Law, the people made a golden calf and worshipped it.  Not smart.  Observing this ungrateful behavior, God shouted at Moses, “Get out of the way.  Stand aside.  Let me at them.  I want a piece of those ingrates right now.” Actually, God said, “My wrath will burn hot against them and I will consume them.”

In a classic example of pastoral counseling, Moses talked God down.  Calmly, speaking softly, Moses said, “God, remember how much you love these people, how you made promises to them?  Don’t you think it would be very Godlike of you to give them another chance?” As Moses spoke, God listened.  God’s anger morphed into God’s grace.

I adore what happened next.  It is really quite amusing.  Having calmed down God, Moses strolls down the mountain with the tablets on which are written the Ten Commandments.  No doubt he was feeling pretty good about himself.  After all, he had just caused God to change God’s mind. 

However, as he got close to the bottom of the mountain, he saw people dancing joyously around the golden calf.  Now it was Moses’ turn to lose it.  Moses threw the tablets at the people, smashing them into smithereens.  Moses then grabbed the calf and melted it down until there was nothing left.  So much for not letting our anger get the best of us.

There is nothing in the text about God’s immediate reaction to Moses’ anger.  But we can almost hear God chortling at the top of Mt. Sinai and saying, “Who needs to calm down now, Moses? I told you these people are irritating, aggravating and exasperating.”

By morning, Moses’ anger had dissipated (I have never understood the advice that we shouldn’t go to bed angry.  Sometimes it is the only way to cool off.).  Surveying the situation in the light of a new day, Moses decided to attempt a reconciliation between the people and God.  He switched from anger to problem solving.  It was a sacred transformation.

We find the second case study in our Gospel lesson where Mark records Jesus going ballistic in the Temple.  The source of Jesus’ anger was the commercialization and exploitation of the Temple by money changers.  Because regular currency was considered unclean, people had to buy Temple currency at exchange rates that created a handsome profit for the currency traders.  This had a particularly odious impact on poor people who wanted to do nothing more than make a sacrifice at the Temple. 

Clearly, Jesus had worked himself into a frenzy prior to entering the Temple.  Because when he entered the Temple’s sacred space, he didn’t look around to survey the situation, or ask the money changers to get out, or engage them in dialogue.  Instead, Jesus immediately charged the currency traders and began overturning their tables.  The man who proclaimed “Blessed are the meek” and “Blessed are the peacemakers” was anything but meek and peaceful in the Temple. 

Frankly, there are a few other times when Jesus’ temper got the best of him.  In words I am sure he regretted later, he called some of his opponents “hypocrites.” Another time, in other words I bet he regretted, Jesus blasted Peter calling him “Satan.”

So Jesus had a temper.  A real big temper.  A God-like temper.  For the most part, as in the Temple, it was an appropriately righteous anger.  However, at other times, like the God who sent him to earth, Jesus’ temper could get the best of him.  I don’t think he would recommend any of us calling our opponents “hypocrites.”

If anger can get the best of even the Almighty, it surely will get the best of you and me from time to time.  Therefore, it is extremely important to learn how God and Jesus responded to and managed their anger. 

God was never totally controlled by anger.  Even when enraged on Mt. Sinai, God remained open to Moses’ voice of reason, Moses’ voice of compassion.  In like manner, there is no indication that Jesus could stay angry.  He too found ways to quickly move from anger to reconciliation and action.

Therein lies a key for us.  It is one thing to get angry.  It is another to stay angry.  When anger controls us, we aren’t in control.  I have watched couples permanently destroy their relationships when they couldn’t shift gears from anger to love.  I have seen bosses lose the respect and trust of their employees when they began to manage with anger rather than wisdom.  History gives us countless examples of nations that disappeared because they allowed anger to define their body politic.

Whether our anger is appropriate or inappropriate, righteous or selfish, the value of its shelf life is very, very short.  We need to develop ways to move fairly quickly from anger to problem solving, from rage to reconciliation.  If we don’t, anger will eat us alive. 

We live in a very, very stressful moment in time.  Certainly, one of the most stressful in my lifetime.  And I fear that we are just beginning to see the tip of the anger iceberg that is drifting dangerously in the waters of our society.

Last week, I went to a meeting out in Brambleton on the other side of Dulles Airport.  The home where we met was in a development filled with homes built in the past couple of years.  Our host, a new church development pastor, said her home has lost $150,000 in value over the past year.  As I drove out of the development, I saw numerous foreclosure signs on the doors of homes.

The people in those houses, either foreclosed or devalued, are no doubt very angry.  They are angry at themselves, our financial system, and an unresponsive political system.  What are they doing with their anger—taking it out on their families, at work, at church, by voting against immigrants or drinking too much?  Or have they found a redemptive way to put their anger to work? 

There was an article in The Washington Post last week about McKeesport, Pennsylvania.  The town is in such a depression that average home prices there are $45,000.  Journalist Dana Milbank described a downtown that was literally collapsing.  Is it any wonder that folks there are angry and afraid? 

We have a lot of incredibly vulnerable people in this country right now: immigrants, legal and illegal, many of our soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with emotional and/or physical wounds, people who accumulated too much personal debt.  So many vulnerable people.  How we respond to their vulnerability and anger will shape the future of this nation.

During the Great Depression, our leaders didn’t exploit anger.  Rather, they pulled us together and put us to work, literally, building the future—parks, schools, roads, and bridges.  For more than half a century, we have enjoyed the fruits of that generation’s work. 

What will we do?  How will we handle our anger over high gas prices, escalating food costs, and declining home values?  How will we deal with the anger of others whose losses in this economy and society are worse than our own?  Will we turn against one another or turn to one another?  Will we build walls on the Mexican border and protectionist trade barriers in Congress or will we reach out to the world and invite them to help us build a just and sustainable world? 

If we follow the example set by God and Jesus, as we stew in our anger, we will listen to non-angry voices of reason and compassion.  Calmed down and turned around, we will walk away from anger and toward hope; the only road , after all, that leads to the Promised Land. 

Let us pray: Gracious God, our anger scares us.  The anger of others can scare us.  Help us as we find ways to respect anger but not dwell in it.  As we do so, may we more and more live and look like You, in whose sometimes angry, always loving image we are created.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.