Loading...Sermon February 10, 2016
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27
Please be seated.
First of all, I’d like to welcome you to this Ash Wednesday service of the Newport Ministerium. I love when all of us come together. It is a joy that in the midst of our differences, we yet come together as Christians.
As you’ve probably heard, the theme for our series this year is Fasting From…and Taking On. We have prayer cubes for each of you with this theme. Did everyone get one? If you look at the back of your bulletin, you’ll see the schedule of services and the theme for each week. From next Wednesday through March 16, we’ll be at Incarnation United Church of Christ on 4th Street.
Tonight’s theme is Fasting from Anger and Hatred and Taking on the giving of an extra dose of love each day. In other languages there are many different words describing anger. There’s the anger or wrath of God – divine anger. There’s moral indignation at injustice, which we’ve heard in our readings this evening. The anger and hatred I’m talking about fasting from this evening is the individual human emotion of anger caused by hurt or stress. Yet, this idea of fasting from anger and hatred is confusing….
You see, the feelings we have in any situation just are. I know when I try to deny what I’m feeling I get into lots more trouble. I’ve found that the best thing to do is to feel what I feel and own it and acknowledge it. When I do that, the feeling doesn’t take over and completely rule my actions. When we’re angry, we’re angry. I believe the fasting from anger and hatred is about what we do with our anger.
That’s why in Ephesians we read, “Be angry but do not sin.” It’s what we do with our anger and hatred that we need to fast from. So how do we do that?
First of all, we need to even know when we’re angry. When we’re angry or feeling hatred, our whole body shifts. In fact the Hebrew word for anger is also the same word for nostril or nose. At one time the nose was believed to be the seat of anger. Think about it, often anger is depicted by a widening of the nostrils.
I remember one time talking to someone on the phone. All of a sudden, I could feel the heat traveling right up my esophagus. I told the person on the other end that I had heard their complaint and needed to think about it and would get back to them, but that I needed to get off the phone. My body was signaling anger and I knew if I stayed on that conversation, I’d start to say things I’d be sorry for saying. In order to fast from anger and hatred, we first need to know how anger and hatred reside in our physical bodies.
Secondly, in order to fast from anger and hatred, we need to spend a some time with our feelings. When I ended the phone conversation, I knew I was angry. In a private space, I started talking out loud, saying whatever came into my mind. I was spewing anger, releasing it, but not on anyone else…not hurting anyone or anything. That way of releasing my anger allowed me to see what was bothering me about my interaction with the person on the phone. And then, I was able to look at the situation from a different point of view. I was able to see what the person was trying to tell me and come up with a response to the situation.
Acknowledging when we’re angry, being in touch with how we are physically when we’re angry and then getting our anger out in a safe way are important, because then we’re more able to be loving and kind. We can “Be angry but do not sin.”
At the same time, I believe we can cultivate the ability to give more love to our families and to our friends. One possible way to be in a more loving place, I believe, is to practice gratitude. Waking up each morning or before going to sleep each night or both, we can list at least five things for which we are grateful. On a day like today, maybe we’re grateful that we didn’t lose power or didn’t have 2 feet of snow to shovel. I’m grateful to be here this evening and worshiping together.
We can give that extra dose of love to our families and friends by letting them know we are grateful for their presence in our lives.
And practicing gratitude even has health benefits. Look it up on WebMD. Research has shown that people who are grateful feel less stress and boost their immune systems! //www.webmd.com/women/features/gratitute-health-boost?page=1
This Lent season, let us acknowledge our anger and behave in ways that do not harm others or ourselves. Let us practice gratitude each day so we can take on the behavior of being more loving to our family and to our friends. Then we embody what the writer of Ephesians was encouraging us to do:
Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27
Amen
