Night Travelers: Naming and Holding the Fire of Anger

So I've got three simple invitations for you this week related to anger as we are night travelers together. Number one is to name it. Stop suppressing it. Don't say you're frustrated or you're fine. Name it. I feel angry. Why don't you say that with Let's practice that. Ready? I feel angry. You do say more. Name it. Number two, ask it, interrogate it. What is this anger pointing to? What is it trying to protect? Number three, hold it. Don't act on it immediately. Don't suppress it. Use it as information. Information is what? Power. Hold it. Notice it. The central question again, I go back to it, is what if the anger isn't the problem? What if it's just the signal? [01:02:28] (72 seconds)  #NameAskHold

You see, Paul is saying anger is a given if you're a human. It's what comes next that matters. See, there's a space between our human emotions and the actions that we do related to those emotions. There is a space. I'll call it a sacred space between the feeling and the action, and that space means everything. That's the space where we can decide how we will respond. Confusing this human emotion of anger with sin has done damage in the church. It's taught good Christian people to keep their voice down when they see injustice or when they know they've been treated poorly. I would say this is especially true for marginalized people in the church. [00:48:42] (54 seconds)  #RespondDontReact

Now, did Moses handle his anger perfectly? Probably not. It does seem a little temper tantrum y. Is that is that a word? Temper tantrum y, doesn't it? But his anger wasn't the problem. What he did with that anger, kaboom, that was his toothbrush moment. His emotion was real and understandable. His behavior is maybe where it went wrong. And that's kind of the line we're walking in this series between the emotion and the response. The emotion isn't the sin, the toothbrush is, and learning the difference between the two, that holy sacred space where we can choose our response, where we can respond instead of react. [00:58:06] (55 seconds)  #ChooseYourResponse

From a loving God to the people of the covenant, these words written by hand, by God, sacred and holy, and the people no longer deserve it. His rage is grief. His fury is love. And he doesn't throw the tablets down because he doesn't care. He throws them down because his anger signals something sacred has been desecrated. Something that I've staked my whole life on has been mocked. And this anger becomes fuel for the next great thing that Moses does returning back up the mountain, spending more time with God, and another set of tablets. [00:57:16] (50 seconds)  #AngerSignalsSacred

And sometimes we minimize that. We don't like to think about God as an angry God, but the scriptures say it pretty clearly, the anger of the Lord burned hot. We read together. God threatens to Moses to consume the entirety of the people of Israel to start over with Moses and Moses alone. But think about the emotion under God's anger. Why was God angry? Because God loved the people so desperately. These people that God called from Egypt parted the Red Sea, poured down manna from heaven, a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. God loves the people so much, and God is heartbroken that they have turned from God and built a stupid calf. [00:54:25] (57 seconds)  #DivineLoveAndAnger

You don't feel fine all the time. It's not always fine when you see things happening around you that just aren't right. Pretending it's fine doesn't make it so. It simply disconnects the alarm while the burning of the building continues. Now, in the story we read a moment ago from the book of Exodus, nobody's pretending in that story, are they? Moses is up on the mountain, he's been up there for a long time, where he's encountering the very presence of God. There's thunder, and there's an encounter that's holy and sacred. God inscribes the 10 commandments on these tablets of stone. The people get restless down below. [00:50:39] (46 seconds)  #DontPretendItsFine

Now, underneath this anger that people are feeling, is there anything underneath that anger? You think there's some fear? Yes. Maybe some grief. They've left behind all that they knew in Egypt. Maybe they feel abandoned, and their anger covers the more tender feelings underneath. We are afraid we've been left and we don't know how to survive. Brene Brown researches human emotions. I've mentioned her a time or two. If you've been around, you've maybe heard me mention her. She says that anger is usually a secondary emotion. Anger is usually a secondary emotion that it covers the more tender, softer emotions underneath like hurt, like fear, like grief, like betrayal. [00:52:23] (58 seconds)  #AngerIsSecondary

Go now as night travelers not fleeing the darkness within you, but carrying it gently like a lantern into the world. The God who met Moses in the fire, Hagar in the wilderness, Jacob in the dark, and Esther in her fear, that same God goes with you. You do not have to have it all resolved to walk forward. Walk anyway, and may the light you find in the turning illuminate not only your own path, but the way home for someone who is still afraid to look. Go in peace. Amen. [01:20:40] (36 seconds)  #CarryTheLantern