Sunday
09/02/18 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow
to anger”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9
New Testament
Scripture: James 1:17-27
Gospel Lesson: Mark
7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Welcome again my friends, my brothers and sisters in
Christ, on this our Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Also, happy September!
I want to tell you a story. So about 10-years ago, I was a
Family Case Worker in Tompkins County. During my nearly 4-years in this job, I
worked with at risk boys and their families. As you can imagine, some of the
kids that I worked with had anger issues. Due to this, I would sometimes sign-up
some of these young men up for anger management training.
I remember picking up from school one day, one of these
kids who had real anger management issues. When he got into my car, I asked him
how his day was, and then I told him that I had signed him up for anger
management classes.
Well he immediately got furious and started screaming. He
then said, “you know what you signed me up for anger management classes and
that really ticks me off! I am angry at you!” See the irony in what he said?
There used to be a clothing store chain called Steve and
Barry’s. When I was in the store one day, there was a t-shirt that said, “My
anger management class ticks me off”. I decided to get him this t-shirt as a
little anger management class graduation gift. It was pretty funny when I gave
it to him.
How many of us here have ever struggled with anger? How
many of us have just lost our cool at times? Have any of you here ever pulled a
Ralph Kramden, and said, “To the moon Alice!” (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Honeymooners).
I could give you a couple of Archie Bunker quotes to, but after all we are in
church.
Anger, rage, frustration, I think if we are honest, we can all
say that we have had all of these at times. For example, does anyone here have “road
rage” when you drive? Does it frustrate you when people are driving to slow, or
when they cut you off in traffic?
Or maybe it’s that thing that your friend, your wife, or your
husband does all the time. You know that thing that you have told them over and
over that bugs you, but they do it anyway. Anger, rage, frustration.
Well, do pastors ever get angry? Never! Of course we do, we
have our moments to! In fact about a week and a half ago I had a day. You know,
a day! So Melissa was at the state fair leading Tioga County 4-H, and I was by
myself for about a week. I being by myself might have been the first problem.
On this day, it seemed like that as soon as my feet hit the
floor that everything just went wrong. After all the debacles that I had that
day, I decided to go visit some folks at the Oxford Veterans Home. Well, before
I left, I ate a sandwich with a little barbeque sauce on it.
I went into the Veteran’s Home and as I was going through
to do my visits, I had a couple weird looks or glances at me. When I got back
into my car afterwards, I thought to myself, “why were some people looking at
me a little different?” So I flipped my rearview mirror down, and decided to
take a “looksee” at myself. Right then I noticed a fairly long streak of
barbeque sauce on my shirt. Well, that answers that I thought!
So then I decided to head home to the parsonage. It was
about 4:30-5:00 pm. I got out of the car, and shut the door. I then went to
reach into my pocket to grab my car keys, only to discover that they were still
in my locked car. This then gave me the opportunity to invite Sidney Police
Department officer Christopher Dionne and another officer over to the parsonage
garage with a “slim-jim” to get into my car to get my keys. At this point the
head of our Tri-Town Nursery School Program showed up, and was looking at the
fact that a Sidney Police Department SUV and two officers were in the parsonage
garage. So I did what any responsible minister would do, and I stuck my head
out the garage and told Kelly that the two officers had never broken into a
minister’s car before, and wanted to give it shot! I then explained of course that
I locked my keys in my car.
So, now I have my keys, and I then go to the pastor’s
office in the church, and I finish up my work for the day. I then go home, and
am greeted by our dog Mylee, who jumped on my like a New York Giants linebacker.
After this, I got the mail. In the mail, we had a Spectrum
bill from our previous parsonage about almost $500 dollars. I called, I was put
on hold, then put on hold, and then put on hold. Did I mention I was put on
hold? One manager was called, and there manager was called, and I even think
there manager was called. I remember thinking, “No wonder our cable costs so
much”. After all of this, the person on the phone said, “we’re so sorry, this
was a mix up, you are in fact all paid up as you said”.
Well, it was now about 8:30-9:00 pm. I sat in my recliner
and just looked at the wall for about 5-10 minutes. I felt angry, frustrated,
exhausted. Melissa then messaged me and said, “Hey Paul how was your day?” I
said, “Melissa it was great!” I told her what happened of course!
My sermon title for this morning is taken directly from our
Book of James reading. In this reading, the scripture says:
“You must understand this, my beloved: let
everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger”
(Jas. 1:19, NRSV).
So again, “let everyone be quick to
listen, slow to speak, slow to anger”. I wonder if Ralph Kramden and Archie
Bunker just didn’t get the memo? We are supposed to be, according to the Bible,
slow to anger. How many of us have had times therefore, where were slow to
listen, quick to speak, and quick to anger?
Let’s look again at this scripture for
this morning from the Book of James. It says once again:
“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect
gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is
no variation or shadow due to change. In
fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that
we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures” (Jas.
1:17-18, NRSV).
“Everything that we do, every gift
and every talent that we have, is from God. Or as this scripture says, “the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17b,
NRSV).
The scripture then continues on saying:
“You must understand this, my beloved: let
everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does
not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and
rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that
has the power to save your souls” (Jas. 1:19-21,
NRSV).
Anger then, can be destructive, and
according to the scripture, it “does not produce God’s righteousness” (Jas.
1:20, NRSV).
I do think that when we feel angry,
that if we catch ourselves, if we pray, if we turn to God, before we say, “To
the moon Alice!,” then that is just being human. It is trying to live our
faith. I also think that getting angry is just part of being human to. Our goal
as Christians though, with God’s help, is to try to overcome anger. To allow
ourselves to be filled or sanctified by God, to the extent that the amount that
we get angry becomes less and less and less.
Can God help us with our anger? I
believe that he can, and scriptures attest to this fact.
The
reading for this morning from the Book of James lastly says:
“But be doers of the word, and not merely
hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not
doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves
and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look
into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who
forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing”.
“If any think they are religious, and do
not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care
for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the
world”
(Jas. 1:22-27,
NRSV).
James is saying, if we look the part,
if we say the right thing, but really are not changed, then we are just fooling
ourselves.
So about that bad day that I had a
week and half ago. Did I blow my top after being on hold with Spectrum for a
long time? Did everything else from that day make me explode? Well, I didn’t
explode, but I bet you 5-10 years ago I would have. I would have been angry and
lashed out, but in that moment, I thought and I prayed. I realized that Jesus Christ
has called me to a greater purpose than being angry or aggressive. Like you
though, I struggle with this sometimes to.
In a society that is continuingly growing
more and more secular, and where we are told that we can do anything we want,
would that not include being angry. If people believe that there is no God,
what is preventing or stopping their anger and their wrath? If anger feels
good, then just be angry our society might say. Satan is devoid of God and God’s
love, which is why he is full of anger and wrath.
The solution to our anger, our wrath,
our fill in the blank, is the love of God through Jesus Christ. The love that
God has for us, through Jesus Christ, and this love that we share and live out
with others. If we are not accountable to God, and if we have nothing keeping
our anger and our wrath in check, well take a look at everything that is going
on in our world today. How’s that working out?
Now don’t get me wrong, there are many
other reasons that we have all of the problems in the world that we have today,
but how many of you can honestly say that you are a better man, or a better
woman, because of the faith in God you have through Jesus Christ?
I have met people that have said me, “pastor
I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have faith in God”.
God calls us to be:
“be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger”
(Jas. 1:19, NRSV).
I haven’t gotten this perfect yet, but
God has been working in me, and I am much better with this than I used to be.
This has made me a better man, a better husband, a better pastor, and much
calmer when my Fantasy Football Team loses.
In briefly looking at our Gospel of
Mark reading for this morning, the connections to our Book James reading for
this morning are significant. You see in the Book of James, we hear that the
outward appearance matters not, if we don’t live up to what we think people
see. If people think we are good, honest, and not angry, and we are, we not
only deceive God, but ourselves. What good is that?
In the gospel lesson this morning,
Jesus is intentionally eating with unwashed dirty hands (Mk. 7:1-2, NRSV).
Washing your hands and body in general is part of the Jewish law and religious
teaching (Mk. 7:1-4, NRSV). Essentially then, you must do certain things to
look and be presented as holy.
Jesus then replies by basically
saying, if my hands and my body are clean, but my heart and my soul is dirty,
then what good is it that my hands are clean (Mk. 7:21-23).
The point is, is that God sees the
real person that we are. He knows all of our spots and our warts. If we are not
angry or wrathful in public, but are so at home or in other places, do we think
that we fooling God? May we be:
“be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger”
(Jas. 1:19, NRSV). Amen.
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