The Angry Christian Dilemma

    So I have attempted to write a post when something in the world moved me to post an important opinion. Lately, and by lately I mean the last several months, I have been far too angry at politicians, religious leadership, and in some of the things I hear coming from my own congregation to write a post without it coming off as me “yelling at heathens”. That is my problem i find myself too angry to write something that doesn't come across as finger wagging. I find myself and an ANGRY CHRISTIAN - 

    For Palm Sunday I challenged myself to write a dramatic piece for service instead of a regular sermon. I found myself writing from the view point of two disciples watching Jesus as he goes through the day of Palm Sunday. As I characterized these two disciples I found myself pealing back the layers of the two very distinct sides of my own heart.

    First we have Andrew, who heard Christ’s call to humility and service. Seeing Christ as humbling; riding on an ass, healing the sickest in the community, and calling for the children to come and listen. Clearly as a youth director I like the last bit the most but it all comes down to service. A King who made himself a slave for the sake of the world. My heart yearns to be that kind of servant. One who gives all that he has for the sake of the world, and for no greater goal than to make the world better with nothing more than my actions and heart. Yet what Andrew missed was a great fire inside him. He didn’t dare take any radical action, to say or do anything that might alienate anyone in anyway. For lack of better words, this side of my heart is kind of a wimp.

    Second we have Peter, you might now him as the man who cut off a roman centurion’s ear in the garden of Gethsemane.  He was on the “road to revolution” bandwagon. You might even say he was the one who was driving it. He wanted a KINGDOM for Jesus and not just a church to rise around him. He wanted to fight and over turn what he saw as a corrupt church and government. He wanted radical action for a radical leader like Jesus. He was ready to take drastic measures no matter the cost; who it hurt, who would die, what would be the consequence. This is why when I wrote about Peter he was most excited when Jesus TOSSED TABLES and WHIPPED BANKERS. He saw people manipulating the faith for personal gain and want to burn those responsible to the ground. This side of my heart is HUNGER for action, and to invoke change in a very real way in the world! This side of my heart wants Preachers who ask their congregations for Multimillion dollar jets to be dragged into the street and flogged. This side of my heart wants politicians who say when a woman has her baby cut from her womb that is was “God’s wrath for allowing abortions in America” to be publicly stoned for their ridiculous blasphemy.  I want most of the Indiana house of representatives to realize they are not CHRISTIANS. They are, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, fearful hate filled bigots that remind me of what a human would look like if God made us from SNAKE SHIT instead of mud. 

     So I look at these two disciples that I found inside my own heart and have only one questions. Can I be an ANGRY CHRISTIAN? Can I be a follower of Christ, a follower who is called to preach the gospel at all times, forgive abundantly, love joyfully, live hopefully, and serve endlessly? Can I be Angry with those who take the word of God and distort it to be used as a tool of discrimination, those who use the joy God gives as a wealth acquiring industry, or worst of all saying that when horrendous things happen it is God’s perfect justice?

So here I kneel, on the wrong side of the cross, and I look to my lord and a pray. Dear savior let my heart be ever focused on your service. Let my words be as light, shining into the dark places of the world bringing encouragement, hope, and safety. Let my actions reflect those of the lamb whom sacrificed everything for this world. Let me learn patients when I see your love being twisted. Patients to help those who are more confused than encouraged. Patients to walk the gospel journey and not just preach it. Patients to wait upon the lord.  When all of my words fall on the rocks and break, let me take heart in the words from Galatians 6. 1Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5for each one should carry their own load.6Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

As I speak to my God, who is a paradox, I find understanding in the paradox of my heart. That I should be set on fire and passionately live an outspoken gospel, while making sure my actions match my beliefs. I can be an angry Christian. Christ was outraged in Matt. 21:12-13 I can be outraged when people use God to make money in illegitimate ways, but it is more important to remember the next moment in Matt21:14-16 that while he was Tossing tables of the greedy and wicked, he turned to those who need healing and cured them. The children who cried out hosanna were a blessing and not a nuisance but the most joyous of praise. For my wrath will never turn a human heart but will only allow myself to be tempted. For if someone is preaching an impostors gospel they only deceive themselves. God cannot be mocked and men reap what they sow. I have to SOW love, joy, peace, patients, and let God’s spirit correct those who have strayed from his path. I can be angry, but I should never let that anger control me. So to answer the question that started these ramblings, NO, I cannot be an angry Christian. An angry Christian is someone who allows their emotions to control them and not the holy spirit. Yet I can, and actively find myself, a Christian who gets angry, but as Galatians reminds me, that is my load to carry and not a burden to put on others. We have to remember above all the Hate we see, above all the greed, above all the bigotry, we must correct this world GENTLY. We reap what we sow, what have you been sowing?

Let your words be LIGHT – shining in the darkness.