The Furies: Responding to Perceived Wrongs
We have been looking at the “Seven Deadly Sins” during this period of Lent and it has sometimes been an uncomfortable journey. I know that I have sometimes seen myself and my own life reflected in the examples that have been shared in the past few weeks. I have thought about ways in which I might change my life to address those… particularly the complacency with which I sometimes accept the pride… the envy… the greed… and other evils that surround and invade my world. For those who have been particularly troubled by these messages, I invite you to come and speak with me about them. I have no meetings scheduled on my calendar on Monday, Thursday or Friday this week. While I cannot predict any pastoral care needs that may arise, I plan to be in my office on those days.
Today, we continue our study of the “Seven Deadly Sins”… not because there is any place in the Bible that lists these sins as the “Seven Deadly Sins,” but because our scriptures speak out powerfully against them in so many places that the early church thought it wise to consolidate those teachings into a list that people could remember. The value of list is not the focus that we give to the study of the sins, but the recognition of the many ways in which we… as a people of God… can and do offend our God in our daily lives… both by what we do and by what we choose not to do.
Today’s sin, wrath, has many names: anger… rage… fury… indignation. It is one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” not because anger as a feeling is always a sin, but because anger can be selfishly motivated and unleash a passion that is often uncontrolled. The examples we have of anger or wrath in the Bible are… almost without exception… the wrath of God in judgment of sin. The word “wrath” appears 211 times in scripture and the word “anger” appears 261 times. Virtually all of these are examples of God sitting in judgment of perceived wrongs of society… or of God’s people. God gave many warnings of what might stir God’s wrath. After giving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, the Book of Exodus records numerous warnings of how those Commandments are to be interpreted… together with what God might do if those warning are ignored. For example, it says, “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.” In Deuteronomy, we read that, as punishment for worshipping other gods, “The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is now the case." In Psalm 7, it says, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day. If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow; he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.” Even in the New Testament, these warnings continue. The Gospel of John tells us that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath.
The remaining verses that mention “wrath” or “anger” are a caution to us… as God’s people… to keep our own anger in check. The Epistle of James, for example, says “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.” Webster defines anger as “excessive emotion or passion aroused by a sense of injury or wrong.” This injury or wrong that provokes our wrath may be something that was done to us or to someone else by another party. But when that anger is unleashed from one human being to another, it almost never results in a positive outcome. From the parent who strikes a child in anger… or a friend who fabricates a vindictive tale about another through gossip… to vigilantes who murder people in the name of justice or religion, the damage done by anger unleashed destroys lives. And even the Bible is not exempt from such examples. From Moses’ anger against the people of God worshipping the golden calf that caused him to destroy the precious tablets of the Law that God had given to him on Mount Sinai to the anger of the mob that demanded Jesus’ crucifixion, uncontrolled anger leads to actions that people later regret. Both the Old and New Testaments are filled with examples of humans being behaving badly because of their anger.
The example of the life we are supposed to lead is the example that Jesus gave in his life and in his ministry. Jesus experienced anger many times during his years of ministry, but only once did he seem to resort to violence to correct a wrong… and that was in the cleansing of the Temple… for nothing offended him more than the disrespect shown to God by human beings. More often, Jesus’ response in a situation that inflamed his own anger was as we see it in the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark. “Then he said to [the Pharisees] , "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent.” He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” By far, Jesus’ most challenging example of dealing with a perceived wrong was given in his Sermon on the Mount, where he said, “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
You will find, as I did when I studied the scriptures, that Jesus never told his disciples to chastise or rebuke anyone. The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, is another story. But, even as Paul encouraged the faithful to rebuke those who had sinned, he cautioned against our human judgment of others. Because anger is a response to a perceived wrong, there is an element of judgment that is a part of every angry exchange. While God’s righteous anger is visited upon human beings to correct perceived wrongs of society, we, as humans are not encouraged to visit that wrath upon each other. In his epistle to the Romans, for example, Paul writes, “Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things… For [God] will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.” And later, he says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Roman mythology had three goddesses of vengeance whom they collectively called “The Furies.” Tisiphone was the avenger of murder, Megaera was the jealous one, and Alecto was the Fury of constant or unceasing anger. As judge, jury and executioner, the Furies would punish all those who committed a crime… particularly crimes that broke patterns or rules concerning all aspects of society… and they did it without mercy. From their name, we derive the words furious and infuriated. While these ugly goddesses… with snakes for hair… thought they were doing good by enforcing the rules of society, in truth, their actions often created worse problems than the problems they were trying to correct.
When we allow our anger to control us… by holding a grudge against another… by letting our tongues pour words of anger and wrath on another… or by seeking revenge for a perceived wrong… we allow sin into our lives. There may be times when we, as Christians, believe that we are speaking the truth in love, but it is at those times when we most need to examine our own motivations for our speech… making sure that we have taken the log out of our own eye before we attempt to take the speck out of our neighbor’s eye… as Jesus cautioned in his Sermon on the Mount.
Let me close by saying that, if any of these sins were simple to deal with, we would not even be addressing them. It is because they appear so often in scripture… as warnings from God… and as examples of not living in Christ… that we know we must struggle with them daily. In our text today, the Apostle Paul tells us, “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Anger is one example of something that can sneak up on us unexpectedly, grab us suddenly and twist our ability to truly love each other in the way in which Jesus taught us to love. A supreme example of that love is God’s invitation to the Table today. We come… not because we are perfect, but because we are invited… not because we are right, but because we are forgiven… not because we are deserving, but because God loves us. Our challenge each day is to show that love to others. Amen.
Ephesians 4:20-32