Saturday, October 13, 2001
Saturday, October 13, 2001
For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor
perish forever.
Wisdom comes from learning what to be angry about. Our New Testament helps us,
for the
Biblical Greek has two different words for anger. The first is orge, often translated as
"wrath."
This is anger which comes from moral umbrage. In scripture this is the anger which
Jesus
expressed. He got angry not so much at what was done to him, but what was done to
others.
Orge is ethically based anger. The other Biblical word for anger is thumos. This is
anger for
anger's sake. It's the kind of flare-up anger exhibited by Jesus' enemies.
When we get angry, as we all do, we might consider what our anger is all about. Are
we angry
about injustice toward the defenseless, or are we angry that someone took the last soft
drink out
of the refrigerator? Are we angry because children are starving in Ethiopia--or because
someone
got our seat in church? Ladies and gentlemen, having someone take the last soft drink,
or cutting
in front of us on the highway or getting our seat in church is not orge; this is thumos . . .
anger
which is downright silly! It is a sign of our sinfulness that we get worked up about
inconveniences, yet can remain impassive to real problems.
(Psalm 9:18
NRSV)
Robert Fulghum tells of working at a resort hotel. After a week of frustration he had it
out with
his manager. After listening to Fulghum's fuming, the manager said, "Listen Fulghum,
you don't
know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck,
if you
have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else
is
inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Learn to separate inconvenience from problems.
You'll live
longer.
Dear God, help me to replace the inconvenient anger in my life with your calling to help
those in
need. Amen.
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