2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Malachi 3:1-4
Canticle 16 (Luke 1:68-79)
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. By repenting, people turn their lives around and re-orient towards God. Through the forgiveness of sins, people can receive peace. Re-orienting towards God and finding peace seem like two good ways to prepare for Christmas, the arrival of Jesus, the prince of peace.
So, in order to illustrate how we might reorient ourselves towards God and find some peace, I’d like to share an email I was forwarded earlier this week. It was a joke email of a communication from a control tower to a couple of landing planes which read:
Tower: "Tower to Saudi Air 511 -- You are cleared to land eastbound on runway 9R."
Saudi Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be praised."
Tower: "Tower to Iran Air 711 --You are cleared to land westbound on runway 9R."
Iran Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R. - Allah is Great."
Pause...
Saudi Air: "ATLANTA ATC - ATLANTA ATC"
Tower: "Go ahead Saudi Air 511."
Saudi Air: "You have cleared both our aircrafts for the same runway going in opposite directions. We are on a collision course…instructions please.”
Tower: "Well bless your hearts, and praise Jesus. Y'all be careful now, and tell Allah "hey" for us."
I had a pretty dim view of the email when I read it and replied, asking the person not to send me emails like that again. I didn’t find it funny, and I thought advocating murder, especially in Jesus’ name to be rather deplorable.
Fortunately, this person wrote me back and we had a really good discussion about the email and the reasons for sending it in the first place. While this person would never actually advocate violence against anyone, he is still feeling angry and afraid after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We both assumed this person is not alone in feeling that way, angry for the attacks, afraid similar attacks might happen again, afraid for the lives of soldiers who are now fighting because of terrorists.
The killings at Fort Hood give us reasons to be angry. The increase in troop deployments gives some of us reasons to be afraid and for some, reasons to be angry. I’m guessing there are many who are living with anger and fear, if not because of 9/11, then because of something.
In light of such anger and fear, sending the email that I just read is not as horrible as I initially thought. Rather than seeking to incite violence, such an email is really a form of catharsis, of trying to let go of some anger and fear. We need outlets for our anger. We need outlets for our fear.
We even see such outlets in scripture. The last verse of Psalm 137 reads: "Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" (137:9) Psalm 137 is a lament psalm prayed during the time of Judah’s deportation to Babylon. Jerusalem had been destroyed, and we find in the beginning of the psalm that Israel’s captors were even taunting them saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 'Sing of how great Jerusalem is, being that we just destroyed it,' they said. So, in the midst of captivity, destruction, and torment, the Psalmist prayed, “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” Like email about the planes on the runway I read earlier, this too was an expression of anger and fear. The beauty of the Psalm is that it doesn’t deny the feelings of anger and fear, rather, it offers those feelings to God (who knows we feel that way already).
Who among us can honestly say we’ve never felt anger toward someone and even had some thoughts of wanting vengeance? At our best moments, we might not actually want to exact vengeance, but we still might feel that desire. God knows we have anger and fear and desires for vengeance, so offering our anger, fear, and desire vengeance to God is the best thing we can do with them. The idea is to be able to release the anger and fear by offering them to God, rather than acting with vengeance on those feelings.
The joke about the planes crashing into each other on the runway expresses a similar sentiment as the Psalm. People still have anger over 9/11 and fear about terrorist attacks. The challenge with the email for me is that it might serve to fuel anger and fear rather than to release them. Depending on who reads the email or how they read the email, it could provoke hatred rather than catharsis.
By offering our anger and fear and even hatred to God, we leave those feelings where we know they will be safe. As we know, God answers all prayers, he just doesn’t always say “yes”. Just because we ask God for vengeance doesn’t mean he’s going to oblige, or he does, it might not be in this life. God will bring justice. Our challenge is to trust him and to live lives of love and forgiveness rather than lives of fear and anger.
In addition to offering our anger and fear to God in prayer as a way of coming to a place of forgiveness and love, we’ll also find helpful coming to a place where we can have compassion and even pity on those who have wronged us. This includes pity for the terrorists. I don't know what a person's mindset or worldview must be to think that killing innocent people ("infidels" or not) is a good thing, but I pity the person who believes such a thing and I pity the person whose understanding of God fuels such a belief. That seems a very dark and disturbed way to love, how terrible. I don’t excuse what terrorists did or do, but I do pity them.
We have seen other examples of pity, forgiveness, and love where by all rights, there should be anger and vengeance. Anne Frank comes to mind. Held and killed in Nazi concentration camps, she should have hated her captors, and yet she didn’t. The Amish Community in Lancaster Pennsylvania who suffered shooting at their school back in 2006 should have been angry and vengeful against the man who killed their children, and yet they prayed for him and forgave.
In preparing for Jesus’ coming, John taught a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Letting go of our anger and fear, giving it to God, is a form of repentance. Giving our anger to God is a way of preparing the way of the Lord, making room in our hearts for Jesus to dwell. Repentance, preparing a way for Jesus, allows us to receive God’s forgiveness. Part of receiving God’s forgiveness is not only repenting, but also forgiving others. “For if you forgive others their trespasses,” Jesus said, “your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
We pray this every Sunday with the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” That’s a rather dangerous prayer. “Lord, if we don’t forgive others, please don’t forgive us.” “Lord, if we don’t repent of our anger and fear and offer them to you, please don’t forgive us.” Even when we’re justified in our anger, we’re asked to give it over to God. God can handle our anger. God can do what is right with our anger. We just get poisoned by our anger.
So, I leave us today with two passages from scripture which deal with anger and forgives. Think on these as we prepare for Jesus’ coming and seek to make peace in our hearts and a place for him to dwell.
From Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:
Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:26-27, 29-32)
And from Paul’s letter to the Colossians:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15)
May we all offer our anger and fear to God. May we all forgive, and may the peace of Christ rule in all our hearts. Amen.
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