FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 21, May 22, 2008

Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, Ephesians 4:26.

Always Angry At The Right Time, Never At The Wrong Time

The Civil Rights movement was heating up in 1963. In April Martin Luther King, Jr. led a boycott of downtown Birmingham stores. During a march from Kelly Ingram Park in downtown Birmingham, Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor turned fire hoses and attack dogs on demonstrators, including young black children. MLK, along with hundreds of others, was put in jail and it was during his brief imprisonment that he wrote his famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail which served as his explanation to Birmingham clergy who wanted to know why he was stirring up trouble. Later that summer 250,000 marched in Washington D.C. from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial where MLK gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Just a few weeks later, on Sunday morning, September 15 four black children- Denise McNair, 11, Addie Mae Collins, 14, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14 were killed by a bomb blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham while they attended Sunday School. Robert Chambliss, a member of the KKK, was arrested, charged with murder and possessing 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On October 8 he was found not guilty of murder and fined $100 and sentenced to six months in jail for possession of the dynamite. In November, 1977 the State of Alabama retried Chambliss, finding him and the other three "Cahaba Boys" guilty of murder, sentencing them to life imprisonment.

And in Selma, AL where 15,000 blacks were of voting age, and only 130 were registered to vote, a voter registration drive was in process. In July, 1964 Sheriff Clark of Dallas County refused to allow blacks into the Courthouse. Judge James Hare issued a court injunction, forbidding more than two people to gather publicly to speak about civil rights. On February 18, 1965 young Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot by an Alabama State Trooper while defending his mother and grandmother during a demonstration in Marion, AL. He died eight days later of an infection from the gun shot wound. On March 7, 1965 Hosea Williams and John Lewis led a proposed march from Selma to Montgomery, protesting discrimination in voting. The six hundred marchers were met at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Highway 80, just outside of Selma, by Alabama State Troopers, mounted on horses, dispensing tear gas, and brandishing bull whips. The marchers were turned back. Two days later, 2500, including MLK and hundreds of ministers, gathered to make the march. They honored a restraining order by District Court Judge Frank Minis Johnson who was favorable to their cause. Finally, on March 21, 1965 led by King, Williams, and Lewis the marchers made their way for 54 miles, taking five days and four nights, to Montgomery. This galvanized the Civil Rights movement in America.

I am not unaware of charges of sexual impropriety concerning MLK, but he loved I Corinthians 13, believing that love was the only response to brutality and violence. By October, 1966 many blacks in America no longer held King’s confidence in "turning the other cheek". In Oakland Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton decided they had had enough and founded the Black Panther Party which rapidly spread its Marxist and Maoist ideology across the country. They were willing to use violence to get what they wanted. The Civil Rights movement was divided. Would it continue in non-violence or would it turn to anarchy and bloodshed? Both King and Seale were angry at injustice and discrimination. One, however, used his righteous anger for good, and the other for violence.

It may surprise you to hear that God commands you to be angry. Literally the text listed above, in the original Greek text, is a series of three present imperative verbs, literally meaning, "I command you to be angry, I command you not to sin, I command you not to allow the sun to go down on your anger." God Himself is prone to anger. He is angry with Solomon for going after the false gods of his foreign wives and concubines. I Kings 11:1ff. He is a consuming fire, who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, Hebrews 12:29, Exodus 34:7. And Jesus was angry at times. Psalm 2:12, Mark 3:5. And Moses was angry with Israel for making the golden calf. Exodus 32:19. What defines righteous and unrighteous anger? We see the answer in what angers the Father, Son, and their servant Moses. It is anything which smacks of idolatry, anything which detracts from the kingdom of God. We are to live for, champion kingdom principles in our world. Amos, preaching in a time of untold wealth, gained largely on the backs of the poor and oppressed, prays that justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream, Amos 5:24. Micah says that God requires us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. Micah 6:8.

In other words to be angry at the wrong time means you are upset because things did not go your way. Your anger at the inept store clerk, the lousy driver in front of you, and your wife because she nags you are not legitimate expressions of anger. They are motivated by selfishness, maintaining your own little kingdom. Righteous anger, on the other hand, is motivated by kingdom principles of holiness, justice, mercy, love, and righteousness. It means coming to the aid of the oppressed, the weak and defenseless, the widow, and the orphan. It means speaking for a fellow worker being unfairly treated, being incensed at the injustice of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide. It means speaking out against the Chinese government which regularly practices human rights violations on her people, including many of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It means speaking out against the genocide of the Sudanese government. It means demanding justice in the corporate world of WorldCom and Enron.

Neither righteous nor unrighteous anger is to remain long. You are not to allow the sun to go down on your anger. With your unrighteous anger- just repent. See it for what it is- pride and selfishness. And your righteous anger ought to move you to do something constructive, to move you to live by and call others to live by the kingdom values of justice, mercy, and righteousness. Unrighteous anger leads to feelings of hurt, bringing you to vindictiveness, violence, fear, and anxiety. It is motivated by self-exaltation. Righteous anger, on the other hand, leads you to work for justice and this will always cost you something. This is self-execution. Many will wonder why you are sticking your nose into someone else’s problem. Many will want you to mind your own business, but the Christian who understands justice and righteousness, who sees the little guy being hurt and abused, must do something about it. His sense of justice will not allow him to remain silent.

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

If you would like to add your, or someone else’s, name to the list to receive this weekly devotional (or be removed from it), please contact us at admin@christcpc.org.