The Good News: 

Ephesians 4:25-5:2 First Nations Version

We are all members of one body – one tribe – so we must speak truth and be honest with each other, leaving the path of falsehood far behind.

There are times when anger is the right thing, but do not let your anger turn into rage, for it will burn like a wildfire. Work things out before the sun sets that day, or the evil one may use it to burn up all the good things in your life.

There is no room for thieves on this sacred path. The ones among you who have stolen and taken what is not theirs must learn to do good, working hard with their hands. In this way they will not only have enough for themselves but also something to help others.

Keep a close watch over the words you speak, for our mouths can be full of worthless and empty talk that will bring death to others. Let your words be full of wisdom and goodwill that will give strength and bring healing to the ones who hear you. In this way, Creator’s holy spirit will not be grieved. For it is Creator who marks you as Creator’s own and keeps you safe for the day when all things will be complete. 

Let Creator pull the bitter roots from your heart, for they feed the rage and anger that takes you down a path of fighting, hurting, and speaking evil of your fellow human beings. Instead, show goodwill and kindness to others, by releasing them from the things they have done wrong. For this is what the Great Spirit, through the Chosen One, has done for you.

We must follow in the steps of the Great Spirit, for we are the Spirit’s much-loved children. Walk the path of love, following the path of the Chosen One, who loved us and offered up his life to the Great Spirit like the smoke of burning sage.

Reflection: “Transformative Anger”

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at the lectionary readings for August to decide what to use this Sunday. The readings from the Gospel of John this month are beautiful, familiar readings about Jesus as the bread of life but I was having a hard time finding a theme that felt appropriate to these times in our lives and in our world.

Then I found this passage from the letter to the Ephesians, with its great words of wisdom to a church struggling with identity and conflict. I have reflected on this passage before, in fact I used it here only 3 years ago, but it was speaking to me again. So I’m going to risk going back to this well, and especially to the theme of anger, because I’m willing to bet that none of us have completely solved our anger issues in the last 3 years! And, although it seems impossible, I believe that anger has intensified in that time in our country and around the world.

Our churches today certainly share some of the characteristics of the earliest churches hearing this sermon.  As Christ’s body in the world, we still follow that mysterious Jew from Palestine, and we are also challenged by the diversity within our churches and in the world around us. And, like them, we are surrounded and overwhelmed by a powerful Empire characterized by me-first consumer morality, military power, and huge gaps between the haves and have-nots,

Much of a minister’s life is a balancing act between pastoral and prophetic work, between caring for the people we serve and also pointing out where we can all do better. The writer of this letter begins with that second approach, and there’s no doubt that there’s a bit of a finger-waving scolding tone at first listen. It sounds even more negative in the NRSV than in the First Nations Version we used today.

Do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger, do not make room for the devil, give up stealing, no evil talk, do not grieve the Holy Spirit, put away all bitterness and wrath.  Is that what the first churches in the Roman Empire needed to hear as they struggled to stay together?  Is that what we need to hear today?

We know that most people don’t react well to being told what not to do.  Most of us respond better to loving encouragement than to commands or condemnation.  Let’s try to look beyond the scolding to what is really important in this set of rules, especially on that thorny topic of anger.

When I worked in public libraries, we used to keep a variety of office tools handy near the front counter including a heavy tape dispenser and a pair of scissors. Then I attended a workshop on work safety where it was pointed out that these items could be used as weapons and we should keep them where upset customers couldn’t reach them easily.  A helpful tool can also be used to wound. And so it is with anger.

The letter to the Ephesians doesn’t say “don’t be angry”, it doesn’t say throw away that tool.  Anger can give us the courage to speak and act in frightening or difficult circumstances.  The hard part is to control and guide it so that it does more good than harm.  Reading between the lines, it sounds like the early churches listening to this letter were having quite a bit of trouble with that. 

There is a well-known photo taken during a Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge in July 2016. The woman in the photo, a nurse from Pennsylvania named Leshia Evans, was attending her very first protest.  We can only imagine the anger that she and the black community felt at recently losing several young men to police violence, but in the photo as she faces arrest with strength and dignity we can see the exact moment when that anger is transformed into courage.

It takes that kind of courage to stand up to the violence of Empire, and it also takes that kind of courage to “speak to the truth to our neighbours.”  We are easily outraged by the racism of our neighbours to the south, and much less comfortable naming it in our own country and even our own church. Over the past few years, the United Church has been repeatedly called to account on this issue.

Paul Walfall, a black minister, had this to say several years ago at General Council:

I must confess that for the most part of the past week at General Council, I struggled with the feeling of being invisible. Invisible because in so many ways, I did not see myself, the experiences or cultures of those who like myself live in black or brown skins reflected in the corporate things we did in Council. It was almost as though we do not exist. 

Part of the problem may well be that you have not stopped to listen to our story. Had you dialogued with us about our experiences and taken us seriously when we speak of the pain we have experienced simply because we inhabit black or brown skins. 

If you had listened, then you would have heard the experience of the black minister who was told by his M&P (Ministry and Personnel) committee that he … take whatever the church gives because it was out of pity that they took him from his poor country to be with them in Canada.

You would have heard the story of the female minister who had the experience of members not shaking her hand at the end of the service because they did not want a black minister in the first place.

You would have heard the story of the black male minister who was called a “black boy who needs to be put in his place” by a member of a congregation. And there are many more stories I could add. 

These words were the catalyst for some serious reflection within the church resulting in an Anti-Racism Action Plan and an event every fall called “40 Days of Engagement on Anti-Racism”. These are only first steps, and we have a long way to go.

Paul Walfall suggested a way forward using the acronym ACT:  acknowledge, confront, transform.  Transforming the church requires naming the issue and the hurt it has caused, and listening and responding to the hard truths we need to hear. Anger is a useful tool especially at the stage of confronting the perpetrators. But if anger isn’t transformed into positive action, the wounds don’t heal.

The writer of the ancient sermon to the early church adds an important piece of wisdom for the church: he tells us not just how to act but why.

We speak the truth because we are part of the same body.

We give up stealing, so that we can earn enough to share with those who need it.

We watch what we say, so that we build others up instead of tearing them down.

And most important of all, we do all this because in Christ God has created and is still creating a completely new kind of community where we are all children of God.  

There is a beautiful story that came out of Charlottesville Virginia, shortly after the violent riots there several years ago. It is the story of one white nationalist leader, Ken Parker, who went to Charlottesville to spark a race war.  After the rally, he met Deeyah Khan who was filming the event for a documentary on hate groups, and was struck by her kindness when she asked if he was ok.  As he dialogued with her over the next few months, he began to question his beliefs. “She was completely respectful to me and my fiancée the whole time. And so that kind of got me thinking: She’s a really nice lady. Just because she’s got darker skin and believes in a different god than the god I believe in, why am I hating these people?”  

A few months later, he approached a black neighbour William McKinnon with some of his questions.  It turned out that McKinnon was a pastor, and after they had talked a few times he invited Parker to church on Easter Sunday.  Soon, Parker was testifying in front of a predominantly African-American congregation.  “I said I was a grand dragon of the KKK, and then the Klan wasn’t hateful enough for me, so I decided to become a Nazi — and a lot of them, their jaws about hit the floor and their eyes got real big.  But after the service, not a single one of them had anything negative to say. They’re all coming up and hugging me and shaking my hand, you know, building me up instead of tearing me down.”  By that summer, he was baptized.

This is a story of anger transformed.  Parker’s anger was transformed by relationships – with the filmmaker who reached out to him and listened to him with respect, with pastor McMillan and his congregation, and through them a new relationship with God.  Great injustice acknowledged and confronted, a man and a community transformed by the love of God expressed in the church, the body of Christ.

I wonder now how we might write similar stories about the things that spark our righteous anger today. How might we transform the anger that we feel over divisive political leaders, over the wanton killing in Gaza and Palestine, over the corporations and individuals that always place profit over the well-being of the earth and all the beloved beings that depend on her?

At the end of this morning’s passage, the writer turns from scolding to holding.  He reminds us that as God’s beloved children, we have the example of Jesus to show us how to imitate God.  

In his forgiveness, Jesus shows us God’s forgiveness and encourages us to forgive others.  In his kindness, he shows us God’s kindness and encourages us to be kind.  

And in his anger, Jesus shows us that anger transformed becomes courage, the courage to fight for justice and continue to work towards transformed lives and transformed communities.

So may it be in our lives, in the church, and in God’s whole hurting and beloved world.  Amen.