This sermon was proclaimed in the community of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Taylorsville, UT on March 3, 2024 the Third Sunday in Lent. You are encouraged to view it on our Facebook or YouTube. The texts were: Exodus 20: 1-17, Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25 and John 2: 13-22.
Young Friends Message: I love rocks. I used to collect them as a child. My grandpa had a rock polisher and when I would visit we would go down to the beach and collect cool rocks that he would polish up for me. One time he even set one as a necklace pendant. Rocks are beautiful, aren’t they? What do we use rocks for? We use rocks to build, in our yards instead of grass, big rocks hold back dirt on hills, etc. All good things! And can rocks be harmful if used that way? Yep, if we throw them at something or someone, we can do a lot of damage can’t we. Even accidentally. Rocks are neither good nor bad themselves it’s how they’re used. I was thinking about this in our bible stories today. Our first story was about the 10 Commandments. Have you heard of the Ten Commandments? 1) Have no other gods beside God, 2) Do not misuse God’s name 3) Keep sabbath day-rest, 4) honor your father and mother 5) do not murder, 6) do not steal 7) do not commit adultery, 8) do not bear false witness-don’t lie about someone 9) do not covet, be jealous of someone’s wife, husband 10) do not covet, be jealous of someone else’s stuff.
That’s a lot! And I think there’s a word in there that can help us sum up all of these commandments: misuse. God doesn’t want us to take ourselves, or God’s name, or anything or anyone that God has created as good and misuse them. Jesus saw the people misusing the animals and God’s house, the Temple and got mad. Getting mad about people being misused is ok! We need to use what God has given us to make the world good for everyone. So whenever you think about using anything, ask “will this be good for me and someone else?” If not, use it differently! In the back I have rocks that you can decorate and put in your room, your yard, or as surprises in your neighborhood to get someone’s attention about God’s love.
There are a few iterations of a quote I think of often, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”[1] Well, I’m outraged, so maybe I’m paying attention. Over what you ask? Oh, so much, my friends, so much. Anger is a “go-to” emotion for me and has been since birth. However, I was raised with some very specific parameters on anger and maybe you were too. I was told things like “now temper, temper,” or “You can’t be angry,” or “don’t be mad.” I was taught that anger isn’t ok, isn’t acceptable, never to be expressed, and just plain wrong, especially for a girl. I spent and still spend, much time beating myself up for feeling angry. And when I do express anger, people who were also told that anger is wrong (most of us), quickly become uncomfortable and demand that I stop being angry. Just calm down. Yeah, that works.
Anger is a forbidden emotion in our society and our American mythology of “niceness” seeks to keep angry people in check without asking if their anger is justified: particularly women, women of color, and people of color in general. We’ve all heard the tropes about unpleasant women who bluntly speak their mind, I think we used to be called shrews, or the racist stereotype of the “angry Black woman,” and that Black men and men of color are dangerous when angry. The idea is to tell angry people, who also happen to lack access to power in our society, that they don’t have a right to be angry, and anger is character flaw, and being angry simply demonstrates their point that we are unpredictable, hot headed, impulsive and need to be controlled.
I’ve had to do a lot of work to unlearn these misogynistic and racist ideas, and I’m still a work in progress. I’ve learned that my anger isn’t good nor bad, but it’s what I do with it. As a child, I, of course, had to learn that I couldn’t hit someone or break something because I was angry. But instead of teaching me how to channel anger, I was told just not to feel it. As an adult, I’ve learned that there is a cost associated with unexpressed anger, and that it will come out, one way or another. I’ve had to learn how to use and not misuse my anger. (Still learning!)
Anger and how to direct it is not a modern issue. Humans have a hard time using any of our emotions, as it turns out, and we tend to misuse them and thus, misuse other people and God’s creation. God, the good parent, decided house rules were necessary: The Ten Commandments, to let people know that God is paying attention and doesn’t care for the misuse what God has given us. Such as, don’t misuse God’s holy name in anger and fear to deny half the population bodily autonomy, adequate housing, food or education to anyone. Don’t allow jealousy as an excuse to misuse other people’s bodies, steal material things, or wreck relationships with family, or neighbors. Don’t misuse our days and work with no rest, no justice, no time for creativity, relationships and flourishing, to stoke your own ego. Don’t misuse what God has given us to ensure only our own status, wealth, welfare, and self-interests.
And misuse continues, doesn’t it? John 2 tells us this story today: The Passover sacrifices at the Temple evolved as a way for merchants to make money off their fellow religious adherents, such as how Christmas and Easter have become commercialized today. Roman money wasn’t allowed in the Temple because it broke the commandment of “no graven images” with the picture of Ceasar on the coins and it had to be exchanged, often unfairly, for the shekel. Shekels were only good in the Temple to purchase an animal for the ritual sacrifice and those animals. A captive consumer. The misuse of the commandments, the misuse of the rituals of sacrifice, the misuse of the Temple built for connection to God, is what sparked Jesus’ anger. And before we get too far down the path of self-righteousness as enlightened people; I would invite us to take the log out of our own eyes before we remove the splinter from our ancestors. We have plenty of tables for Jesus to flip over. The table of denominationalism, the table of racism, the table of homo and transphobia, the table of ageism, the table of capitalism, the table of scarcity, the table of apathy, and the list can go on.
Jesus was angry at the misuse of the Temple, of community and angry that they had turned their attention away from loving the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus’s anger was to get the attention of the people, to turn over the actual tables, yes, and to turn over the tables in their hearts that were keeping them from God and each other. They were misusing tables, tables aren’t supposed to be barriers, status symbols or exclusive, they are places to create inclusive community, share abundance and joyous love.
If you’re not angry you’re not paying attention. If we are paying attention to the world and to God’s desires for humanity and creation, then anger used for the safety, wellbeing and inclusion of our neighbor, anger that turns over tables of injustice, division, oppression, genocide, scapegoating, violence, anger is a proper, reasonable, and needed response to the reality of the misuse of God’s love in the world. We are called to use our anger as Jesus did: to build, heal, restore, renew and transform the world. To use our anger to pay full attention to loving God, God’s creation and our neighbor, each other them, as ourselves. Thanks be to God.
[1] This quote is from Nicholas D. Kristof, but Tom Morello, guitarist from Rage Against the Machine said something similar in the 1980’s. *Gen X trivia of the day.
A Lutheran Says What? 