Reacting in Anger

Today's sermon and recent events in my life have me thinking.

I've long believed that reacting in anger and hurt was a sin. I believed that as a Christian, I should not be so strongly influenced by my emotions. That the desire to lash back when I've been wronged was selfish and sinful.

Today I went to a new church. I'm on a quest to find a church home and must confess that it's not a process I enjoy. Central Christian Church offers a roundtable service on Sunday mornings. They are studying the Old Testament and today's texts were the following:

Exodus 32, Amos 7:1-6 and Jeremiah 18:1-10.

In Exodus, when God learns of the Israelites betrayal, that they have erected a golden calf, his anger is stirred. He tells Moses they are his (Moses) people that he (Moses) has led out of captivity. That they are stiff-necked and God wants to destroy them. Moses intercedes and God changes his mind. It reminds me of parents, "he's YOUR son".

I find these passages both fascinating and troubling. My standard answer has been that it is evidence of God's grace. That justice required death but Moses interceded and God forgave. But today, it doesn't quite fit. That seems too easy.

I begin to wonder if the emotions I've so long struggled to control are not also a part of God in me. Perhaps even my anger at being wronged is part of being made in God's image.

What truly is "righteous" anger? I consider the passages above, Sodom and Gommorah, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and I begin to think that there are times when God is torn about what to do. Times when he too feels the pull between Justice and Grace. Perhaps herein lies the Trinity, the council of three.