Anger and Faith

​The Message
 
Last week, I preached on a passage from the Book of Job. In that sermon, I talked about the fact that Job expresses deep and bitter anger toward God, but he maintains a deep faith in God despite that anger.
 
In fact, I argued that Job could not be angry with God if he did not have a deep faith in God. If he did not have faith in God, what use would there be in being angry toward a God he didn’t believe in?
 
I spoke to many of you who said that sermon really resonated for you, and I also had several unrelated conversations with people about anger this past week.
 
So, as I was preparing for today’s service, I thought that perhaps God was prodding me to go a little deeper on this topic of anger.
 
We are living in a world where anger is rampant – anger with governments, anger with the church, anger with family members, and yes, a lot of anger toward God.
 
I encounter tons of people in my daily life who express either deep apathy toward God, or deep anger toward God (or toward the church).
 
Many people question the notion of a loving God who would allow so many bad things to happen. And this questioning often causes deep-rooted anger toward God.
 
And, because bad things happen in our world (and throughout history), people wonder whether a loving God even exists.
 
And because of these conversations that I have often with people (especially once they discover I’m a pastor), I began to wonder about Biblical stories of people who express anger toward God.
 
So, I did some research and compiled some short scripture passages for us to look at today.
 
I think it’s worth beginning with a few of the most well-known Biblical figures who express anger toward God throughout the Bible.
 
Perhaps the most obvious expression of direct anger toward God is Job, who we of course talked at length about last week.
 
But another example from the Hebrew Bible is Moses. Moses is one of the most beloved prophets from the Hebrew Bible.
 
And, despite his prominence in the Hebrew Bible, he expresses anger and frustration toward God multiple times throughout his story.
 
In Numbers 11: 10-15, for example, Moses asks, “why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight?”
 
Moses had become frustrated with God, and he felt like he was trying to take care of his people, but it had become too much of a burden for him, and he no longer really wanted to deal with it.
 
In Exodus 5: 22-23, Moses blames God for doing nothing to help free his people from Pharaoh.
 
Some other examples include:
 
In Jonah 4:9, Jonah says he’s angry enough with God that he could die.
 
In Jeremiah 20:7, Jeremiah feels deceived by God and cries out in anger.
 
Throughout the Psalms, David cries out in anger. “My God, why have you forsaken me?” (22)
“How long will you hide your face from me?” (13)
 
In Habakkuk 1:2, he begins his story with anger: “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen?”
 
In Ruth 1: 20-21, Naomi bitterly resents God’s harsh treatment toward her.
 
And, in 1 Kings 19, Elijah complains that God left him alone and then asks to die.
 
All of these examples demonstrate that, at least throughout the Hebrew Bible, honest expressions of emotion and anger are not condemned.
 
In fact, throughout their stories, all of these figures maintain their relationships with God and maintain a deep faith in God through their anger, their lament, and their frustrations.
 
Furthermore, it is often the case that these moments of anger end up being a turning point on their spiritual journeys.
 
We saw that in the story of Job last week. Job finally gets his wish – to confront God – and in doing so, he’s taught a lesson in humility.
 
Job is reminded that the universe is complex and there are so many moving parts and facets that God is responsible for that Job cannot possibly understand.
 
Job can only understand his own circumstances, and he thinks his situation is unfair. But God reminds him that he is not the only living thing in the universe that God is responsible for.
 
Many of the other figures in the Hebrew Bible also move along their spiritual paths after expressing their anger or frustration with God.
 
But what about expressions of anger in the New Testament?
 
Jesus himself expresses anger often throughout the Gospels. His anger is not always at God – it is often anger with his disciples, with the Pharisees, or with injustice in general.
 
While he may not be blaming God for these things directly, he is still not condemned for expressing anger. In fact, often it’s a catalyst for a lesson or a parable that leads to a teaching moment.
 
Perhaps the most well-known of Jesus’ expressions of anger toward God is an echo Psalm 22 in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 when Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
 
It’s possible that this is not always read as anger explicitly, but it is an expression of deep anguish and protest, and he is directly addressing God as he cries out from the cross.
 
And then, of course, there are expressions of anger toward Jesus as well.
 
John the Baptist, when he is in prison, wonders if Jesus truly is the Messiah, and seems frustrated or angry that his expectations of what the Messiah came to accomplish have not been met. (Matthew 11: 2-3)
 
Martha and Mary express anger and disappointment at Jesus after Lazarus died, saying “if you had been here, he would not have died.” (John 11: 21, 32)
 
In Mark 4:38, the disciples say “teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?”
 
While the examples from the New Testament tend to be shorter and are often posed as questions or expressions of grief or lament rather than outright anger, they still demonstrate for us that we can feel less than thrilled with how God or Jesus responds to something we ask of them, and we can still maintain our faith through that anger.
 
But the key takeaway from this exploration is that God responds to all of these different expressions of anger and frustration with gentleness rather than punishment.
 
God may not always respond immediately or in the way the person expects (in fact, that is often the root cause of the anger toward God in the first place), but God still loves these figures anyway.
 
And God loves us, too. God can handle our anger as well.
 
These stories are also examples of anger speaking to deeper needs and desires that aren’t being met.
 
In other words, anger is often telling these figures something.
 
And our anger tells us something, too.
 
I once had a beautiful conversation with someone who felt a tremendous amount of guilt about the anger that he felt.
 
This person had gone his whole life thinking that God was condemning his anger and that God desperately wanted him to change.
 
But through conversation, he began to wonder if perhaps it was God’s way of telling him something about himself that he was not acknowledging.
 
If these Biblical stories tell us anything, it’s that God never asks these figures to shove their anger deeper down. God never makes them feel guilty for feeling their feelings of anger. And God never asks them to change or stop being angry.
 
God continues loving them even as they begin to learn what it is their anger is telling them.
 
Anger is a normal human emotion. And God has always been big enough to handle our anger.
 
Other people may struggle with it sometimes because humans all have emotions, and some of us are better at facing them, expressing them, or dealing with them than others are.
 
But God can handle all of it.
 
So, if you ever feel angry with God, there’s nothing wrong with letting God know. You don’t have to feel guilty about it. In fact, let’s be honest – if you feel angry toward God, whether you explicitly tell God or not doesn’t matter – God already knows.
 
So name it. Name your anger. Lift it to God.
 
And then, let it speak to you. Wonder with God what that anger might be trying to tell you.
 
This same thing applies to anger you might be feeling toward someone else in your life, too, or toward general life circumstances.
 
Lift that to God, and let it speak to you. Let it give you some insight about yourself that you may not be noticing on your own.
 
And remember that there are tons of examples throughout scripture of expressions of anger toward God and toward Jesus.
 
It is normal, and it’s not something to feel guilty about. Though, if you struggle with anger regularly, it might be telling you that there’s something going on within you that you aren’t aware of.
 
And that is worth exploring, whether that’s with a friend, a counsellor, a support group, a pastor, or another trusted person.
 
And my hope in continuing this conversation from last week is that it gives you hope if you need it.
 
So, if you are struggling with anger in general or anger toward God specifically, know that God can handle that, and it doesn’t mean you’ve lost your faith.
 
It just may be that it would be worth exploring what your anger might be telling you.
 
And if you aren’t struggling with anger right now, when you do, I hope you remember this message.
 
If you are a lucky person who never struggles with anger, know that many other people do struggle with anger, so perhaps you could gently honour this fact by wondering with them what their anger might be trying to tell them.
 
And lastly, may we all remember that God can handle whatever we lift up in prayer, whether we do that intentionally or not.
 
May you leave here today filled with hope, knowing that God has demonstrated to us time and time again that questions, frustration, anger, and spiritual anguish are nothing for us to feel ashamed or guilty about.
 
God loves every part of us – even those parts that we don’t always love in ourselves.
 
Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
God of joy and God of love, we humble ourselves before you and acknowledge our emotions, including our anger. We lift these things to you, knowing that you will gladly carry them for us, loving us through it all. We pray that you would help us learn to be self-reflective, wondering with you what our emotions might be telling us, or how you might be guiding us through our experiences. In your holy and loving name, we pray. Amen.

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