The Angry and forgiving God

Reflection

            Anger needs to be expressed.  When we hold it in, it comes out in ways that hurt often hurt people we don’t want to hurt.

            That being said, where is God with regard to anger.  In the Hebrew Bible there are stories of God’s anger wanting to wipe out cities and all the men, women and children.  And Jesus is angry too. He’s angry with Peter and he turns over the tables of the money changers in the temple.

            I’m consoled by today’s reading because Jesus strikes a balance. God can be angry when out sins hurt others and this should motivate us to stop sinning. But God’s anger is balanced  by forgiveness.

            No matter how much we’ve failed, we can always seek forgiveness from God and know he’ll forgive us.

Scripture

Luke
Chapter: 17

Faith and Service
(Matthew 18.6, 7, 21, 22; Mark 9.42)

17 Jesus said to his disciples:

There will always be something that causes people to sin. But anyone who causes them to sin is in for trouble. A person who causes even one of my little followers to sin   ²would be better off thrown into the ocean with a heavy stone tied around their neck.   ³So be careful what you do.
Correct any followers of mine who sin, and forgive the ones who say they are sorry.  ⁴Even if one of them mistreats you seven times in one day and says, "I am sorry," you should still forgive that person.

  ⁵The apostles said to the Lord, "Make our faith stronger!" 
⁶Jesus replied:

If you had faith no bigger than a tiny mustard seed, you could tell this mulberry tree to pull itself up, roots and all, and to plant itself in the ocean. And it would!

Prayer

Lord, help me to deal with my anger.  Let me first face it and then deal with it.  I’m encouraged by your anger in the Bible.  I should be angry when others are hurt.  Give me more courage to express my anger.  Amen