Struggling against Wrath and Anger - Sermon at Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church, Brisbane
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- Опубліковано 23 гру 2019
- In this sermon, Fr Andrew teaches on Anger. He first discusses what Anger is, and how it is misplaced and deformed zeal. Then, he talks about the process required to struggle against this particular temptation.
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i like how the priest is red headed. my people know anger and rage more than any other. pray that we find peace in Christ and can control ourselves better.
I’ve been struggling with anger. Not spiritual anger, but rage towards my siblings. I’m ashamed, because i’m easily triggered by the smallest things. This is only with my family though, with others I am very calm. This helped, thank you Father for this sermon.
Bro, I got a problem with the anger. It is like a magma that is rising from the volcano, almost did not cause eruption. So, pray for me, y'all brothers and sisters.
I happened upon this just as I yet again find myself boiling with anger and resentment at the perceived stupidity/incompetence of others. Thank you for a succinct and edifying homily Father; your blessing!
It was necessary for me to hear this teaching. Thank you.
Thank you Father.
Anger being misplaced and deformed zeal is brilliant. I never thought of it before but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks Patir!
Thank you Father this is very helpful
Hello from Florida. I really needed to hear this- twice
Thank you, Maria! Glad that it was of benefit :-)
I struggle with anger, because Gods providence on the Earth doesn't make any sense, the church seems content on just letting all of the terrible things God allows to be a "holy mystery". I have heard a story of one of the Archangels appearing to a priest/father/monk, something like that, and on their journey, he kills an infant, and says he did so because that infant would grow up to be a murderer or something like that. It makes no sense. Does this imply that everyone who is alive still has hope to be saved, and those who die young had no hope of being saved? Does this imply that God, or his angels, or his saints, or his priests, or his believers, or his anything couldn't do anything to try and help the kid, to put him on the right path.
I understand the point of suffering, but even fathers on earth do not let their children kill each other when they fight, but God the father loves us so much that he lets us do what ever we want to each other. You could lock a person up and do anything your mind could imagine to them, and God isn't going to lift a finger, according to the concept of free will. Cabals of the worlds elite ruin hundreds, if not thousands of lives every single hour, and yet, when we look up, we do not see his face. How is the greatest of minds and hearts, our heavenly father, not able to do anything but sit back and relax while we suffer tremendously. Maybe I just don't understand the gratuitousness of his lack of mercy everywhere I look.
I hear that he's merciful for letting me live. Oh really? Merciful for birthing men into an arena filled with lions and murderers. Its like an emperor calling up the next victims of the arena to see how they cope, how long they can survive, how much they can endure. What is loving about that exactly?
Merciful for strickening the most fragile of us with debilitating diseases, that last us our entire lives. Even monks get things like prostate cancer, where they scream into the night because of the pain. Is he there holding your hand, or when you close your hand, you only feel your own? What a true father.
Father, please pray for me that God will open my eyes, and my heart, and take this anger away from me. Ever since I was a small child, I understood that there is a heavenly father, I have not turned away, I still seek, and every single day, I bury these thoughts and feelings down deep, because anytime that I have revealed them to anyone, they have no answers that seem to quench the fire.
Hey brother, I just read your whole comment and I do hope that your relationship with the Lord is going well, and I hope that you have found an answer to these questions of yours.
As for your questions, it's totally normal to have doubts in a sense that the suffering that we see in this world can impact and affect our faith in the Lord. I have experienced the same thing as you. A lot of times, I almost became an atheist. However, if you don't mind, I will try to give my response to your questions so that I can at least help a brother!
1. There are a lot of these stories coming from many insane people who allegedly claim that God or an angel visited them one time, then told them to kill their family, rape someone, and etc. But is it true? No.
Jesus told us to love our neighbors, even our enemies, and theocracy does not happen anymore (the belief that God directly commands and dictates law) because there is no need to. God has already given us His word, the church and the believers, and the Holy Spirit.
2. Infants are not born sinful (Total depravity, and Original sin), so even when those who die young without knowing what is right and wrong, they are automatically assured of salvation. How? Do you really believe that a just, good, loving, and holy God will damn any infants just because they haven't been baptized? Just because they haven't gotten to exercise their free will? I don't think so. There is no scriptural support that God will send babies to hell, although, we have a plenty of scriptural support that tells us that God loved us even before we loved Him. - - - - - - - > "We love, because He first loved us..." "For God so loved the world..."
3. I agree with you that there are some Christians nowadays who simply overlooks these same terrible things, but that doesn't mean we cannot take action anymore. I know there is a lot of buff in popular culture nowadays that claims Churches and Christians doesn't help the poor, and those who are in need of help, but that's simply not true. Here in my country, there are a lot of churches who opens up charities, food programs, job openings, hospitality, and etc. These same good deeds are not always recognized by the public because the bad ones are the ones that they want to focus to.
4. The next question is a hard one, I'll admit, but I'll still try my best to respond:
You say that even fathers themselves do not let their own children kill each other. Yes, that's true. But the thing is, free will does exists. The negative effects of our free will is yes, God lets us almost do whatever we want. But isn't this almost the same thing, when our own parents tells us not to do something bad, yet we end up committing the same thing. What happens next? We fall, we experience pain, and we get hurt. Suffering is real. It lives with us. But suffering can also produce endurance, strengthen us, and help us strengthen and enlighten others who are experiencing the same thing.
I believe that one of the reasons why God allows suffering is so that we can help other people who are also suffering, which is to emphatize with them. You cannot fully emphatize with someone if you have never experienced what the person is going through isn't it? For example, we all experience how to poop, so of course, we can emphatize a lot with many people because many of us have experienced it.
A person who does not poop cannot emphatize with that, so he will not be able to fully help. If God will always prevent us from being hurt and experiencing pain, do you think we will ever learn to truly trust Him? Do you think we will ever fully learn? Additionally, there are a lot of times that people also get hurt because of their own mistakes. For example, one can have a liver cancer for drinking a lot of alcohol and smoking cigarettes. One can have a broken marriage for having sex with a mistress, and etc. We can't just blame God for everything, because really, God's not gonna do all the work, which is why we are called to serve and help other people who are suffering.
Does God get up every single day to bathe and toothbrush our teeth? Does God need to literally go down to this world in order to wake us up and call us to help and do something? No right? God expects us to be responsible, aware, and accountable of our decisions and of others. He wants us to grow, but ultimately, He wants us to trust Him, even though there are times things get a lot blurry.
After the fall, it is inevitable to see and understand that suffering will be a part of earth. There will be brokenness, sin, and evil around us. Can we say that God planned all of these to happen? No, not really. Not everything is God's plan. There are times that things just happen, sometimes it's just a chance. God uses a lot of people as an instrument to help those who are in need, whether they are atheists or not. We are expected to take action, not just sit down and relax. But does this mean that God is simply being a deistic Father who does not help us? God is always working, and there are times that we can know that God is working for our good, is through other people who helps us and tries to understand us. Through missionaries, pastors, our friends, family, strangers, employees, and etc. Simply, God is not sleeping, yet faith in God's goodness is not based on our circumstances. There are a lot of times that we do not need to fully know the mystery in order to trust God.
5. There are times that infants die in the womb, does this mean that God chose not to show mercy unto them? As I've stated earlier, not everything is God's plan. Infants being aborted is not God's plan, babies being born in a place full of murderers is not God's plan, but that does not mean God cannot turn this evil thing around for good.
6. God is not always the one who causes us to go sick and have diseases, brother.
In conclusion, I hope this atleast helps you, and I pray that the Lord will give you wisdom and strengthen you also. I'm actually still new to being a Christian, but hey, I'm also still learning too. I hope you a blessed day!