HOPE 4 REAL FOLKS WITH REAL PROBLEMS - ANGER

Our service today at The Village was part of a series we are calling “Hope for Real People with Real Problems”. This week we were dealing with Anger. Cheri says she doesn’t know what she was thinking, dealing with money last week, anger this week, and forgiveness next week. These topics, in and of themselves, could all be multiple month series. But we tried to deal with Anger this week.

We get angry when bad stuff happens, because it is not fair. It’s senseless. It’s one thing when suffering comes as a result of our actions. It’s a whole different thing when it comes to undeserved suffering, random acts of pain and violence. I know, in those instances, I ask the ancient question, “Why does God let bad things happen to us?” And, I know many of us, get angry at God from time to time.

Cheri told a story of such a time. She was volunteer chaplain for Forest Park Police Department in suburban Cincinnati, and part of her job was to go with the police to make death notifications to families. One night she got the call to go with two officers to tell a mother her teenage daughter had been killed. They did not have the details, other than it was a horrible car accident. She was to sit with her as the first hours of shock, anger, denial, bargaining, etc were going on. Cheri did not know the mother, but they became bound together in that experience. The mother was devastated, horrified; she blamed herself, why had she let her daughter drive? A mother wants to protect her child.

Then the anger set in, HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? HOW COULD GOD LET THIS HAPPEN? How could God take her baby away from her? Most of us have been there. Something happens. It’s something horrible. We get angry. We ask God why/ Why are you doing this to me?

My story is from Sophomore year from High School. At the end of my Freshmen year I had lost my dog. The day before I was to go to Football Camp, I wrecked a moped, getting 40 stitches in my knee and ending my football career. At the end of my Freshmen wrestling season, I had tore the muscle connecting my leg to the rest of my body (yes, my backside as we call it in front of the kids). But, things were turning around. I had lost a bunch of weight to get to the next lower weight class, and with about 5 more pounds, would be wrestling varsity. Then, a new kid, who I was training, did a stupid move and broke 5 bones in my foot. I thought I was at rock bottom, when I left for school on December 8, 1983 on crutches, again.

My Dad was a career Corpsman, a battlefield medic somewhere between a doctor and an EMT. While he was in the Navy, he spent most of his career patching up wounded Marines. He served a tour with a dangerous unit in Vietnam. He was wounded twice, had another two guys get the drop on him, only to have members of his unit save him. He was in a foxhole when an enemy solider dropped a grenade in, shredding everyone else to bits, but throwing him clear. He was onboard multiple helicopters or helos that were shot down, another few that crashed, a airplane crash, and had two helos collide overhead as he was on the deck of his carrier.

He was awarded several Purple Hearts, several Bronze Stars, a Silver Star, in fact every medal the U.S Navy gives, save it’s highest two, the Navy Cross and the Congressional Medal of Honor, and he was put up for the Navy Cross. The whole time he served, we knew he was in danger, even in peace time.


We even knew what his death notification would look like to us. A Government license plated car would pull up. Two sailors in uniform would get out, one would most likely be a fellow corpsman, the other a chaplain if possible. They would come to our door and tell us this time, he was not coming home. We knew as I had seen my Dad leave to do this sad duty for others while he was on shore duty or his ship was in port for an extended stay. But Dad retired. He got a temporary job with the City of Akron Health Department in a lab. He was semesters away from his Hospital Management Degree. The plan was he would be getting his MBA while I got my undergrad degree at the same school.

But, you guessed it by now, December 8, 1983, did not go that well for us. I came home from school, walked through the door, and there was my Mom and a doctor friend. She should not have been home, and our doctor friend should have been at work. They told me Dad had died. He had gone Christmas shopping on his lunch hour. His Chevette (which was going to be mine in 29 days) had gone left of center and hit a beer truck, head on. Thankfully, mercifully, he died instantly.

Not on a battlefield, not at sea, but shopping on his lunch hour. After that year, like Job in our bible story at The Village, I had it with God. I wish I had been nearly as eloquent as the speaker in our video clip in worship this weekend. Martin Sheen’s character did a much more stylish cuss out of God than I did.

In the television show, The West Wing, Martin Sheet played Jed Bartlett, The President of the United States. In the episode Two Cathedrals, his secretary, and friend since his teen years, Mrs. Landingham, has just died in a car accident. Another staff member had been shot just months before. He is making the tough decision whether to run for re-election or not, in light having to disclose that he has hidden that he has relapsing, remitting MS, or let his running mate, John Hoynes do it. This is a very angry and raw man who lets loose on a God who has let him down, despite years of service, again, think Job.

Here’s the quote from the clip, thank you West Wing WikiQuote:

Bartlet: [standing in the National Cathedral, walking towards the altar and talking to God about Mrs. Landingham] You're a son-of-a-bitch, you know that? She bought her first new car and you hit her with a drunk driver. What, was that supposed to be funny? "You can't conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God," says Graham Greene. I don't know whose ass he was kissing there 'cause I think you're just vindictive. What was Josh Lyman? A warning shot? That was my son. What did I ever do to yours except praise his glory and praise his name? There's a tropical storm that's gaining speed and power. They say we haven't had a storm this bad since you took out that tender ship of mine in the north Atlantic last year, 68 crew. Do you know what a tender ship does? Fixes the other ships. Doesn't even carry guns, just goes around, fixes the other ships and delivers the mail, that's all it can do. Gratias tibi ago, domine (Translation:I give thanks to you, O Lord). Yes, I lied. It was a sin. I've committed many sins. Have I displeased you, you feckless thug? 3.8 million new jobs, that wasn't good? Bailed out Mexico, increased foreign trade, 30 million new acres of land for conservation, put Mendoza on the bench, we're not fighting a war, I've raised three children... that's not enough to buy me out of the doghouse? Haec credam a deo pio? A deo iusto? A deo scito? Cruciatus in crucem! Tuus in terra servus nuntius fui officium perfeci. Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem! (TRANSLATION: Am I to believe those were the acts of a loving God? A just God? A wise God? To hell with your punishments! I was your servant on Earth - I spread Your word and did Your work. To hell with your punishments! To hell with you!) [Walks away from the altar, lights a cigarette, takes one puff, throws it to the ground, puts it out with his foot and proceeds to leave.] You get Hoynes!

So what do we do when bad stuff happens? The story of Job, from the Book Of Job in the Bible reminds us that we need to just keep trusting God anyway. We remember we are not God, that we can not know what God knows, that we can not conceive of anything good that will come out of the bad. God can’t intervene in every situation, in the same way a parent can’t fix everything that goes wrong for a child, lest the child grow up helpless and without an understanding of consequences. Like God reminds Job in the Bible, and later in the episode God reminds the President through a vision of Mrs. Landingham (“you know God doesn’t cause car accidents, . . quit using me as an excuse), God does not cause bad things to happen to us.

By the way, for those at home, again courtesy of West Wing Wiki Quote, here’s God’s response as the clip played in worship today:

[Bartlet stands alone in the Oval Office, in the middle of a raging storm. The back door suddenly flies open]
Bartlet: God damn it...Mrs. Landingham!
[Mrs. Landingham suddenly walks through the main door of the Oval Office]
Mrs. Landingham: I really wish you wouldn't shout, Mr. President.
[Bartlet stares at her for a few seconds]
Bartlet: The door keeps blowing open.
Mrs. Landingham: You could have used the intercom to call me, you know.
Bartlet: I know, but I didn't want to-
Mrs. Landingham: You didn't want to, or you didn't know how?
Bartlet: It's not that I don't know how. It's just that I haven't learned yet.
[Pause. Mrs. Landingham smiles at him]
Bartlett: I have MS, and I didn't tell anybody.
Mrs. Landingham: Yeah. So, you're having a little bit of a day.
Bartlett: You're going to make jokes?
Mrs. Landingham: God doesn't make cars crash and you know it. Stop using me as an excuse.
Bartlett: The Party's not going to want me to run.
Mrs. Landingham: The Party'll come back. You'll get them back.
Bartlett: I've got a secret for you, Mrs. Landingham, I've never been the most popular man in the Democratic Party.
Mrs. Landingham: I've got a secret for you, Mr. President. Your father was a prick who could never get over the fact that he wasn't as smart as his brothers. Are you in a tough spot? Yes. Do I feel sorry for you? I do not. Because there are people way worse off than you.
Bartlett: Give me numbers.
Mrs. Landingham: I don't know numbers. You give them to me.
Bartlett: How about a child born this minute has one in five chances of being born into poverty?
Mrs. Landingham: How many Americans don't have health insurance?
Bartlett: 44 million.
Mrs. Landingham: What's the number one cause of death for black men under 35?
Bartlett: Homicide.
Mrs. Landingham: How many Americans are behind bars?
Bartlett: Three million.
Mrs. Landingham: How many Americans are drug addicts?
Bartlett: Five million.
Mrs. Landingham: And one in five kids in poverty?
Bartlett: That's thirteen million American children. 3.5 million kids go to schools that are literally falling apart. We need 127 billion in school construction, and we need it today!
Mrs. Landingham: To say nothing of 53 people trapped in an embassy.
Bartlett: Yes.
Mrs. Landingham: You know, if you don't want to run again, I respect that. [stands up] But if you don't run 'cause you think it's gonna be too hard or you think you're gonna lose - well, God, Jed, I don't even want to know you.

God sends a similar mesage to Job.

When bad things happen, we grieve . Then we pick ourselves up, and start living again. Bad stuff happens in this life. It just does. There is no explanation why a car veers left of center, why an oil rig explodes, or mine collapses on one day, while on others it was safe (or at least didn’t kill anyone). We can try to blame God or try to make sense out of it, but we fail on both counts. Or, we can just realize that we just don’t and won’t have the answers and we can move forward. I have never been able to understand why my Dad died when he did. But over time I came to realize that God was with me that day, and every day since, even when I was furious. I came realize most of the blessings in my life would not be here without that dark time.

Friends, it’s ok to be angry with God. Read the Bible, especially the Psalms and the Book of Job. King David and Job were some of God’s favorites and they got righteously indignant at their creator. We are in good company there. God can take it. God also created us with emotions, including anger. So, if God is our creator, and is all knowing, then God knew we were going to get ticked, even at God. There are lots of forces at work in our world. It’s complex, and we’re not going to understand it all.

But here’s what we do know, throughout the whole story, God loved Job. Through thick and thin, God’s love was a constant. Even when bad stuff happens, God loves us. When we weep, God weeps with us. When we rejoice, God is rejoicing with us. Joy and sorrow live together, in life and at The Village. So it’s ok to get angry, even at God. Just remember, that even in your anger, God still loves you. May you know more joy than anger this week. And, join us next week as talk about forgiveness.