March 4, 2024

“Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ‘In your anger do not sin’; Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (Ephesians 4.25-26a; 26b)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I just love what the Apostle Paul has done with the caveat to “be angry but do not sin.” Paul doesn’t say “don’t be angry.” What Paul advocates for and teaches as a part of our witness to our neighbors in and out of the body of Christ, the community of faith in Jesus as the Christ, is “don’t say or do something that will separate the other in your conversation or diatribe from God. As the disciples argued amongst themselves one day about who among them would be the greatest and thereby have the significant position of honor next to Jesus in the throne room of God, there was a tremendous opportunity for anger that would lead others into “sin.” They did not immediately see it in the midst of the conflict because it was internalized. So internalized (both individually and corporately as the “disciples”) was the conflict that they separated themselves out from Jesus who was, is and will always be “the way, the truth and the life.” We even hear this same argument espoused by the mother of the “Sons of Thunder.” Risking the ire of some of you who are sharing in this reflection, I want to point out the likelihood that the term “Sons of Thunder” may well have been assigned to the connection to the mother of James and John and not their father. We hear Jesus speak of Peter in terms of Peter’s father calling him “Simon bar Jonah.” There were no last names as we know them today assigned to people in that day. Each person was known by their family lineage and that mostly through the father’s line. Except in Israel, one’s heritage was generally traced for the sake of “Jewishness” through the mother’s lineage. Even Saul of Tarsus was known as Jewish because his mother was a Jewess. His father was a Roman citizen. In those times when there was a “mixed marriage,” one’s faith identity was through the mother. Imagine then the angst which Abraham felt when he walked by faith trusting God who called him and not Isaac’s mother into accountability for the future of all God’s people. There is good reason why the gospels represent the lineage of Jesus with both Joseph (in Matthew) and Mary (in Luke). Nothing is accidental in God’s revelation to us in His Word; spoken, written and incarnate. It may well have been Salome whose personality was “thunderous.” Perhaps, as my great-grandmother on my dad’s side of the family, Salome had a voice to be reckoned with. It was said of my great-grandmother that she won a hog calling contest in Tennesse from where she lived near the Trinity River in Carrollton, Texas. Not that she travelled to Tennessee, mind you, but her voice did! She boomed in voice and in personality. She was barely 4’10” tall but she was a giant force to be reckoned with. As they say “dynamite comes in small packages.” Salome may have “ventured where angels feared to tread.” If her boys weren’t going to say, then she, “by God,” would. And did!

Regardless of who initiated the request, the question itself was a leading into temptation and became an invitation for evil among them. It began to separate the disciples into factions of “who would be the greatest among them.” In order to answer the question, Jesus objectified the answer with a lesson even a child could understand. Taking from the “herd” of people who journeyed often with Jesus and the disciples, sometimes as many as 120, Jesus called one of the children to sit by Him. As Jesus was sitting we know a teaching was about to occur. Jesus said plainly, “In order to even gain the height of heaven, one must have the faith of a child like this one. The greatest among you is not one who is served but one who serves.” Now, I know that scripture does not report such a thing but my imagination has easily focused on the child Jesus called to Him. It wasn’t just any child. We don’t even know who the child was, what the gender was or who the parents were. I can imagine the father probably wanted to grab the child back. The mother stood beaming with love and admiration. (Yes, I know you think it would be the other way around and you might be correct if it were in a strange situation but not in this familiar one.) And it was not, I believe, a random child but one whose life represented the very words of Jesus in that moment. Nothing escaped the heart, mind and soul of the Master Teacher. As Jesus affirmed the faith and faithfulness of that child, I see the child hold up a picture he or she drew or a flower freshly picked at the side of the road or some handmade craft intended the entire time for Jesus alone. The child had the heart of a servant and wanted nothing more than to love Jesus in the only way he or she knew how. Come on now, we know this could have happened. We see it often in our young children and grandchildren. Our refrigerators, windows and bulletin boards are covered with such artwork. Most generally each piece is adorned with “I love you.” In that moment, the argument ceased and the angst melted. It melted, if for no other reason, than the minds of adults were grappling with “how can this be?” It was no different a reason than Nicodemus had when Jesus said to him “You must be born again.” Nicodemus responded “How can that be? Must I enter my mother’s womb a second time?” How can an adult become like a child and mimic, or better- remember, what it was like to love one another. Ah, yes, there it is again, that very admonition from Revelation to the Church of Ephesus to “remember their first love which they had seemed to have forsaken and forgotten.”

What of us, mighty ones of God. Do we hear Paul’s caveat to “be angry but do not sin” which was and is and will remain as long as we are here on earth. The caveat is “do not let the sun go down on your anger (no matter what kind of anger it is). Unsurrendered anger of any type is a festering anger. Even for the “right” reason which is to change another, perhaps even ourselves, from going in the wrong direction to repent and turn the other way, such anger can become so engrained that it changes our nature to be seen as a controlling nag. I feel that is the picture many had of the Pharisees, you see, and what the Sadducees were “so sad, you see.” What should be do when our day comes to an end but pray “I lay me now down to see and pray the good Lord, my SOUL to keep.” We should turn all our concerns and worries and troubles and celebrations for successes in the day to God to sort it all out for the coming day. God never sleeps, slumbers or rests from “His will be done.” Trusting in Him as we did as children allows us as adults to have a better grasp on our own identity in the eyes of God. Sad that so many children in the world today do not have such an opportunity as to turn to God when they go to bed. Their bellies ache with hunger. Their minds remain on high alert for danger. Their bodies twitch with worry of unfinished business or some dreaded work that is yet to come. Shall the list go on? Is it a child problem? No, it is the adults in charge problem and that problem is the result of other adults forgetting to be childlike in their faith and witness to “love Jesus with all their heart, soul, mind and strength…and their neighbor as themselves.” Well….

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.