Freedom in Lent - Day 19

There is a myth around, both inside and outside the Church (by which I am particularly thinking of the Anglican tradition in the West, because that is mostly my experience) that those who describe themselves as 'Christians' should always be 'nice'. In fact 'polite niceness' seems to be the general vibe in many of the Churches in which I have ministered or where I have visited. Sometimes, particularly in my homeland of England, this goes along with a certain 'passive aggression' about how people should behave, look, sound, or smell in Church, but the veneer of 'nice' is strong. 

But there's nothing in our Scriptures to suggest that we are to be anything other than human. St Paul writes passionately about the behaviours of the early 'Jesus movement' communities which he was involved in founding or supporting, the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures speak with a fierce tenderness and powerful voice for justice, and in Jesus we have someone who wept, laughed, was tired, angry, passionate, and compassionate. 

Ireneas of Lyon wrote 'The glory of God is a human being fully alive.' In being fully alive we are free to be fully human, in the way we feel, the way we relate to one another, to God, and to ourselves. We are free to feel, and we are responsible for what we do with our feelings - not to let our anger cause us to harm others, or our desire for another turn into either possessing them or unfaithfulness. The Psalmist and St Paul both write, for instance, 'Be angry, but do not sin.' Giving us the freedom to feel, and the responsibility of causing no harm because we feel something. 

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up,[b] as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

                                                                Ephesians 4.25-32

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Artwork: ' Mixed Emotions ' by Michael Lang - from Fine Art America