HOLY RAGE

I often get frustrated at the lack of compassion and “holy anger” we, as believers, seem to possess (myself most of all). We’re surrounded on every side and infected with sloppy and self-pleasing apathy. And I don’t mean passivity in words, for our culture is over saturated with passionate words on every issue under the sun – but I refer to the relative non-existence of unbridled passion. The kind that leads to a radical change in behavior.

They used to say that the pen was mightier than the sword, but I think it can now be said that the keyboard has replaced the pen and that, in it’s extensive takeover, it has actually diluted most of the impact writing once had. Words have become so pervasive that they’ve become like crackling static in our ears, completely devoid of meaning and stripped of power. So where does that leave us? What do we have that is still mightier than the sword (and less violent as well)?

We’ve been told by our grandmothers, mothers, and so many others for years, “actions speak louder than words”. If that is indeed true (which I believe it is) the question is then, “what will we DO to initiate change in our world?”. What will we start to do NOW, that we aren’t currently doing, that will have a positive impact on those around us… that will speak volumes beyond our excessively empty words?

What we do doesn’t have to be momentous, it just has to be SOMETHING. I think most of us tend to be paralyzed by the “go big or go home” mentality and, as a result, we will never do something big because we haven’t bothered to do anything AT ALL.

Or maybe we just don’t care enough to inconvenience ourselves. The static of words and media has made our hearts so numb that we don’t even know how to be passionate anymore. Maybe we just need to let ourselves get mad enough to stop caring what everyone else thinks and starting doing something about it. Maybe it’s okay, even GOOD, to be furiously angry if it means we’re willing to make a change for the better.

Here is a stirring quote from Danish pastor, Kaj Munk, killed in 1944 by the Gestapo for his open resistance to the Nazi takeover in Denmark.

“What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer: “Faith, hope, and love”? That sounds beautiful. But I would say – courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness.

For what we Christians lack today is not psychology or literature…what we lack is a holy rage – the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth…a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God’s earth, and the destruction of God’s world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God.

And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish… but never the chameleon.”

- Kaj Munk

Background on Kaj Munk from Time Magazine 1944: HERE

We must remember as believers, that our battle is not against men or the power they wield, but against the spiritual chains of oppression, greed, pride, and all of the dark forces that plague human hearts. May our Father in heaven teach us how to be angry again… how to stand up and live for what we know is right. We want to see the world changed in our day. May it be so!