On Being a Bloke III

I didn't give this bit up for Lent! 

Now, the thing is this: there are few things that make me more angry that those things that seek to injure my family, or more specifically, my beautiful girls. Having posted on 'anger', I found that I am in the centre of a maelstrom of temper that seeks to overwhelm me!

For those who want a framework for this - let me explain. As a bloke, a less-than-touchy-feely individual, I am no stranger to rage. Rage is not exclusive to blokes, but it rates high in our arsenal of reactions to our world. We do not suffer fools gladly on the whole, and while we might founder in our efforts to describe how we have come to feel happy, elated, relaxed, peaceful or bloody 'postmodern', let me tell you, we never fall short of the verncular to describe those factors in our inner rage. For me it can focus on a whole panoply of things: those who insist on driving in the middle lane of motorways; those who jump queues; those who humiliate their children in public by screaching at them like deranged harridans; those who park their cars in 'parent-toddler' parking spaces without a child to mitigate their presence there; worse still, the able-bodies-yet-obscenely-lazy people who park in 'Disabled' parking bays; those who reduce marriage to the state 'well it's just a piece of paper'; plus a whole array of other things. 

My ire of the week has been brought to life by two types of person who, whilst made in the image of God and while bearing the face of Christ, transgress in such a way as chokes the world that my babies are growing up in. I speak first of the fly-tipper, and secondly of the classy folk who use my children's environment as an ash tray. Let me explain: on a journey that took me across some stunning countryside, my bucolic rapture was burst by the presence of not one, but two, piles of fly-tipped crud dumped on the verge next to serene space like a wart on the nose of a super-model. The second is concerning those who are still stupid enough to smoke cigarettes (despite being told that it is prolonged suicide), and yet don't want to pollute their beautiful motor-cars while indulging in their suicide of choice; no - they flick their carcinogen laden butts out of their windows as they drive along - you disgraceful eejits. Whilst I am peace loving sort of bloke, I feel inclined to do a couple of things - the first is to gather up the cancer-carrying tar pellets disposed from passing cars, and ram them down the throat of the nearest smoker. The second is to take my dustbin and empty it on the fluffy pillows nestling on the marital bed of the nearest fly-tipper (soiled nappies and all). 

However, it is incumbent upon me not to sin in the face of anger - so I will have to restrain myself. I shall pray for these algae-feasting bottom-feeders instead. 

Lent Course 2010 [Blog] - Part II

Jesus Christ and Anger

As a human being, I am very familiar with anger as an emotion; anger that I feel and anger that I have recieved. As a Christian, I no less experience anger but I labour under the tension of that anger in the context of 'love thy neighbour'. It is all tickety-boo being a loving being, but with it comes a sense of failure when anger comes to the fore (for me, at least).

Questions I must reflect upon, therefore, are:

• 
  
  What is anger?
• 
  
  How does it affect me?
• 
  
  How does my anger affect others?
• 
  
  Is anger an appropriate response for a Christian, (let alone for a priest)?
• 
  
  What good does anger do, if it does any good at all?

I ask these questions to set the scene of the next stage of the enquiry; whether Jesus experienced anger, how and when, and what was the result (intended or otherwise).

I believe in the Incarnation in its fullest sense; that it is God made (hu)man. This acceptance brings with it certain conditions - things that I have to believe if I am to fully accept the Incarnation. Primary among those things is that I must believe that Jesus was capable of all emotions.

In the case of anger, I have to believe that Jesus was capable of anger and all that can come from it - but capability and actuality are two seperate things. I am capable of murder, but I have never murdered! So the question stands: did Jesus experience anger; if he did then how; and if he did what was the result?

Scripture, as I have already said, did not deal with emotion particularly. We can only discern Jesus' emotions through their effects on those around him. This can bring with it some difficulty - what I interpret as anger you may interpret as exasperation, for example. Similar as they are in part, they are not the same. To that end, I have to approach Scripture with my own heart as my guide - that is to say, if I were involved in the exchange, would I feel that Jesus were being angry at me? We can therefore only speak for ourselves, so the examples I will give in a moment are to be regarded as limited by my subjectivity.

Matthew 21: 12 : The expulsion of the dealers from the Temple - this verse paints Jesus as calm and rational, but I wonder what level of anger would have committed him to the action of turning over tables. He is destructive; he is insulting; he is chiding - and I believe that his choice of insult is deliberately intended to vent anger and be hurtful.

Matthew 8: 25 : The calming of the storm - again, this account paints Jesus as calm and rational, but I sense that if I were one of the disciples, I would recieve this encounter as Jesus' anger. To question the faith of one so devoted to 'the cause' to have dropped everything for it, requires, I think a fair degree of anger!

Matthew 16: 23 : The first prophecy of the Passion - 'Get behind me Satan' is an utterance born of anger, I believe. Jesus was dealing in some very deep and poignant stuff at this stage in the story, and for that to be misconstrued must have been at the very least frustrating!

You may not agree with me at all on these examples, have other examples, or indeed question the hypothesis. However, it strikes me that the anger that emerges is a corrective force - not a destructive one. My personal anger is often destructive (of me or the external 'other'), so I take from these examples the way in which Jesus uses what I percieve as anger as a corrective tool - a short sharp shock brand of correction.

So (becuase I am in danger of rambling I ought to conclude), I reflect as follows:

• 
  
  Was Jesus in fact displaying anger in these (and other passages)?
• 
  
  How is Jesus' anger different from mine?
• 
  
  Positives / negatives of those differences
• How can I convert the weaknesses in my anger to mirror the positives in Jesus'.

Lent Course 2010 [Blog] - Part I

The Emotions of Jesus Christ

As part of my own Lenten observance this year, I decided that the element that commits me to learning would be usefully expressed through this Blog. I am creating, therefore, a little Cyber Lent Course, as much for my own purposes as yours, and as something of a 'notepad' as I work on something that perhaps might be presented in my ministry at some point in the future! If you are reading this, please recieve it as a work-in-progress and not as a polished piece!

~~~

In the world of bloke-dom, the emotion is a fickle friend. Blokes are often accused of being insensitive, uncaring, laddish or silly (well, me at least). My experience is quite the contrary. I, ond others whom I know to be like me, are emtional creatures - we care, very passionately. We hurt, perhaps in private, but very deeply. When we are amused, our whole being is held hostage by laughter! Howver, blokes are not ruled by emotions, and part of our being is that to a certian extent, we can disconnect with how we feel inwardly. even if is paert of an expternal mask. As part of my plain and honest wrestling with myself and who I am (sorry, that is almost a smug and certianly self-centred thing to have just typed), I have wondered what kind of emotional creature Jesus himself was. My belief in the Incarnation means that I have to accept that Jesus 'did' emotion like all of us. He must have known happiness, sadness, jealousy, disappointment, annoyance, fear, disgust, and yes, Jesus will have had to have been capable of attraction and the amorous emotions. This inevitably lead me to ponder the good old Bible, where I quickly discovered that Jesus' emotions are not readily referred to. Yes, dear reader, I will have to go digging - and when I find what I seek, I will present my unearthed treasure here.

But first, some of the methodological stuff, so you know what I am doing! For me, I don't get hung up about such things (it is the 'pragmatist' in me), but some regard it as important, and I am all give give give, me!

When discussing emotions, I have a vast list from which to choose. As I only have one Lent in 2010 and only one lifetime, that list needed a little pruning. I discovered a geezer called Paul Ekman who did a famous study on emotion, but emotion as it is associated with facial expression. His work later took a swerve towards the subject of 'trust'. However, his greatest use to me here is that in 1972 (the year of my birth, sigh) he created a list of the 'dominical' emotions following observation of a tribe in the middle of a vast ocean (or something like that). His list comprises anger, disgust, fear, happiness sadness and surprise. While he expanded on this list in the 90's, this seems to me a good list to work with for this purpose. So, my next post will be on the subject of Jesus Christ and Anger.

There you go; follow this if you wish, or don't if you have better things to do. If you ever encounter my ministry in future years and get given a flyer about a Lent Course by me on this subject, you will know where it all started. Lucky you!