God’s anger over injustice and hypocrisy is the hot passionate anger of a lover betrayed and aggrieved, an anger which craves reconciliation and rekindled love, not punishment.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Anger (Page 2)
The story of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son is a crucial part of the message of grace.
Jesus is angered by our trivialising of religion that inoculates us against the claims of a holy God, and calls us to clean out the crassness and commercialism and approach God on God’s terms.
God is deeply hurt and offended by our rejection of God in favour of things that are worthless, but Jesus has made possible both our forgiveness and our reconciliation.
The story of Jonah nurtures our own life of faith, revealing that God can work his purposes out even in and through people like Jonah and us.
When the world falls apart, God recognises the pain, the despair, and the anger, and gifts us with faith, with an assurance that God’s power of love will yet prevail, that God will accomplish the justice and the peace we long for.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son may really be intended by Jesus as the Parable of the Loving Father and the Angry Brother.