Sermon for August 12, 2018 focusing on Paul's letter to the Ephesians
Fear and honour, praise and bless, give thanks and adore the Lord God Almighty in Trinity and in Unity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Creator of all. (From the Rnb XXI, 2) St. Francis of Assisi Our Church’s patron, St. Augustine, once said: “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage.” Truly it seems like an odd thing to say about the Christian concept of hope. Odd that that anger can be an important element of faith. The reason why I mention this quote is you may have noticed that St. Paul begins his letter by affirming anger and I quote: “ Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger …” Paul allows for anger within the community with the condition to lay it to rest before you sleep. However, later in his letter he states: “ Put away from you… anger …” in order to allow for the way of forgiveness, and God’s love. You might have noticed that S. Paul seems to be talking about two different kinds of anger.