We live in a time when there is a rising tide of anger and frustration in many of our spaces. We see injustices against marginalized people that have been ramped up, seemingly with impunity. It is difficult to try and boil down this reality to a simple talking point because there are so many examples. There is the current environmental disaster perpetrated on a small NE Ohio town. The ongoing water crises in Flint, MI and Jackson, MS are assaults on communities that are majority people of color. As the anger rises, there are leaders within the community of Christ-followers that misinterpret our text for this week, and they tell us we shouldn’t be angry. Yet, when you look closely at Matthew 5, Jesus isn’t instructing us not to be angry.

The deeper question that Jesus raises is what we do with our anger. When anger turns to dehumanizing our neighbor, we are going down the wrong path. Anger that expresses itself in dehumanizing behavior can often turn to violence and ongoing degradation of the human community. In this early text from the sermon on the mount, Jesus is calling us to resist the temptation to let our anger lead to the interactions that diminish the humanity of our neighbor. In a day such as this, it seems a tall order, but the Gospel continues to remind us that the new community that results from making this choice is within our reach.