Transforming Projections of Anger

(Note: We get another great blog entry this week from Rev. Myra Brown. This entry was related to yesterday’s readings and speaks to God’s anger – which has been greatly misunderstood and mischaracterized. Rev. Myra breaks this open for us today and helps us refocus our attention back to our anger. Thank you, Rev.Myra!)

There are few scriptures where humans are depicted as taking on the role of calming down or advising God to choose another perspective or option than the one God espoused about the children of Israel. The passage from Exodus 32 (7-14) is one of those rare occasions that have often been used to convince us that God has some out-of-control vengeance and temper and wreaks havoc on humanity when angered. We have a scene set where Moses, says, come on God, don’t be like that, remember your promise to their ancestors. Moses, reminds God of the gossip that could be generated from Egypt if he loses it on the Children of Israel.

Stories like this read like a haunted tale making God the boogie man who keeps us looking over our shoulder. To understand passages like this, it helps me to reflect first on my own experience with anger. As we all watch what is happening in Ukraine, our hearts are quickly filled with anger as well as compassion. I find myself angry at President Putin for committing such violence, angry at President Biden and other leaders for not doing enough to stop it, and angry at myself for not knowing what to do.  Behind my anger is often pain. Maybe you feel some of that. What I do with that pain will determine how I will act. I can either give it to God to be transformed into trust and faith, or I can focus on that pain until I want to lash out.

As humans, we tend to see God through our lashing out experiences. Perhaps that is what Moses is doing in the Exodus reading. We know that Moses had anger management issues throughout his leadership in Egypt and during the Exodus through the desert. Who can ever forget his tantrum of breaking the tablets coming down from Mt. Sinai?  God was always calming him down. It is now God who is portrayed to reflect anger management issues and Moses who is the one trying to calm God down. This is very likely a literary projection.

The ability to transfer our stuff onto God is not uncommon either in scriptures, or in real life. Think of all the times where we were angry with someone who hurt us, and either prayed for God to repay them for the hurt, or assumed they would get theirs in the afterlife.  

In the gospel Jesus has a great line as he attempts to differentiate himself from our Exodus perception and projection of God. Jesus challenges the image of a God as one who looks to accuse us, put us down, judge us, and punish us for some mistake we have made.  

Jesus says very clearly, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope.”

Here Jesus reminds us that he hasn’t come to report our failings to God. God isn’t an angry God waiting for an accusatory report that focuses on our failings. Humans traffic in angry accusations of one another, pointing to our human tendencies reflected in Moses.

During this forty- day Lenten season, we are invited to retreat with Jesus to let go of things that get in the way of us showing up as our best selves. What is that for you? What if we focused on letting go of the part of us that accuses others unjustly, and quickly? What if working on self- control that taps down becoming so easily angered helped us show up as our best selves. What if this journey with Jesus reversed the projections of anger we place on God and help us to take responsibility for what is ours to own? I plan to work on my anger management, perhaps you would like too as well. William Arthur Ward once said, “it is wise to direct your anger toward problems—not people; to focus your energies on answers—not excuses. “