Cross + Culture
The 7 Sayings: Anger and Forgiveness
What are we doing here?
“Cry aloud and do not hold back!”
- Isa. 58:1
Today begins the season of Lent—a time of turning our attention to God and working out our faith in the raw materials of our everyday lives.
This is a time to share and wrestle together. We don’t come expecting quick fix or a “sweep it under the rug” approach to real questions. Instead, we will bear burdens together and learn to live faithfully in and with our anger.
Ground Rules
Be honest.
Speak in "I" statements about your own experience, not generalizations.
Everyone has a right to lament their anger without our judgments.
Listen to understand, not to correct or convince.
This is not a space to argue who is right but to wrestle with hurt and anger faithfully.
What's shared here stays here—honor each other’s vulnerability.
Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-9
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
3
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
Discussion Questions
· What injustice in the news or in your own life makes you genuinely angry right now?
· Where do you see the church (or Christians) complicit in injustice, either by action or silence?
· Is there an offense you're angry about that you've been told you shouldn't be?
What would it mean to let yourself feel it fully?
Reflection: Anger is a secondary emotion.
What primary emotion is beneath your anger?
Holding and Throwing Rocks
Prayer and Commission
Prayer
God, you hold no rocks—you sent us your Son. Y ou are merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness… yet you do not ignore guilt or injustice. Teach us to cry aloud and not hold back. Help us let go of our rocks and live free and open-handed. But do not let us become numb. Give us inspired ideas to loosen the bonds of injustice—to untie the heavy loads others carry, to provide for the wanderer and the vulnerable. We will name our anger and ask "Where are you?" And listen for your whisper, "I am here." Amen.
Commissioning
This week, pay attention to your anger. Notice when it rises. Ask what's beneath it. And hold it—don't ignore it, don't let it consume