Anger Management

‘Anger Management’ was a 2003 Film starring Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler as an anger therapist and his client.

Adam Sandler’s character (Dave) is sent to anger therapy sessions after a mistaken incident on a plane.  Jack Nicholson plays Buddy the unconventional therapist who eventually helps Dave to accept that he has anger issues and how to deal with them.  If that sounds a bit dull, it isn’t – it’s a very funny film that has you squirming with awkwardness and laughing out loud at the frankly unlikely situations Dave and Buddy find themselves in. The famous quote of the film is

‘Temper's the one thing you can't get rid of by losing it.’

Apart from having a strange appreciation of Adam Sandler films dating back to the ‘Wedding Singer’ I mention anger management because it picks up nicely the theme of last Sunday’s (03 Feb) sermon and links us to our contemporary mission evening this coming Sunday (10^th Feb).

The Sermon challenged us about how we deal with anger in our lives.  Everyone gets angry, it’s a natural thing, a warning that something is not well with us.   Anger can be used to positive or negative effect.

Un-channelled and unchecked anger can cause great damage and injure and scar people deeply. We’ve all been at the receiving end of someone’s anger – when there’s been an explosion in writing, text, email, phone call or face to face, even with violence either to us or in front of us. Often harmful or hurtful things are said; words that wound deeply and are hard to recover from.

We can tiptoe around a person aware that the wrong word could make them explode, some are never confronted about their behaviour and so continue to behave in a deplorable way.  People use their temper as a form of bullying.But bullies need to be confronted,  especially anger bullies who often justify their outbursts by explaining they are ‘passionate’ or’ fired up’ about  an issue.

Anger bullies make me angry, but righteous anger can lead to amazing actions.

I believe in a God of love but I don’t have any conflict or contradiction in believing God gets angry about issues of discrimination and injustice. The Bible makes this clear throughout both the old and new testaments.

God got angry about abuses of power, mistreatment of the socially challenged, social injustice and needless poverty.

When God gets angry he often raises in us a passion to do something about it.

Since coming to Torquay two years ago I believe God has consistently led me to encounters with street people in Torquay. I say street people as a clumsy way of referring to the homeless, the drug addicts, the sofa surfers, the alcoholics. The undesirable groups that used to hang around the town hall, some of them used to come to our church.

I can’t get away from the deep held conviction that I/we/churches/ decent people with a conscience should be prepared to do something to help these people. I try and talk to them, learn their names and give them some dignity. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

I believe that church buildings in Torquay which have unused rooms and halls for 6 days of the week, could be used as drop in or help centres. But maybe we need to get more ‘angry’ about this situation and realise it’s just not right that people live life in this way and let that anger drive us to do something positive and good, and dare I say it, ‘God like’.

St Mary Magdalene Church in Torquay town centre opened up previously unused doors into their main building as a drop in café that caters for street people to holidays makers: a place where people can come for a coffee, bacon roll and a chat. They call it ‘The Living Room’ – you should pop in there for a drink if you have time. Customers from all walks of life are treated with dignity and respect. The people of the church channelled anger at the injustice of poverty and anger at the injustice of unused locked buildings to turn their building into a place of healing and integration. They work with the Police and Street Wardens and other public services; and through this project lives are being improved and bettered and people are finding God.

This Sunday evening (10^th Feb, 7pm) Mark Searle, the Vicar of St Mary Magdalene, is speaking at our contemporary mission evening service about ‘The Living Room’. My hope and prayer is that people who also feel that sense of righteous anger will come and hear Mark and then channel their anger into volunteering to help ‘The Living Room’.  

John Lydon from the band ‘Public Image Limited’ once sang the line, ‘Anger is an energy’.

He’s right – it’s an energy that if used for good can achieve incredible things.