The availability of health care for all Americans promises to be a hot issue in the upcoming state and national elections. Millions of people have no health insurance coverage because they can’t afford to purchase it. Driven by the polls and with an acute awareness of the concerns of their constituents, politicians are promising to fight to make sure no one in our country goes without adequate health care and they ought to. As a civilized society we have a responsibility to do our utmost to assure that every one living in our country has access to the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, shelter and health care.

Some incumbent politicians will remind us of how they have taken on the pharmaceutical corporations in an effort to curb what they believe are exorbitant prices. Listening to the ranting and ravings of these politicians, you could get the impression that they view these corporations along with the oil giants as being amongst the greatest evils we are faced with today.

Other politicians have worked out deals whereby American citizens can purchase their meds at a much lower price from sources in Canada. The bottom line appears to be that, if elected, every one of them promises to do his or her best to contain the cost of health care and guarantee that everyone has access to it.

However, it occurs to me that there is something else which, as far as I know, all of them has either overlooked or chosen to ignore. For instance, I would love to see a national debate addressing another major contributing factor to the deterioration of the health and well being of Americans. I think it would be very interesting.

I believe we are doing a fine job in educating the public about the dangers of smoking or boozing it up or doing drugs, or engaging in unprotected sex, or not having certain routine medical tests etc., but I’m not aware of any warnings about the danger of people not getting rid of something which I’m going to be speaking about this morning.

I believe the government ought to be doing everything possible and warn Americans of the grave consequences of not ridding themselves of this one thing which is so detrimental to the health and well being of everyone. For instance, in giving it up we would go a long way towards greatly reducing the incidence of strokes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, stomach ulcers, spastic colitis, mental illness, suicide, physical and sexual violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, insomnia, eating disorders and, believe it or not, the cannibalization occurring in our midst.

Once I explain about my cannibalization reference most health care providers will acknowledge that they know from first hand experience the statement I just made is true. I can’t imagine that many politicians regardless of whether or not they are Christians will disagree with what I am saying and neither will each of you.

You would think that if I really know what I’m speaking about, everyone, religious leaders, educators, talk show hosts, the American Medical Association, the American Mental Health Association, the American Psychiatric Assn, the American Hospital Association and a myriad of other groups and individuals would be quick to embrace it and jump on board insisting on getting the word out to the general public.

I would love to see and hear Public Service Announcements on radio and TV, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, posters in schools, government buildings, doctor’s offices, hospitals, clinics, supermarkets and other public places alerting folks that this one thing I have been alluding to that we all ought to get rid of is not only dangerous to our health but could be even be fatal, especially for the cannibals in our midst.

I know I’ve been beating around the bush about the cannibals but I have done it purposely. I want to get you thinking. By now do any of you have an idea of what is I’m saying is something everyone should get rid of?

Ephesians 4:29-32 (NIV) 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger. Can you imagine what kind of a world it would be if only people got rid of their anger like God is telling us to do and if people sincerely tried to get along with everyone.

Hebrews 12:14-15 (ESV) 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

We must struggle real hard not to allow a “root of bitterness” to spring up from our anger. It can’t take hold and thrive if we get rid of all, not some, but all of our anger.

Matthew 5:21-24 (ESV) 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting that all anger is sinful because it isn’t.

Exodus 32:1-20 (ESV) 1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. 7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’
” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” 11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’?
Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. 15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17
When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
Another time there were certain big-shots Jews that were fleecing the common people who were rebuilding the walls which would protect the city of Jerusalem. And they protested loudly.

Nehemiah 5:1 (ESV) 1 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

At the time another Jew in captivity named Nehemiah served as the king’s cupbearer. His job was to taste the king’s wine and food before the king drank or ate it. In other words Nehemiah stood between the king’s life and death by putting his own life on the line. Obviously he endeared himself to the king.

When Nehemiah got wind of what those big-shot Jews were doing we hear him say:

Nehemiah 5:6 (ESV) 6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.

We find another example of righteous anger in a clash between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Mark 3:1-5 (ESV) 1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

The Scriptures tell us that God is often angry. In fact,

Psalms 7:11 (ESV) 11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation [righteous anger] every
day.

Ephesians 4:26 (ESV) 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
Notice God isn’t saying we should never get angry. But there is a correct way of dealing with it as we have just seen. We often like to think that all our anger is righteous but we are only fooling ourselves. There is also a sinful way of dealing with our anger. The choice is ours. All too often our anger isn’t justified. On the contrary, it is sinful selfish anger such as when someone doesn’t agree with us or we don’t get our own way. A good case in point is King Ahab. He tried to cut a deal with Naboth the Jezreelite. Naboth turned the king down.
1 Kings 21:4 (NIV) 4 So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.
Do you know anyone who has behaved like this? I do. Me. And I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t a spoiled child at the time. I was a grown man who acted like one.
2 Kings 5:1 (ESV) 1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
2 Kings 5:8-12 (ESV) 8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
Sinful anger is a major problem, not only in our own country but in the entire world. Can you imagine what things would be like if everyone dealt with their anger and got rid of it the way God has commanded? Even if our anger is righteous, we still must get rid of all of it.
Romans 12:19 (ESV) 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
There are some people who seem to thrive on being angry. I believe it gives them some kind of high. It is the kind of anger that is as tenacious as a Pit Bull. It won’t let go of its bitterness and resentment. It is always self-centered and refuses to forgive and move on.
It delights in harboring all sorts of get even thoughts in its mind; just waiting for an opportunity to spew it’s evil venom out of its mouth and onto the face of the person it is angry with. The loss of long standing friendships, marriage’s and other relationship’s is a price it is willing to pay in order to continue to enjoy such exhilaration.
Another form of sinful anger breads contempt for the person it is angry with. It unites with sinful pride and ridicules and despises the individual at every opportunity. It arrogantly lifts itself up and puts the other person down as much as it can get away with. Often it will trample over a person and do its best to destroy his or her reputation. And God says:
Hebrews 12:15 (ESV)
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
Ephesians 4:31 (NIV) 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Proverbs 21:19 (NKJV) 19 Better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman.
How would you like to be living in the same home with the Chihuahua lady from St. Peters, Mo.? She’s the one I read about in last Fridays Free Press. It seems that soon after she bought a new Chihuahua puppy and took it home the puppy died. The Vet told her the reason the puppy died was because it was only four weeks old and should have been returned to its mother.
Well, the woman returned the puppy all right. She pushed her way into the breeder’s home and kept repeatedly hitting the woman over the head with the dead Chihuahua. This woman appears to be one of those cannibals in our midst I mentioned earlier. These are the folks who relish and enjoy their anger. Allow me to explain:
“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to rollover your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the toothsome morsel both the pain you are giving back; in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.
Not only do chronically angry people financially impact our Health Care system, but our entire society as well. Unless they change the cannibal’s in our midst will pay the ultimate price, eternal separation from God and His people. That’s real bad news. But the good news is that Jesus came into the world and died an agonizing death to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9 (ESV). .