Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Good morning
Any devotee of the cryptic crossword will have come across the near anagrams around the words anger, angered, enraged and – danger And that the same letters can spell endanger and end anger. All very useful to the crossword compilers.

These words resonate in the English language because of their closeness in spelling and sound. We can see the danger that anger causes: road rage, violence in the home, street fights fuelled by alcohol and drugs. And the fractures in human society along whose edges we rage against one another’s moral values, race or religion.
So could we end anger? It is the seductive message in the lyrics of John Lennon’s Imagine. Nothing to kill or die for, and – for good measure in today’s violence torn world – no religion too.

But perhaps to end anger might endanger something about our humanity. I am quick to anger – I wish I were not, as I end up upsetting people and having to apologise. But I am also grateful for slow-burning anger against poverty and injustice and abuse, because it provides the impulse and the energy to do something about them.
There are things in this world to which the only rational response is powerful anger: not a thirst for revenge, nor the desire to harm the perpetrators, but the power to speak out against wrong and put things right.

This is recognised in a surprising verse from a hymn about Jesus by John Bell and Graham Maule, in which Jesus is described as ‘raging’ against injustice, and the singer is invited to rage with him in the cause of good.

God, may our anger never endanger our relationships or the lives of others. But may steadfast rage right wrong, in your power and your love.
Amen