Seven: Wrath

The third of the seven deadly "root sins" (1 Timothy 6.10) is wrath. Wrath is not the same as anger. Jesus became angry on at least one occasion (Mark 3.5), and Paul instructed the Ephesians not to sin when they became angry (Ephesians 4.26). Many things can make us angry, but wrath is an unreasonable anger. It is anger gone to seed. Wrath is used to control others, a beast which seeks to make the world around it as it wishes.
Wrath is seen in many forms today. We see it when children, spouses, and boy- or girl-friends are abused. We see it in bullies, whether they are children on the play ground or grown people shooting others because the victims had cut them off on the highway. We see it in ethnic cleansing, office buildings, and post offices (hence the term "going postal"). It is seen in the mother who one day ignores her four year old jumping on his bed, but the next day beats him silly for jumping on his bed. Wrath is like a simmering pot on the stove. Any increase in temperature causes it to boil over.
In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Captain Ahab (and eventually his ship and crew) suffers from wrath. He believed the white whale had maliciously "reaped" his leg from him and had to be made to pay for the crime. If you remember the story, all save one perished and the white whale lived on. It is wrath that drives Lamech to murder another man just for wounding him (Genesis 4.23-24).
If pride is caused by an over-estimation of oneself and envy by unthankfulness, it seems to me that wrath has to be caused by the desire to have one's world the way one wishes it to be. Thomas à Kempis said, "Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be." Wrath is the emotional and spiritual friction generated by two opposing forces: the expectations we have of ourselves, others and the world around us, and reality. When we have unreasonable expectations or wants (my children will never embarrass me), the likelihood of wrath increases. However, the chance of anger turning into wrath is increased exponentially the more self-centered we are. Wrath, in a sense, is a temper tantrum. Remember, wrath is not just losing one's temper (although losing one's temper can lead to sin). Wrath is the perpetual state of having lost one's temper.
Wrath is the fuel that also powers revenge and retaliation. Violence can be a form of self-medicating for the wrathful. Other people displeased, mistreated, or harmed me so someone has to pay-it doesn't necessarily have to be the people who did it as long as I get to vent my feelings. I can even choose myself to be the target of my wrath and destroy myself through depression, over-eating, drugs, alcohol, and sex.
This is why the first step of Alcoholics Anonymous struck me as so profound. I am not God (or Higher Power as the case might be); therefore I do not have the power to control others or the world (and sometimes even myself). This, in fact, is the message of the Bible. When God says, "I am the Lord thy God", He means that we are not. Since I am not God, I am not king of the mountain and things will not always go my way and people will not always do what I want when I want.
God, in Christ, teaches us to examine our expectations-is it reasonable to expect such and such to happen given all the factors involved? He has also taught me to guard against unreasonable interpretations. After all, did the car that just cut me off really do it to spite me? He has taught us that other people do what they feel like and what they think is right just like I do. So when they don't do what I expect, He reminds me that I often do not do what He expects. Let us counter wrath, then, by nurturing a forgiving spirit, empathy, and compassion.

The Elders