Can God Handle Our Rage?

Can God handle our rage? This question was posed to me this weekend by the Rev. Dr. Velda Love at the UCCB meeting in Cleveland. Simply put - yes. If we are created in God's image, with all of God's feelings included in us, then why wouldn't God be able to handle our rage?

But maybe the better question is, can we, humanity, handle each other's rage? Can humanity handle God's rage? I would say no. We have a culture of stuffing feelings down or in, of not being real and honest with ourselves and others. We demonize others as being "emotional" if they express their rage. We all know the current troupe of the "angry black woman." We've heard that a woman couldn't possible by president and be left in charge of the nuclear codes because she'll become overtaken by their emotions and push the "big red button."

Going back in history, most major civilizations and religions have a story of a great flood; god/gods get so enraged by humans that they decide to wipe everything away with a great flood and start over. It is clear that rage has been around since the beginning of time and we need to learn how to process rage. 

Do we need to wipe everything out? Tempting at times but no, that's not what we are called to do. We are called to live into and sit with this stuff - these feelings we have. We are called to sit in our own and other's rage. We are called to deeply listen to the rage of others because we need to fully see and experience others. Rage can be scary. Rage can turn violent. But rage is not unholy. Rage can shed light on the dark places in the world and our lives. Rage can invite us into deeper relationship and understanding. Rage can bring about change and liberation. Rage can allow us to do kin-dom building work.

God can handle our rage. I believe that us humans can handle rage. The choice is whether or not we will choose to embrace rage and use it to bring about good or if we will be fearful.