Absent Acrimony Alleviates Animosity Series

This was the case here in my text. The ADVERSITY, with which these separate people were enduring, was strictly by mere chance: Accidental.

Not only are the happenstances of coming together by mere chance, the meeting between some people can be very negative, even Acrimonious. I have found over my lifetime that for the most part, people really want to get along with one another. Yet, there are times when personalities and the make up of people can be very disturbing and troublesome. I have also found it to be most common that the problem with people getting along together is always the other person’s fault. Rarely does anyone accept the blame for interpersonal conflict. In addition, regardless of how pleasant one may be to the vast majority of one’s acquaintances and friends there is always that instance when there arises conflicts between even the mildest people. As one Quaker once remarked to his fellow Quaker after surveying the world of sinful people, “My friend, me thinks there are just two people going to Heaven-you and me-and sometimes I wonder about, Thee.”

Maybe these people on board were not the best of people, but the tempest certainly made their nerves stretch to the limit and together they found that there were tensions and trials among some of the people on board. Did not the captain upbraid Jonah for being lazy and self-centered when he was sleeping and others were praying for help? If there are any rough edges to a personality, these often become evident in the midst of trials and tests. The adverse situation on board that ship that day was highlighted by people who were thrown together by chance and the circumstances brought out the worst in some and the best in others, as we will soon see.

Is this not typical of life? People who may be very easy going and as the Spanish say, “Muy Amable,’’ can suddenly turn about face and become something of which they wish they were not. When these things do occur-and they do-it takes all of God’s grace to help the level headed person to stay on target and not to sink to the depths of one who is very Acrimonious.

The last part of this first division of my sermon has to do with the sharpness of the situation once people begin to display their feelings to one another in a most negative manner. Sometimes these feelings and expressions can become very sharp, definitive and Acute. When people such as these people on board that day are thrown together by chance in the midst of great strife and some began to display their negative sides, feelings can become very raw, very sharp, very quickly.

The story is told of Sir Winston Churchill and a woman opponent with whom he had to deal from across the isle in the House of Commons during the Second World War. This particular woman had an acid tongue and she earned a reputation of absolutely cutting her opponents to shreds by her sarcastic wit. In fact, not too many people of the opposition really wished to engage her in battle due to her acidic tongue.

One day this woman engaged Sir Winston in a debate about his conduct of the war. Of course, she intimated that he was miss handling every aspect of fighting the enemy. She finally concluded her barbs by saying, “Sir Winston, if I were your wife, I would pour poison in your coffee.” The House gasped as the staid English protocol was breached by a personal attack on the PM.