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March 19, 2023: The Blame Game

 

OK, with all the hype about legendary Viking Coach Bud Grant who died recently, I’ve got to say, “I blame him for my ears getting cold easily.”  You see, his style of playing football in the harsh cold of late fall was . . . no heaters, no gloves, no stocking caps.  So, I suspect his philosophy trickled down to my high school football team . . . and I was shivering on the bench waiting to play (with nothing to cover my ears), my intolerance today is Bud’s fault!  

 

Blame is something we all do.  When something goes wrong, something breaks, and something that was supposed to happen or be delivered doesn’t, there has to be someone to blame.  

 

The world’s a mess?  Blame the other political party or a cultural minority or the government agency of your choice.  Blame advertising, marketing and social media on our woes. 

 

We says, “It’s the fault of the manufacturer, the sales rep, the delivery service.  It’s because somebody messed up, like the doctors, the police, the teachers. There must be someone to blame”  

 

In the gospel, people wanted to blame the man’s blindness on sin (the man’s sins or his parents’ sin . . . somebody) Jesus replies, “Nobody. He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”  Bad things happen, because bad things happen.  It’s not a result of sinning . . . if it were, we’d all be blind, for we all sin.  Jesus doesn’t allow the people back then (or us) to solve our problems through assigning blame. 

 

When we blame, we can get stuck in many ways [reveal BLAME letters, one at a time] 

 

B - Bellyaching. Some people are always complaining about anything. Nothing is ever good enough.  Now, we all should complain when there is something immoral or abusive, but some people only see badness all around them.  And usually don’t do anything to help or fix the situation.  How much do you bellyache? Is that how you want to be known?

 

L - Lying to self.  That is, not naming the part that you played in the “situation.”  The real problem is that while we look outside of ourselves to place blame, we don’t look within ourselves for taking responsibility for making things right.

 

A - Arrogance, to presume that you are right.  To “dig in your heels” and not consider an opposing idea. 

 

M - Meanness. Especially to those closest to you.  Follow the way of Jesus he was kind even to those who challenged him like the Pharisees in the gospel

 

E - Excuses. More often than we realize, we’re looking for someone to take responsibility so we can take ourselves off the hook.  We find some strange satisfaction in nursing our grievances.  Take responsibility for your moods, the hurts you caused.  Are you part of the solution or part of the problem?

 

Jesus doesn’t allow us to solve our problems through assigning blame.  Jesus challenges us to discern the light of God in the midst of whatever darkness we experience.  We are invited to be children of the light (as the second reading said).  We can’t stay in the darkness and think that it will never get better.  That’s a big lie.  For our faith is grounded on hopefulness.  Grounded on the resurrection to surpass any crucifixion.  In the end all things will work out, and if it hasn’t worked out for you yet . . . means it’s not the end.  To think otherwise is a big lie which leads to excuses upon excuses. Another acronym for BLAME is: 

 

[Flip letter back over and reveal them again as I say, “Big Liars Always Make Excuses.” 

Bad things happen all over the world.  But with each catastrophe there are thousands of caring people who step in to help others. For every hurt there is a healing, which we don’t hear enough about.  The invitation for us as followers of Jesus is not to seek someone or something to blame and stop wallowing in “What’s not going right” but to OPEN YOUR EYES and recognize what’s going right. 

 

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