Are You Ready To Stop The Blame Game?
Good Morning Friends,
We live in a time of victimology and I am not sure we fully understand the specific causes and the nature of suffering connecting victims their perpetrators and other social groups and institutions. There is so much below the surface of our emotions. The problem is that dissenting and nonconforming views are too often silenced and obfuscated by politically incorrect speech or worse yet violence where victims become offenders and offenders become victims. No one wants to take responsibility for the problems that occur. We are all filled with excuses. In today’s text Jesus addresses the issue of pecking order and how we value or devalue children and women. Jesus pushes the needle of social change. It was a challenge then for people in power to share in the accountability for other’s actions. And it is still a problem today. Interestingly Jesus on the cross take becomes accountable for us. He died for our sins. Are You Ready To Stop The Blame Game?
Scripture: The word of the Lord came to me: What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”? As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die. If a man is righteous and does what is lawful and right— if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her menstrual period, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not take advance or accrued interest, withholds his hand from iniquity, executes true justice between contending parties, follows my statutes, and is careful to observe my ordinances, acting faithfully—such a one is righteous; he shall surely live, says the Lord God. If he has a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, takes advance or accrued interest; shall he then live? He shall not. He has done all these abominable things; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself. Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.
Ezekiel 18:1-10, 13b, 30-32 (NRSV)
Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.
Matthew 19:13-15 (NRSV)
Message: Ezekiel’s prophecy to the people of Israel teaches us to accept appropriate responsibility for our individual lives and the larger community. Jesus in the Gospel reading, by his words and actions, makes it clear that children and women are not to be excluded from the blessings and not to be a dumping ground for blame. And Ezekiel makes it clear that the children are not to blame their parents either. Here is the thing…God’s people in captivity believed they were being punished unjustly. They were turning away from the Lord believing that the suffering they were experiencing was not their fault. And yet they were blind and refused to own up to their sins and responsibilities. We too live in a society where racism, classism, sexism exists. Sometimes life is unfair. People can easily believe that their situation is unjust. And indeed, some people suffer for situations that was not of their own creation. And yet the blame game in these situations is not a reasonable solution to the problem. Everything is intertwined. We are all touched by the hand of the past, and no one is the master of his or her fate. We did not ask to be born to whom we were born to. We come into world under circumstances we did not create. As in Ezekiel’s day so too today… parents have eaten sour grapes, and that caused the children to grind their teeth from the sour taste… but using that as an excuse was not acceptable then and is not to be an excuse today. Certainly, every parent knows our decisions effect our kids. The thing is that we may not be master of our own fate, but we can take greater responsibility for making the world a little better one child at a time…one action at a time.
Pray we are ready to stop blaming others and eager to take on greater personal responsibility. Pray we realize that Jesus cares about each of us as children of God and that we were created to respond to God’s love. Pray we realize that most bad people have wonderfully good qualities and most good people have some bad as well. Pray we not be so eager to get off the hook when it comes to the problems of society. Pray we consider the cost of assigning blame. Pray we depend on the Spirit of Jesus to guide us. Pray we realize that we have been sent by Jesus to bless others and invite them to follow the better way. Pray we learn to be like Jesus in our attitudes, behaviors and character. Pray we are actively learning to love God and to love others. Pray we realize that real positive and transformative change only comes when we align ourselves with God’s will and God’s ways. Pray we learn from the teachings of Jesus. Pray our minds are transformed so we might actively be engaged in a community of followers on an effective mission to the world.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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