The Blame Game

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

In case you have been living in a cave for the last few months, we are in the middle of a hotly contested presidential race. Right now the Democrats are fighting with other Democrats and the Republicans are fighting with other Republicans, but soon it will be time for these two parties to fight against one another. It seems every election year we see the same ol’ song and dance. Instead of looking at the problems we are facing in this country they just bicker back and forth against each other and they strut and snort like two bulls across a fence. Politicians love to play the blame game. Every time something happens in this country the leaders and the would-be leaders seem to work really hard to find someone to blame instead of working to find a solution to the problem. There are those still trying to blame the other for 9/11 instead of working together to rebuild Ground Zero. That is the problem with the blame game; it solves nothing, it rebuilds nothing, it does not bring people together it only drives people apart. We are all guilty of playing that game, aren’t we? When we are kids and run through the house and knock over our mother’s favorite vase, we play the blame game. When we put a dent in our father’s truck when we just get our license, we play the blame game. When the police officer pulls us over for going to fast, we definitely play the blame game.

We see the blame game here in our story from John this morning. We have all heard this story before. Jesus is walking with his disciples and they encounter a man who was born blind. The disciples begin to play the blame game. They ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” They want to know why this man was born blind. The conception in those days was that the deformities and diseases that afflicted people were caused by either their sins or the sins of their ancestors. Since this man was born blind it must have been his parents that caused his blindness. This was punishment for something that they did in the past. The disciples want to know. Jesus reveals a surprising answer, he says it was neither his parents nor him, but he will be used to demonstrate God’s glory. Jesus does not fall into the trap of the blame game.

It is hard not to get caught up in this dangerous game. It is human nature to find a reason that things happen, especially when those things are tragic. We want find the person or party responsible so that we have a focus for our anger, frustration, and grief. We want to do to them what they did to us. We demonize those responsible, we hate those responsible. What happens when we get it wrong? What happens when those we know are guilty turn out to be innocent? How many times have you been watching a cop show on TV and about middle way through you know who done it? You’ve know it and your sure of it, take them out and shoot them, they’re guilty. Then it turns out to be butler that no one suspected. That is entertaining when it is on our TV shows, but what happens when it is in real life? Our legal system is based on the premise of innocence before guilt, but how many times does it happen the other way around. This is just some of the dangers of the blame game.

I want to give you two examples of recent events and how some of us reacted to them. One is on a national scale and the other on a more personal level. In 2005, we all saw the horror of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Millions of people lost everything; thousands were stranded in the Superdome and the Convention Center without food or water. Today if you were to travel down to the Gulf Coast in a lot of places it would look just the same as it did in September of 2005. Now the politicians and even some of us decided to play the blame game. We want to know why this storm hit this particular place. There are some who blamed God and wondered how could a loving God do this? Others said that it was the people of New Orleans who were to blame. New Orleans was not the most Christian of cities. It is known for partying, sexual promiscuity, drugs, and even black magic and voodoo. These were the reasons why God punished New Orleans by sending a destructive hurricane. Others blamed humans and the effects that we have caused to the earth. People blamed global warming, pollution, coastal erosion, overpopulation, and other human-made problems. We failed to be good stewards of God’s creation. The reaction of the government was also to blame for the aftermath. People blamed the local government, the state government, and the federal government for the lack of rapid reaction. These were just some of the players in that blame game.

Let’s look at the other scenario. Most of us have seen a homeless person on the city street. We have seen this person asking for money in Nashville or some other large city, maybe even in Pulaski. What is our initial reaction? We wonder how someone allows themselves to get caught up in such a state. We blame the person. We think that this person must be a drug or alcohol addict and waste all his money. Maybe he gambled all his money away or maybe he is just too lazy to get up and work. He just wants a handout. There are others of us who blame the social systems. Maybe this guy lost his job, he was laid off and could find another job and was forced to the streets. We blame corporate greed and the selfishness of the businesses in this country. We blame the cycle of poverty that runs rampant in this country. However, what does blaming solve? Does blaming put a roof over the head of a homeless person or rebuild a community devastated by a natural disaster? No, it does none of these things.

Let’s look back at our story from John. What does Jesus do? He does not follow in the blame game that the disciples have started so what does he do? He heals the blind man. Jesus sees a problem and works to solve the problem. He saw that a man was blind and gave him sight, he saw that people were hungry and provided them bread and fish, he saw the world was full of darkness and he came to be the light, he saw the world was full of sin and separation from God and he gave himself on the cross of Calvary. He does not blame people for what happens to them, instead he does what is necessary to give them hope and rebuild their lives.

We see the initials all the time don’t we, WWJD? What would Jesus do? Instead, let us look at WDJD, what DID Jesus do? If we are to follow the actions of Jesus then we must take action to fix what is broken. We must stop the blame game and do something to solve the problem. We have to DO something to help those who are hurting and feed those who are hungry, and shelter those who are homeless. We have to continue to support those who are helping to rebuild the Gulf Coast, there are more and more volunteers that are helping and they need our support. Perhaps we could be volunteers. We have to call our representatives and ask for more federal funding to help rebuild this area. We have to tell our leaders to stop playing the blame game and start doing something constructive.

We have to help the homeless person. Not only by giving them our spare change but by talking with them. We need to help them find permanent shelter. If they are indeed drug or alcohol addicts then we need to get them into recovery. We need to treat what is ailing them and help them get back on their feet.

These are not the only problems we are facing in the Church. When we see a problem we need to do something to fix the problem, working together ecumenically, hand in hand because that is what Jesus did and that is what Jesus would do. We should only work on the surface but look deeper to the root of the problem and with discussion, prayer, and love work to solve the problem.

When we play the blame game we become blind like the man in our story. We cannot see what needs to be done and how it needs to be fixed. We divide ourselves further and further which only causes more and more problems. We must unite under the banner of Christ to help solve the problems in the world, to help further the Kingdom of God in the world. This is our calling, this is our mission.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.