Laying Blame
I heard the story once (many years ago) of a couple of older clergy wives 9in a mainline denomination) discussing the struggles of another church that neither of them were involved in. At some point, one commented to the other that the reason the church was failing was that they had started having square dancing in the church hall. No, it wasn’t a skit featuring the “church lady” from Saturday Night Live.
While we may all see that as hopelessly dated and out of touch, there remains the temptation to attribute bad things to some hidden (or perhaps not so hidden) sin. When hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, a very well known religious figure said this was because of the rampant immorality of the city — as though God is sitting in heaven counting demerits and when the threshold is met, BAM, a tragedy is tossed their way.
Jesus confronted the same mentality in his own day. Click here to read the account. Apparently, Pilate had sent some soldiers to where religious sacrifices were being performed and killed some of the worshippers. What was their sin? Or 17 were killed in the collapse of the Tower of Siloam. What was their sin?
Jesus is clear that God is not some cosmic scorekeeper. Good things happen and bad things happen in this created order. God “sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).
When things don’t work out the way you want, God is not punishing you. When something bad happens to someone, they are not being punished for some secret sin. Yes, there are consequences to our actions, that is part of God’s design of creation. But God is no scorekeeping puppeteer.
The sobering part of Jesus’ words comes when Jesus declares that “unless you repent, you will all perish as they did” (Luke 9:3, and repeated in verse 5). The warning here, I think, is “you’re no better off than they are.” The minute we want to blame someone’s misfortune on their sin, we need to remember that there is plenty of sin in our own lives to warrant the same or worse!
We all depend on the grace and mercy of God. And there is plenty!
Life is hard. Sometimes really hard, almost unbearably hard. But rather than looking for blame for the hardness, let’s give thanks for the grace and mercy!
This column appeared in the March 20, 2022 edition of St. John’s eNews. Click here for the complete issue.
If you are reading this at a different time, you may click here for the current eNews.
