Today’s Reading:

John 9:1-5 (Message)

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

Today at the CoOp we will be attempting to Let Go of Blame.  This is a toughie for everyone I am convinced.  Blame comes up in our everyday life…

We bump into someone we know at the grocery store and we hear that so and so and so and so are splitting.  Our mind wanders to questions such as….did someone cheat on the other?  Did they fight?  Did he have a drinking problem? Did she not put enough time into the relationship?  Whose fault is it?

Someone we hold very dear gets sick and our minds turn to….why would God do this to her? What did he do to get this?  What did I do?  It may not be rational but we want to place fault somewhere.

The church budget has a large deficit and it doesn’t look so hopeful right now….What pastor did this to us?  Why weren’t we financially responsible before?  Who didn’t tell us that this was happening? What program didn’t bring in enough people? Whose fault is it?

And you see, these are all the wrong questions.  In our scripture today, Jesus says, “It’s no one’s fault.  You are missing the point.  God is at work here…how will you join in the work already happening?”

Whose fault? No one!  We have work to do!  So stopping asking the question and join with me in do the work of God.  There is light already here we get to join in and see what God is doing today.  If we spend all of our energy on fault and blame, we lose the opportunity to do something new, creative and exciting.  As it says in an old Indian proverb, “Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings.”  In other words, while some sit around and complain about the church dying, there are new and creative things happening out there!  Join in and do something…something that lights you up, something that extends out, something that gets you moving, something that says, “Yup, I believe God is doing something right now!”

Amen?

Peace, Court