Blame

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Blame keeps the sad game going

It keeps stealing all of your wealth

Giving it to an imbecile with

No financial skills

Dear one

Wise

Up

          Hafiz ala Daniel Landisky

_________________________

 

It is so much easier

To place the blame

On those it is easy to blame

 

The immigrant and refugee

That black American we do not quite understand

And whom (perhaps) we fear

That growing population of people

Who are brown, black, and every color of the rainbow

 

Who are “not us”

 

Without a thought

We accept the myths and lies

We make “them” the problem

 

Those people

Those invaders

Those commie, Marxist liberals

Those MAGA faithful

 

It is easy to deflect accountability

For the ills of our country,

Our world

Away from ourselves

 

So easy to make our parents,

Our spouse,

The cause of our disordered souls

Our discontent

 

There is a reason

We confess

Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you

in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done,

and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, mind, and strength.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

In your mercy, forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are,

and direct what we shall be, that we may delight in your will

and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name” 

PCUSA Book of Common Worship)

 

It is our look in the mirror

Our recognition that we are the masters of

Deflection and denial

 

We must always start with ourselves

We must always end with ourselves

 

We have made a mess of creation

We have made a mess of the systems

By which we govern and protect

 

We have made a mess of what Jesus started

 

We have

I have

You have

 

Repentance must almost always

Come before blame

 

Repentance is not shame (and perhaps not blame either)

It is the recognition that we have not

Done everything right

 

It is also an expression of hope

That God will indeed help us “us amend what we are,

and direct what we shall be, that we may delight in [God’s] will

and walk in [God’s] ways to the glory of [God’s] holy name” 

 

The only way we can help make the world better

The only way we help pull the Kingdom of God into existence now,

Is by starting with ourselves,

By walking along the Way

 

By being the change we hope to see

And then with deep humility

give an explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope.”    Acts 3:15

 

…the fact that we know

we are loved and forgiven