Saw this great cartoon yesterday refering to the bad call during the Broncos-Chargers game on Sunday. The ref blew the call, but took responsibility. Politics is, more often than not, placing blame on your opponent for a variety of issues. Yesterday, as news of economic woes hit, both the Democrats and Republicans quickly pointed fingers at the other. George Bush, in particular, has been blamed for a lot of things these past 8 years. The bad economy is his fault, high gas prices are his fault, catastrophic hurricanes and the govt. response to them are his fault, the Iraq War is his fault, etc. Lots of time spent placing blame. Little time spent finding solutions. That’s what I love about Jesus. The cross was His way of saying “Oops, my bad” on behalf of all us to a God who needed a scapegoat to take our place. He says,” Don’t waste your time pointing fingers. I’m right here. I’ll take the blame.” It leaves plenty of room for personal responsibility though. Wouldn’t it have been cool to hear Chargers coach Norv Turner say, “It’s our fault we couldn’t mentally recover from the ref’s mistake and stop the Broncos on any play after that.” Or to hear a presidential candidate say, “You know, every day I’ve spent on the campaing trail talking about what’s wrong in our country is a day I haven’t spent in Washington trying to solve our nation’s problems.” Can a person run for president without failing to fulfill their elected duties as a Senator, Governor, etc? It’s also easy to place blame in the church. We Wesleyans tend to hurl our blame upward toward district and denominational figures. Other times we spend hours at board meetings asking who cancelled the homecoming dinner and planned the service that went way too long instead of talking about issues that matter. And don’t even get me started on the music. Blame is always about the past. Blame doesn’t change the future. Bravery does. Bravery to move past the impulse to pass blame and instead discuss solutions to our shared problems. You can put lipstick and glasses on a ref, but….ahhh, never mind.