The Blame Game

"The Blame Game" – Luke 8:26-39

Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, June 22, 2025.

"Friends, this moment calls us to something deeper. Something braver. Because we live in a world of scapegoating. A world eager to name enemies so we don’t have to name our fears. A world quick to assign blame so we don’t have to shoulder responsibility, shoulder any responsibility for our economic instability, our divided communities, our imbalance of power and wealth, our climate disasters, our fragile mental health. "But we must not play along.

• Who have we chained so we don’t have to face our collective anxiety?
• Whose torment are we tolerating to maintain the illusion of homeostasis?
• Whose name have we replaced with our fear?
• And what would happen if we stopped? If we listened? If we asked with compassion, 'What is your name?' and stayed long enough to hear the truth beneath the trauma?
• What if the ones we’ve tried to silence are the very ones Jesus sends back to us, clothed and in their right mind, to proclaim what God has done?"

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