Who Goofed?

Sermon at North Hill, October 23, 2010

Life is pretty simple. How do you get cavities? Drink soda. How do you get lung cancer? Smoke cigarettes. How do you get a heart attack? Super-size yourself at McDonalds.

It's all straightforward, cause and effect.

Do stupid stuff. Get miserable consequences.

On the other hand, how do you protect your dental health? Floss and brush daily. How do you build strong muscles? Lift weights. How do you develop a strong heart? Run or swim or walk.

Again, it's simple cause and effect. Do smart stuff. Get happy consequences.

Adventists have emphasized this idea so strongly it permeates our entire church culture. And it has paid off. Adventists who follow the rules live ten years longer than the general population.

With all this emphasis on Follow the rules and enjoy happy consequences. Break the rules and endure miserable consequences, it's a small step to the idea: If you get sick, you must have broken the rules.

Whenever a certain person at our house gets a cold, I have to listen to an intense quest for an explanation. Usually this “quest for understanding” takes the form of self-incriminating statements: “I shouldn't have stayed up reading that book.” “It's probably because I ate desert on Monday night.” “I should've come in from the barn when I started getting cold instead of finishing mucking out the stalls even though my jeans were damp.”

When I protest that maybe she's sick because she interacts with the public and sometimes viruses catch up with you no matter what you do, she will have none of it. If Karin is sick, there has to be a logical, rational explanation. Usually, the explanation is attached to someone's choice, usually hers. Someone goofed. Someone is to blame. It never just happens.

But it does.

In early August of this year, Grace Makato Tam, 11, took an easy two-mile hike with her parents and brother to the ice caves at the base of Big Four Mountain. While they were checking out the caves, a chunk of ice the size of a car broke off the mountain above her and rolled down and struck her.

She died at the scene about two hours later. It was a terrible tragedy.

Who goofed? No one.

The place where this happened was the Big Four Mountain ice caves. There are signs warning people not to go into the caves. This girl and her parents obeyed the signs. They did not go into the caves. They were standing in a place that has always been safe in the past. And will probably be safe for the next hundred years. But for one second on August 2, that spot was in the path of a deadly ice chunk falling down the mountain and Grace was struck. And she died.

Who goofed? If you demand an answer to the question, who goofed, the only possible answer is God.

Turn's out the question, who goofed? Is simply the wrong question. There is no possible right answer to the question.

This is sometimes true when people get sick. We know smoking causes lung cancer. However, a few years ago, I met a couple who were here in this area seeking treatment for their twenty-year old son who had lung cancer. He had never smoked. He was a life-long vegetarian. He died a few months after I met them.

Who goofed?


This question, Who goofed? shows up in the Gospel of John. Jesus and his disciples were walking along and they saw a man who had been born blind. The disciples immediately demanded an explanation. “Who sinned?” They asked. “Whose mistake, whose goof, caused this pitiful situation?”

Who sinned?

“No one.” Jesus answered. “Nobody's sin caused this tragic disability.” Jesus went further, “You guys are asking whose sin, whose mistake, whose wrong-doing caused this. What you should be asking is what good purpose does God have in mind in this situation?” (John9:3).

NO ONE GOOFED! Can you believe that?

Here is a man who was born blind in a society without speech recognition software, without Braille. Someone whose only possible career was begging. And Jesus says about his situation: no one goofed. His mother didn't drink during pregnancy. She didn't clean the cat box. She didn't inhale too much cook fire smoke. The father didn't punch mom in the stomach. He wasn't a wicked man under a curse. Neither the blind man's sins nor his parents' sins had anything to do with his situation.

This man was born blind so that the glory of God could be displayed in his life. In this story, if someone goofed, it was God. God goofed. Or no one goofed.

In recent years, members of North Hill have faced some terrible realities. Children have died in automobile accidents. In both cases, our kids did nothing wrong. They did absolutely nothing unsafe. Still the unspeakable happened.

People have faced cancer, kidney failure, heart trouble, diabetes, malfunction in their knees and shoulders, chronic fatigue, depression.

In all of these situations, it's natural to ask, who goofed? Or how did you goof? What did you do wrong? We get in line with the disciples to ask Jesus, “Whose sin caused this problem?” Sometimes there is a rational answer to this question. Sometimes our difficulties are the natural consequence of our choices. Other times, insisting on an answer to the question, who goofed? or how did the sick person goof? leads us straight into the role of Satan—the accuser.

One of my friends believes that everyone creates their own reality. If you are healthy, you created that reality by your good thoughts and healthy habits. If you are sick, you created that reality by your negative thoughts and unhealthy habits. Of course our thoughts and habits do have some effect on our health. However, I wonder if my friend is still going to insist that we create our own reality when he's 97 years old pushing his walker around. If he makes it to 97.

Jesus was quite explicit. The blind man in John 9, did not end up blind because of his thoughts or mistakes or habits. He did not end up blind because of his parent's thoughts, mistakes or habits. In fact, if you read Jesus' words, you see that he actually dodges the issue of the cause of the man's blindness. Instead, Jesus focuses on the effect of the man's blindness. It was going to result in the glory of God. The reason the blindness was going to bring glory to God is because Jesus was going to step into the situation.

Which points us toward much better questions than who goofed? Questions like: What now? What can I do?

How should we respond to our friends when their life is derailed by tragedy, by illness, by difficulties? The very first thing to do is to deactivate our “Who goofed?” button and just be present with our friends. Do not offer your version of “Why this happened.”

Second, unless you are a doctor, don't offer diagnosis or treatment. Shut up!!!!!! Be quiet!!!!! Don't ignore the person. Don't hide from them because you don't know what to say. Just hang with them. If there is a concrete need you can meet—for money or help with chores or food, do something. But most importantly be there without prescribing, diagnosing, explaining, condemning, directing.

Now I want to really push you.

In John 8, we see Jesus in another situation where the question who goofed? is an obvious one to ask. It is the story of the woman caught in adultery.

She messed up. She was caught. She was dragged before Jesus in a public setting. Her accusers challenged Jesus to pass judgment on her.

Curiously, Jesus did not ask her a single question. He did not ask, what did you do? Why did you do it? What were you thinking? What was he thinking? Who was he?

Jesus asked her nothing.

He silenced and expelled her accusers. Then he asked her one question: "Don't you have anyone accusing you?" She looked around and said, “I don't see anyone sir.” Jesus answered. "I don't condemn you, either. Go and sin no more."

It would have been so easy to ask about her "goof." To give at least a little attention to it, to make sure she understood the gravity of her goof. This was not a little goof. This was a big goof.

Instead Jesus appeared to be utterly uninterested in her goof. He refused to assign blame or responsibility for her past. He was focused on one thing, a bright future.

That is God's call on our lives as well.

Don't waste your time asking yourself, how did I goof? How did they goof? Who goofed?

The next time you're tempted to ask, who goofed? don't. Instead, ask, "What now? What can I do to help? How can I help?" Then listen to what the sick one, the disadvantaged one, the hurt one says and do it.

This is especially true if you are the one who goofed. Don't beat yourself up. Don't waste your energy in analyzing how on earth you got into this situation. If it isn't obvious, don't worry about it. Move forward. Live forward. Go.