[the] men and women behind prison walls don’t blame themselves for anything—what about the people with whom you and I come in contact?” [1] Thus Carnegie argues that criticism is futile because people invariably never blame themselves and will always seek to defend their actions.

Carnegie’s book demonstrates how Trump’s logic of “blame shifting” was already embedded in American culture going back at least 80 years. So, it turns out that Trump’s quote really is not audacious at all, but rather the long prevailing logic of our culture.

Beginning Lent

On the First Sunday in Lent 2016, I had the ‘logic of our culture’ in mind as I got up to lead our congregation through a penitential rite. We were preparing to pray through the Decalogue, the “Ten Commandments.” We were about to recall the instructions the God of Israel gave to his people and to consider the ways in which our lives fall short of his good plan. This would be followed by a confession of sin, when we would admit in front of God and in front of all those gathered that we have “done something bad” (to use the words of Trump) and we are to blame.

Before we started, I reminded the congregation that we were about to do something completely subversive and counter-cultural. In a culture that is always to looking to shift the blame, we are the ones who own the blame. In a culture that constantly makes excuses for its actions, we are the people who say,

We have sinned against you (God)

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;

we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

There are few things that we could do that would be more subversive than to publically admit that we are wrong. And on that morning, that is just what we did that. We were a room full of kneeling radicals who were bold enough to tell a different story about ourselves.

Lent is all about repentance. And repentance does not mean a return to status quo. Nor is it about realigning ourselves with American values. True repentance always subverts the status quo. In our culture, at least for now, it’s a subversive action.

Therefore, Lent is not just a yearly tradition we observe or a time for giving up chocolate. It’s an opportunity for a radical realignment of our values with God’s values. Lenten repentance has the potential to posture us with enough humility that we can become the kinds of people that are useful to the Holy Spirit.

May God lead us into true repentance so that we may become his holy people, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Amen.

Jon Ziegler is the founding pastor of Gold Line Church in Highland Park and frequently orders “al pastor” from taco trucks.

[1] Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, rev. ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, ©1981), 33.

Title Image featured in Huffington Post. Found here.