Sermon Tone Analysis

Me: There is nothing I love more than a good old fashioned game.

I love to play baseball, black-jack and the blame-game.

Baseball I love because when it is played well two great competitors square off and the best man wins.

Blackjack is fun because it is a game of chance and always surprising, at least to me.

And I love the blame game because I am always right and you're always wrong.

I am so good at the blame game because I play it all the time in my head.

I am constantly playing the blame game.

I have figured out how to blame Obama for my financial blunders in 2010, there was that R rated show I watched totally Trump’s fault, and then there was that time I went out of control on a total sugar binge, yep, Cookie Monster and Tickle Me Elmo responsible for that one.

I got made skill game when it comes to blame.

I am faster than dirty harry on the draw and hit harder than his 44 magnum.

You never heard the saying, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

Listen, you laugh because you know the game well, don’t you.

Lean to your neighbor tell them: Don’t hate me, hate the game.

Game recognizes game.

We: We are all T-Shirt wearing, #get your blame-on

Just look to our current legal system.

Most of us remember the famous Affluenza case.

A headline recently said “Pimp sues Nike for 100 million?”

Why, “He beat a guys face in with the shoe” and you know “Nike should have a warning label so you don’t do things like that.”

A billboard from a lawyer reads, “Just because you did it does not mean your guilty.”

Listen, that Lawyer there is like the MVB in this game.

Isn’t it crazy how we carry lawsuits against people in our back-pocket:

I did not get that promotion because of ….

If she would stop nagging me then I….

I would stop looking at what I am looking at on computer if she

I would speak well of him if he made more money….

Or I would stop drinking so much if he would just…

Or, I would not scream at my children if they would just…

The ego likes blaming, the ego uses blaming like a bouncer at a bar.

Blaming has a way of keeping people away from the real story.

The real story that I did not get the promotion because I did not put in the work.

The real story that I am impatient and not a good listener.

The real story that I don’t really feel like I am good enough.

The real story about my pain avoidance, my intolerance for discomfort.

When we're guilty, it's tempting to blame others for our choices.

Have your ever woken up in the middle of the night and thought, I really screwed up.

And your second thought is, I need to get out of this.

I need to make this work.

I need an easy fix.

So you next thoughts are, “I messed up but who else is to blame?

Who else was responsible for this mess?”

I am not trying to say nothing bad has ever happened to you.

I am not trying to say that horrible things have not happened: racism, homophobia, rape, slander, gossip.

We live in a world where terrible, no good, very bad things, happen all the time.

Don’t you want to live in a world where you have real relationship, real belonging, real shalom.

As long as you are in the blame game, you can’t.

As long we continue the blame game it proves we are still Adam’s slaves.

Remember, how easy it was for Adam to blame God and Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent well he did not blame in anyone because he was not trying to hide who he really was.

As long as they blamed someone else, there was nothing for them to work on.

No growth.

Here is the truth about blame: When I blame, I stay the same.

There is no growth.

No improvement, no relational development, no real honesty about your story, and no moving forward.

I know many a people who every day put on the full armor of blame: the breastplate of “I am right,” the sword of “you made me do this,” the helmet of “seeing things my way,” the Shield of Non-Accountability whereby we quench every fiery dart of being held personally responsible for anything, and the belt of my truth is the truth.

Unfortunately, sadly, tragically people think this is the armor of God.

Here is where our Torah portion gives us more than a path but a cure, a cure to this toxic poison called “blame.”

Our Torah portion bring us back to the story of Adab and Nabihu but in a way it reminds us that all sin is strange fire and the sacred and the secular spaces can’t be treated the same way.

Leviticus 16:1–2:

This word atonement, I believe is French in origin and simply means “at-one-ment” or expiation of anything separates you from me.

Most people understand this day as the day, the moment where separation from God is brought to an end.

Two goats chosen by Lot.

“And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.”

(Leviticus 16:8, ESV)

The ESV presents Azazel as a proper name, this would have been the name of a Demon, perhaps a name for Satan himself.

The TLV and some other translations break up the proper name Azazel into OZ and Azel which mean roughly “the goat of sending off” or “scapegoat.”

We know the goat for the LORD will be sacrificed, it’s blood taken into the holy of holies, and it’s blood will cleans everything and the result it says is that it will make atonement:

“And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering,” (Leviticus 16:9, ESV)

And it makes atonement before God:

“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.

Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins.

(Leviticus 16:15–17, ESV)

This goat takes no blame on himself, his blood simply expunges, expiates, removes what ultimately separated Israel from their God: uncleanness, transgressions, and sins.

For the priest these were the three big categories of evil.

Uncleanness was failure to prioritize the sacred from the secular, transgression was willful and want-ful breaking of God’s Law and Sin was not hitting the mark.

The Life of the Innocent was accepted as payment for the wicked.

This was the goat that you wept for when it was chosen, this goat was the innocent one.

Lot’s in Israel were not games of chance but interpretations of God’s will.

No one in Israel would have thought this goat “happened” to have lot fall on him, he or she would have thought, “the Lord chose the Lot to fall on him.”

This goat was chosen and innocent.

That is a tragic but beautiful picture.

That goat makes an atonement for us and God.

But the other Goat, the one for Azazel.

“And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.”

(Leviticus 16:8, ESV)

This goat is important for atonement to be full and complete.

It says so…

“but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.”

(Leviticus 16:10, ESV)

This goat will not be slaughtered.

That is perfect logic.

After all, if we slaughter a goat that belongs to Azazel then we are not just committing idolatry but satanic idolatry.

Yet, this goat will make atonement by having something put over it.

“And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat.

And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins.

And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.

The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.”

(Leviticus 16:20–22, ESV)

All of the iniquities the first goat cleansed from the Tabernacles are now verbally pronounced over this second goat for Azazel.

All the iniquities, those are inner thoughts that are deep and crooked, transgression are the willful acts against God’s laws and sin is failure to hit the mark.

This goat for Azazel goes to the wilderness carrying our sins but how does he help atonement at all?