Where Does it Hurt?

BY MADDIE LAFORGE | November 22, 2021
Sunday’s Readings

Where Does it Hurt?

I’ve been learning to let this question guide me—in ministry, in social justice work.
It’s easy to get lost in the grandeur of this week’s readings.
It’s easy to get caught up in the language.
We could miss Christ’s presence.

Here he is: Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
     Coming on the clouds of heaven
     Robed in majesty
     The Alpha and the Omega

Here he is: King of the Jews.
     Handed over
     Disrobed, shackled, beaten, dejected
     Our Lord and Savior

Here he is: our friend, Jesus.
     Making himself known to us
     Revealed through Scripture
     Our joy, mercy and peace

In our story today, I imagine Jesus full of sorrow and disappointment as he says,
     But as it is, my kingdom is not here

Entering the Gospel today, I feel that sorrow and disappointment.
     If my kingdom did belong to this world,
     my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over… 
          To detention centers
Or juvenile hall
To dictators
Or abusers
To the tent beneath the overpass
Or just outside the bomb’s reach
To war’s violence
Or hunger’s pain

When we witness those around us handed over to unjust suffering, it is easy to get caught up.
     In rage
          Or despair
     In apathy
          Or cynicism. 

     As Christians, we live in the world of “already but not yet.” Sometimes this place of liminality feels frustratingly nonsensical. The kingdom we are called to create and inhabit is maddeningly imperfect and largely unfinished. We are called to be of this world, active and committed disciples of Christ. And yet, we are not to be conformed to this world. We let ourselves be moved by the beauty and terror of the world around us. We let ourselves be touched by the love and suffering of Christ and Christ’s people. We let ourselves fall in love with God, God’s world and God’s people. And somehow we cannot let ourselves fall into despair, apathy and cynicism. We hope faithfully; we love mercifully; we walk boldly and humbly with our God.

Discipleship calls us to go to where it hurts
     Because there we find Christ in our midst, who answered,
           “You say I am a king.
          For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
          to testify to the truth.”

Let us pray that we may belong to the truth that is, was and is to come,
     Accompanying one another with courage and humility   

Let us pray that we may listen to the voice
     speaking to us in the depths of our being
     resounding in the priesthood of the faithful. 

Let us pray that we may testify to the truth.