I’ve Been Meaning to Ask… Where Does It Hurt?
Rev. Dr. Leslie Taylor, preaching
This week's question implies that we all know about pain and suffering. To cultivate connection, we must first get curious about the pain others carry and the pain we carry ourselves. Before we can act, we must first acknowledge and believe the pain is real, for bearing witness to each other's pain helps us cultivate compassion.
In the dual healing story of the hemorrhaging woman and Jairus daughter, we acknowledge those who suffer chronically and in isolation. By telling these women's stories, we hope to bear witness to the particular and very common struggles related to fertility and reproductive health. Additionally, we must confess the harm done by neglecting the emotional, physical, individual, historical, and systemic wounds among us.
In this passage, we find Jesus in the midst of human life and all its hurting. He is in the press of the crowd with sweaty human bodies and the scent of a woman's blood. Jesus stops and listens to this long-hurting woman-as if pain were not so shameful but something we all experience. Jesus then enters a stagnant, grief-filled room, no doubt smelling of sickness and death. He reaches out and touches the body of a girl already thought lost. These relational and embodied healings humanize those whose hurting has been pushed aside, calling our attention to the broken systems that can perpetuate and dehumanize pain. Jesus healing disrupts the injustice of a woman who has been rejected and labeled impure for her condition. With the girl, Jesus disrupts death itself.
How might we allow Jesus to disrupt us enabling us to acknowledge others' pain so that we may seek life together?
Where do you hurt, and where does the world hurt?
What pain has been ignored, silenced, or unacknowledged?
What pain have you missed or ignored? How do you feel? Where is God in the midst of this?
We must put ourselves in the uncomfortable places where human beings live, breathe, and hurt — because those are the places where we will also find Jesus.
Based on 1 Samuel 1:1-18; Mark 5:21-43
Music this week:
Holy is the Lord
Amazing Grace (Peaceful Easy Feeling)
I Need You More
Come and Fill
Offering
Here I Am, Lord