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This week’s Lectionary texts are quite the kick in the pants. If you were asleep to the plight of the poor, WAKE UP, it tells us. If you’re unaware of the priorities of the Divine, be enlightened.
God, so many in our world are experiencing hardship and suffering,
From poverty, from environmental destruction,
From sickness, from conflicts outside our control,
From overwhelming grief, from trauma…..
(Note: this litany goes along with the First Testament reading for this week. )
In Matthew 16, this week’s Lectionary Gospel reading, Jesus is clear with his followers about what’s ahead: great suffering. Peter can’t stand the thought. He thinks everything must be wrong if suffering is involved. Jesus rebukes him strongly for this.
Because he knows and points out that suffering is part of this journey here. Just because there’s suffering doesn’t mean he’s on the wrong path. He won’t be exempt from the human condition, from an experience of suffering, loss, death, betrayal, pain. He doesn’t seek it out, but he knows it will find him.
I never want to glorify suffering, nor insist upon it. I never want to cause or sanctify it. Rather I want to acknowledge it when it comes, and work to remedy it. I want a world in which suffering is no more.
God, we are suffering. Our siblings are suffering.
Suffering from the effects of systemic injustice,
Brutality and violence,
Racism and inequity,
Political polarization and environmental abuse,
Greed and oppression.