Daily Lesson for July 17, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 26, a story about one of the last nights of Jesus' life:

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,1 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Up in Williston, VT there is a place called the Vermont Respite Home where those expected to live only six months or less go to spend there final days.  It is a small house with only a few rooms surrounded by a beautiful garden tended by the University of Vermont Horticultural program.  Every room looked out into the garden where during the summer roses bloom in all colors amidst the lush, green grass fed by winter's snow.  A bird feeder was placed outside each room's window, harkening the robins and finches chickadees and bluejays to come and receive their daily bread.  When you walk inside teams of morning and afternoon volunteers are busy whipping up made-to-order pancakes or baking from-scratch cookies.  Walk through the kitchen turn the corner down one of the hallways and the sound of a harp is heard at the foot of coming from one of the resident's rooms, it's celestial sound bringing peace and healing to one whose body is dying but whose spirit is alive.  Walk further down the hall and a family is gathered together around the room as a priest kneels in quiet prayer before administering the sacrament of communion to his parishioner and friend for the last time.  Soon the parishioner and his family can be heard joining their voices with the priest's as they together recite the familiar words of the Our Father.  A nurse hears and slips into the room to join in the prayer. Somehow the voices of the priest and the family and the nurse flow together perfectly with the soft rhythm of the harp down the hall.  

It is an extraordinary place and an extraordinary moment.  At times and places like this heaven and earth are not far from one another; that is always true when the dying are cared for with beauty and with love.