Daily Lesson for August 29, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Kings chapter 2 verses 1 through 3:

When David’s time to die drew near, he charged his son Solomon, saying: 2"I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, be courageous, 3and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn."

One of the most important gifts one generation can give to the next is the gift of speaking about death. 

Death should not go unspoken. For as in the Jewish tradition, the name of God is to go unuttered. But no other name deserves such respect -- not even death. To not speak of death, to allow it to go unnamed and unmentioned is to make it into a god, a most terrifying god of darkness. 

The House of the LORD speaks of death. The people of faith speak of death. My house speaks of death.

And what do we say about it? We speak of its reality. We speak of its sadness and sting. We speak of grief. 

And what else?  We speak of its liberation. We speak of its pathway.  We speak of its gift. We speak of its death also.

In the House of the LORD we learn how to speak of death. And in learning how to speak of death we learn how to think on death. And in learning how to think on death we learn how to die. 

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow 

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 

One short sleep past, we wake eternally 

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."

(John Donne)