Thursday, July 19, 2012

Daily Office Reflection: Two More Days

Garden Terrace, DC, 2011
Psalms 37:1-18 * 37:19-42; Joshua 3:14-4:7; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 26:1-16

Jesus tells his disciples they have him for two more days, and then his Passion will begin. They don't get it. Plotters gather to capture Jesus, he is anointed, by an unnamed woman, with expensive oil from an alabaster jar, his disciples complain about waste, and Judas offers his soul up for thirty pieces of silver.


Today's "action" in this Gospel from Matthew takes place in the home of Simon the leper. With so much going on in these sixteen verses, this little piece of the story tableau can be easily overlooked. Jesus and his followers are in Bethany and are taking dinner in a lepers house...Two days before he is to be "handed over" and he has chosen to spend time with a leper...an outcast/unclean/spurned from society individual. And his disciples are cranky over "waste" of good oil. Two days left.


Where in our lives are we misdirecting our energy, and in that misdirection not understanding the urgency of the work we are called upon to do, in the relatively brief period of time we have to accomplish those things? How are we, today, helping to create the Kingdom Jesus opens for us? How are we utilizing the "two days" we have left?
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

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