My last sermon as an intern.
Community – a Lifeline!
4/21/13
Psalm 23 Acts 9:36-43 Year C
Last week Pastor Barb spoke from
the Gospel of John and mentioned how the two individuals of Peter and John
complemented each other in the community of the disciples. John saw and recognized the Lord first
and Peter was the first one to take action and led the group forward. It took both of them working together
in community, to bring the group to the beach to have breakfast with Jesus. I imagine they would have all arrived
there eventually but it is notable that the gospel writer takes the time to
define the roles and the mutuality of this group of disciples.
In our scripture this morning we see Peter out on his own,
away from the other disciples but still doing the work that he saw Jesus
doing. Work that the Holy Spirit empowered
Jesus’ disciples to continue as Jesus ascended to the Father and sent the Holy
Spirit to dwell with humanity.
The book of the Acts of the
Apostles, which we shorten to Acts, is the continuing story of the lives of the
disciples after Christ’s ascension, Pentecost and the beginnings and growth of
the church. Well, mostly it
is about the continuing story of Peter with the added dramatic adventures of
Paul. In fact the first part of
chapter 9 tells the amazing story of Paul’s conversion. It makes one stop and wonder why do we
have this telescopic look at the amazing conversion story of Paul and then in
just a few short verses hone in on a story that takes place in a widow’s small
bedroom in the town of Joppa. It
is like standing on the beach and looking out at the ocean liner on the horizon
and then looking down and seeing the sand crab at your feet. How does the significance of the life
and work of Tabitha fit into the same chapter as the significance of the life
and work of the great apostle Paul?
I wonder, would we even have heard the story of Tabitha had it not been
that her life was tied up in the work of the apostle? But with this account of Peter and Tabitha
Luke has given us a beautiful picture of what it means to be community. And how the greatest and least all work
together for the wholeness of the community.
In this town of Joppa, a seacoast
town where Jonah boarded the boat to run away from the Lord, is a community of
Christians trying to live out their faith in a secular world -- a world of a
variety of faiths, a world of exploration and of financial gain, a world of
political and spiritual unrest.
Sound familiar? One of the people
we find here is a woman by the name of Tabitha.
We need to remember that Tabitha is
a widow and being a widow in this era of history was not an easy life. Widows were often grouped among those
who need special consideration such as the orphans and the poor within a
community. Widows were vulnerable
in this society where they had little significance. Professor Branch compares this vulnerability of widows to
Jerusalem in an article where she says,
“Indeed, the poet of the Book of Lamentations captures this sense of
vulnerability by using the word “widow” to describe Jerusalem after
Nebuchadnezzar razed the city. Gone is her resemblance to a queen; vanished are
her protectors, lovers, friends. Slavery, affliction and harsh labor await her
in exile.” But says Branch;
widows are often referred to in scripture as a special teaching opportunity for
the Biblical authors to present theological insights. “… widows can
serve as special textual markers to alert readers that something significant is
about to happen.” I think that is
what we have here in the story of Tabitha.
Tabitha lives on the margins of society. She has no one to protect or stand up
for her. Yet Luke describes her as a disciple – the only time in all of
scripture that the feminine form of the Greek word for disciple is used. The only time it is used in all of the
New Testament. A disciple of Christ, living on the margins of a secular
community has died and the loss of her presence is so keenly felt that the
women mourning her death, after preparing her body for burial, place her body
in the “upper room” where they gather just one more time. During this process the community hears
that Peter is nearby as the news of his healing of Aeneas in a town just 10
miles away has reached their ears.
Now they decide to call on Peter to come quickly as Tabitha has died.
Perhaps they know that Peter will be needed to pastor the mourning friends or
perhaps they have hope that Peter will be able to bring their friend back to
life. Either way they are sure of
the power of Jesus that is being displayed by this apostle. They long for a miracle and so they
call on all the resources this Christian community has afforded to them.
This ancient community in Joppa was
suffering a great loss in their midst.
Just as we this very day feel the
great loss of the suffering, the illness and death that we are all experiencing with the cities and surrounding areas
of Boston and of West . As lives
are torn apart by fear and devastation; as the suddenness of death marks one
day from another -- there seems
little way for us to make sense of all this. Even within our own community as we
hear of high school suicides, as we experience life changing and life
threatening illnesses , job losses, and the devastation of flooding; we too like
that faith community in Joppa yearn for a miracle!
This community in Joppa lost one of their
beloved saints. Tabitha was not a
professional but she served humbly by supplying clothing for the widows of the
town. Her good works were probably known not only to this faith community but
also to the widows of the wider vicinity of Joppa or at least that may be
implied by the fact that we are given her Greek name of Dorcas, as well. Tabitha did what she could to help heal
the brokenness of widowhood. These
women who attended to Tabitha at her death were friends and were broken-hearted
at her passing. This group had
been a lifeline for one another.
Even though what brought them together was the give and take associated
with clothing there was much more involved in these relationships. And the
wider faith community realized the value of these relationships in creating a
wholeness of life for these widows.
As a whole community they interceded for the life of Tabitha in their
mourning, in their prayers and in their calling out to Peter.
The fact is that the church needs
to be a place of hope and of Easter resurrection – not only on Easter Sunday,
but every day. The season of
Easter prepares us and strengthens us to claim that wholeness of life for which
Jesus was crucified and resurrected. We need to claim it for ourselves and then we need to
share it with our faith community.
Peter displayed the power of the resurrection for the people in the
“church” at Joppa because they were willing to make themselves vulnerable
enough to ask Peter for help. We
too have access to that power.
Ephesians 1:28 and following says, “ I pray that you may now the hope to which he has
called you… and his incomparably great power … that same power that raised
Christ from the dead”
On the fringes of that faith community, within a company of
widowed women, Peter walked into a tiny upper room. Peter heard their stories and saw the fruits of the
ministry of Tabitha, and then Peter asked to be alone with Tabitha. In the presence of the risen Lord,
Peter said to Tabitha, “Tabitha get up”.
“Tabitha opened her eyes, saw Peter and sat up,” says Scripture.
Peter
then presented Tabitha, ALIVE, to her friends, to “God’s Holy people”,
scripture says. And the
result, the scripture says, “The word spread throughout Joppa and many put
their faith in the LORD” – not in Tabitha, not in Peter but in the LORD!
Do we forget about that? Do we forget that the result of our caring
for one another, even within the context of our own faith community, is a
demonstration of the power of Christ?
We would think that as fellow Christians it would be easy to make
ourselves vulnerable to one another in a way that would allow for Christ’s
healing to be manifested in our own lives together. We need to be well and healthy within our faith community
and then take our God of healing to the hurting world. To the students who see no way into
tomorrow but through suicide, to those hurting in loss of relationships among
family members, to those who are aging in a culture that finds little value in
old age, to new parents who feel like their days and nights all run together
and there is not relief in sight.
Let us work in this Easter time to bring about health in one another, in
our committees, in our homes and in our families so that we can be renewed to
life through the power of the Holy Spirit that resides in each of us. In that
way many will believe and have faith in the risen LORD!
And as we think about the often
familiar words of Psalm 23 which we read this morning, we get a beautiful
picture of a personal life lived in communion with God, perhaps a life lived by
someone like the widow Tabitha. In the book of Acts, we get a picture of living out that communion with one
another. The community of church,
of Christians, our communal life with one another makes a difference in our
lives and in the lives of those around us. Community does give us life. Not that it can always physically resuscitate
us from the dead but it can surely feel like that sometimes. I pray that we can so connect with God
that we are filled with God’s goodness and mercy that we can be a lifeline to
those within our faith community first and then to a world filled with hurt and
doubt; so that God may be glorified and many will come to faith in the
LORD! Amen
