I'm a few days late in posting my sermon from Sunday. Early Sunday afternoon I left to go to Philly to visit friends and explore a ministry idea, but that is a later post. First I should tell you a little about Sunday morning.
I, well Bethlehem, participated in a pulpit exchange with the Wilton Clergy Association. For the exchange a member of the Wilton Friends Meetinghouse came to Bethlehem to talk about Quakerism and his faith journey and I went to United Covenant Church. I was excited to go to UCC because I have become friends with their pastor, Faith, and another member of the congregation. But also there is bit of history between the two congregations.
In a nutshell, UCC was created from two Covenant churches in the 70's, one of which was a church in Georgetown. That church was the Swedish Covenant Church which was founded by Swedes from mainland Sweden. Bethlehem was founded by Swedes from Olund Island which the mainlanders did not considered true Swedes because the island has switched between a Swedish and Finish territory. But realistically members have switched between the two congregations for years.
Worship at UCC was wonderful. Faith's husband, Dan, leads music on his guitar along with their 90 plus year old organist. Overall the liturgy felt familiar to me but different. The sermon was one of the last parts of the service and there was no communion, but theology-wise, there was nothing said that made me cringe. Honestly if I was not a pastor and looking for a church home I would probably go back and check the church out another time.
My sermon there was based on Acts 9:36-43, a beautiful story about Tabitha, who Peter raised from the dead through prayer. Here is my sermon from Sunday.
Tabitha died! The woman who was devoted to good works and acts of charity died. And probably quiet quickly too. “At that time she became ill and died.” One sentence, that’s it! Was she fine one day and the next morning she had just a sore throat or an ache in her side and two days later was she dead?
Regardless of how she died we know enough about Tabitha that she was loved and cared for by the members of her worshipping community. And Luke, the author of Acts, had heard enough about her and how wonderful she was that he too wrote things that suggests just how special Tabitha was.
She was a disciple, the only woman to be specifically named a disciple not just in all of Acts but in all of the New Testament. Luke cared enough to translate her name into Greek so that his readers would know what her name means. In English, Tabitha, or Dorcas, means gazelle, was she as strong and graceful as a gazelle? Scripture hardly gives that level of care that the author will translate a name so that even the original reader knew what their name meant. And we hear that Tabitha was devoted to good works and acts of charity. While we don’t know what exactly that means, what good works or charity she did, we know that she must have been a good woman, someone that we would probably want to know, someone that we would want helping us out, as a member of our congregation.
And after she died, the community mourned and washed her and laid her out as they grieved her death. And like any good funeral they clung to her life through the material things that she left behind. They showed off the tunics and other clothing that she made.
We still do this at funerals today. Not only do we have pictures of the dearly departed around the funeral home or church, we also often had other tokens of their life. When my husband’s grandmother died, at visitation, funeral and post-funeral lunch there were coolers full of cans of Coca-Cola, and people had a Coke on Dixie, since she was such a Coke fan and everyone knew this about her. At a family friend’s funeral they auctioned off her famed purple sparkly hat in order to raise money for her favorite charity. While no one could bare to actually take the hat (the winners of the auction gave the hat to her son) they raise a lot of money for an AIDS related charity that she spent much of the last 15 years of her life supporting.
At funerals I have seen purses, hats, art work, kitchen utensils. At funerals, I have eaten famed recipes and favorite foods. At funerals, I have drunk favorite drinks. And among the tears, the heartbreak and the grief, these items bring back loved memories of the deceased; they bring back memories filled with laughter, joy, happiness and hope. We cling to these items when we grieve. That is why some people will never be able to toss out that ugly, outdated and broken vase/artwork/shirt/hat/purse/piece of furniture because it came from a dead loved one and the memories of joy that item envokes help ease our grief that we still feel for them, even years after their death.
But what is most striking to me about Tabitha’s death and how much her community loved her and grieved her death is that they sent Peter for her. Now all we are told is that people told him: “Please come without delay.” We don’t know if they expected Peter to raise her from the dead, or if Peter knew her well and they wanted to make sure that he was there for her funeral. Maybe they went and told Peter because this was the first death they had in their community since becoming believers and followers of Jesus and they weren’t sure how her death should be handled. Therefore they called the leader of the church, the equivalent of the Pope (well really Peter was the first Pope) to come and help them mourn and lead them in their grief. Regardless of why they sent for Peter, Peter came. He got up and went with them to her wake, her visitation, her funeral.
And through prayer, Peter made Tabitha alive again.
Now wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could do that? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if at the funerals of our loved ones, at the funerals of the people who have touched our lives, we could pray and tell them to get up and they would open their eyes and be alive again?
I haven’t been to too many funerals, probably less than 50 in all. But at none of those funerals, nor at any funeral that any of my friends, family, or church members have been to, has the dead come back to life. Now am I missing something in the Lutheran church? Have the dead come back to life at Covenant funerals?
Now maybe if you had a different preacher here today on this pulpit exchange they would tell you something like “If you truly believe and pray hard enough Jesus will raise your loved one from the dead.” But I’m not like that, and I think if I came here and said something like that, Faith would be getting an ear full come tomorrow, if some of you didn’t even call her up this afternoon, as soon as you left here, to tell her about how crazy I am.
So where is the gospel for us? Where is the good news for us in this text? Well maybe the gospel, the good news, the Christian message here is that Tabitha touched so many people’s lives and in such a loving way that they wanted her to come back to life. Through her good works and acts of charity, she touched people’s lives and hearts. Many members of that Christian community probably came to their faith through her love towards them. Many people learned about Jesus through her words and deeds, through her good works, acts of charity and ministry to others.
Who brought you to faith? Your parents? A pastor? A friends? How did you or would you feel when they die? Not only would you mourn them as a person but part of the mourning process also includes giving thanks for how your faith life was effect by them.
Through Tabitha’s love for Christ she was able to share Christ’ love with others. Through Tabitha’s belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior she was able to show others God’s grace in this world. And that love and grace did not go un-noticed.
Through the grace that God has poured out on us, we are able to share Christian love and grace to others. Through Christ’s love for us, we are able to love others, and we all know that sometimes we are only able to love others because Christ first loves us. And through the power of the Holy Spirit that is flowing through us constantly we are able to use the gifts of the Spirit in order to lead others in faith and life. Gifts like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity and self control, help us show our faith to others and lead others to faith. Gifts like teaching, preaching, caring for the sick and the dying, parenting, and feeding the homeless allow us to show Christ in this world.
Yes Tabitha made a difference in her community. Yes Tabitha was loved by her community. But she was only able to make a difference and their love for her only occurred because God first loved her, the gifts of the Spirit were given to her and Christ first died for her. And God has first loved us, we have been given the gifts of the Spirit and Christ had died for us so that we might love and care for others and be Christ in this world.
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