Tabitha: Sermon: April 17,

Transcription

1 Tabitha: Sermon: April 17, Tabitha The Book of Acts describes how the movement bearing the name of Jesus spread out from Jerusalem to the world mostly by following the stories of Peter and Paul. Acts provides us with wonderful stories of the early church; one writer has called the Book of Acts the yearbook of the church. It does not provide us with the whole story but gives us the story Luke decided should be remembered. Our scripture reading this morning begins in Joppa, a city about 45 miles northwest of Jerusalem. Joppa was the main port in Israel. This was the city to which the reluctant prophet Jonah went when he sought to escape his God given mission to bring God s word to the non-jewish citizens of the city of Nineveh. In Joppa, there was a woman whose Aramaic name was Tabitha, who is also known by her Greek name Dorcas. Both names mean a gazelle. She was a highly regarded Christian in her community. This is the only place in the New Testament where the feminine form of the Greek word for disciple is used. When we consider the nature of relations between men and women in the first century and how unequal they were; this is another example of how in the new community that grew around Jesus no one is staying in his or her place. Common fishermen such as Peter preach to the authorities at the Temple, paralyzed men are up and walking about, and a woman named Gazelle leads a compassionate, loving assistance program among the poor of Joppa.

2 Tabitha: Sermon: April 17, The story of Tabitha, aka Dorcas, aka the Gazelle has merit on one level because it is the one of the few and first stories we have of the apostles being able to raise the dead. We know that the apostles were able to heal and to preach Spirit-inspired sermons, but the power to raise the dead is a new level of importance. We can see the power of resurrection that has been passed to the apostles and that the resurrection was at work in the life of the earliest communities of believers. Tabitha was a widow. In the first century widows tended to be poor, on the bottom rung of the ladder of society, without anyone to represent them or protect them. When the husband died, the entire estate went to the first born son, leaving the mother with nothing, except perhaps the benevelance of the son and his family. It was to these widows, Tabitha, the Gazelle, had given life. Her reputation was from the simple act of sewing clothing for the poor. It seems this was her one extraordinary talent. Not particularly remarkable we might think and yet, and yet, Tabitha surpasses every other woman in the Bible. She is the only woman who was called a disciple. Tabitha was a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. She opened her heart to Jesus and that changed everything. The word disciple means a learner or a follower, and that became Tabitha s motivation in sewing clothes. It was out of gratitude for Jesus that she dedicated her gift, her talent to Jesus. She was following in the example of Jesus, following the prompting of Jesus, to do good and help those in need.

3 Tabitha: Sermon: April 17, The highest calling of Christian ministry is to care in practical ways for the most vulnerable in society, especially widows and orphans. In the first century, ports such as Joppa would have had a high proportion of widows, more than other towns. It was during bad weather that fishermen, merchants and naval seamen were often shipwrecked and drowned. Their wives and children lost not only their husbands and fathers, but also their income. Let us remember the instructions of the Lord from James 1:27: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. And that is one of the reasons New Hope has the JLH Joy-Love-Hope food pantry and extending it to 5 families each month beginning this month of April. We rightly place an emphasis on evangelism in mission, but we also place an equal emphasis on supporting compassion and mercy projects. This is because people do not care how much we know unless they know how much we care. Many of the widows and children in Joppa walked around in clothes made by Tabitha. She became a person of importance in the church, as she found fulfillment in it, and focused her serving in doing that which what she was gifted from God. Each of us has a particular gift or talent that we may put to the good for church. Tabitha realized her potential she had a talent for sewing and she shared this gift from God. Well known for her good works of generosity and charity, she died and messengers raced to Peter to urge him

4 Tabitha: Sermon: April 17, to come without delay. Tabitha s absence would leave a big hole. The widows of her congregation cried out to Peter when he arrived showing him the clothes she had made for them. At what was supposed to be Tabitha s funeral, the women brought the things that she had made for them the things that they would remember her by these precious gifts of clothing she gave and now she was gone. It is amazing how emotional clothing can be. Now that Tabitha was gone it meant a great deal to have something that her hands had stitched. If you have ever had to take care of someone s clothing after they die, cleaning out the closets and sorting things - it is one of the most painful and most intimate of all the things that must be done. Clothing can be extremely emotional. We read in verse 40: and then he Peter knelt down and prayed. Kneeling is an act of humility. After he prayed, Peter looks at Tabitha s body and says, Tabitha, get up!, which reminds us of Jesus raising the little girl, as well as Lazarus, and of the resurrection of Jesus himself. Peter s power to heal is not to be seen as magic, but a function of his close relationship with Christ who is risen in power and glory. Peter returns Tabitha to God s Holy people saints and to the widows and presenting her to them alive people come to believe in the Lord as almost always happens in the Book of Acts when God s power is displayed. The last verse we read this morning is: Peter stayed in Joppa for sometime with a certain Simon, a tanner. To Jewish

5 Tabitha: Sermon: April 17, people a tanner was practically an outcast; Jewish law regarded the work as defiling, since it required working with animal carcasses, blood, and skins, which were ritually unclean. I would imagine that they smelled bad, as probably did the tanner. That Peter, who was born and raised a Jew, would stay with a tanner not just for a night but for some time shows that he had begun to disregard some of the practices and beliefs he had been taught. He was learning that many of those practices and beliefs were not essential to a personal relationship with God. A good disciple follows their master and that is what Peter did. In Luke 6:40, Jesus said everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. With Tabitha, Peter simply copied what he saw the Lord do in a similar situation. In Mark 5, Jesus raised a little girl back to life. As Jesus, Peter took Tabitha by the hand and said, Tabitha, I say to you, get up. And like Jesus, the Lord answered Peter s prayer and raised Tabitha from the dead. The Bible mentions only seven people who were raised from the dead. Tabitha is the only adult woman among them. The effect of Peter raising Tabitha from the dead was that many came to believe in the Lord as a result. In 1 Peter 4:10, we hear these words: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God s grace in its various forms. Each one here this morning is a part of the community of faith. We are called to care and to serve each other and more importantly, to care and to serve all those that the world has tried to leave behind the literal and figurative widows and orphans.

6 Tabitha: Sermon: April 17, Let us pray: Our heavenly Father, lead us to be more like Tabitha, recognizing our talents, our gifts from You, O Lord. Let us use these precious gifts in service to you by caring for those who have been left behind for whatever reason. We pray in Jesus Holy Name. Amen. Our closing hymn is # 348, Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling. Stand. Altar. Benediction: May the God of Grace and Peace guide us during the coming week, as we humbly lift our prayers to you, Father God. Amen.