Sermon 4-29-07

Janet James

Acts 9:36-43

36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, ‘Please come to us without delay.’ 39So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, ‘Tabitha, rise!’ Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

The congregation joins in saying these words:

In silence, please pray for me
as I pray for you… Amen.

More Miracles …I don’t know about you, but when I read this story, I was surprised to hear about Peter raising Tabitha from the dead. I hadn’t heard this story before and I didn’t know that anyone but Jesus did this. I’ve since learned that Elijah, Elisha and Paul all restored the dead to life.

Stories of raising people from the dead were common in early Christianity. They occur too often to allow us to quickly dismiss them. I find this very interesting…

Jesus promised that his disciples - by gift of the Spirit -would do greater things, and according to the stories in the Acts, they proceeded to do them.

More Miracles …What do we learn from this story? Peter responded quickly to the men sent to get him.

Peter is deliberate as he sends everyone away and then prays. The text leads us to believe he is turned away from Tabitha when he prays. Clearly, Peter is focused on God. From God Peter is given this ability to raise her from the dead.

More Miracles …If we think about it, we may even know people who have been raised from the dead. Someone whose heart has stopped beating and through skill, intelligence and determination an individual has been brought back to life. Defibrillators and pacemakers are available today to keep a person alive… God has given humans the ability to discover and use technology to restore life to the dead. God gives US this ability.

More Miracles …Okay… Who was Tabitha? Why raise her from the dead? This is the only place in the Bible where her name is mentioned.

We learn that the
Greek word for Tabitha’s name is "Dorcas" which means gazelle.

I did a "Google" search and found that there is actually a Dorcas gazelle. They can be found in the region where this story takes place. They are one of the smallest of the gazelles. They have slender, graceful limbs and can reach running speeds of 60 mph and can maintain steady speeds of 30 mph.

Small, graceful, slender, swift and steady are adjectives that describe the Dorcas gazelle.

Tabitha is valued as a woman and a philanthropist. Obviously she used her hands and the skills she had making garments to serve widows in God’s name. It is no wonder that the widows weep when she dies and are among the first to be shown that their benefactress has been restored to life.

More Miracles …Tabitha lives in this new radical community where no one stays in his or her place! Common fishermen are preaching to the temple authorities, changing lives, and this woman called Gazelle heads a welfare program among the poor at Joppa.

In her work Tabitha is busy making a new configuration of power in which God uses what is lowly in the world to bring hope and relief from suffering to those in great need…

…To raise someone from the dead was a sign in the language of its own day. The language of our day in our culture may differ, but the sign is the same – new life as the result of resurrection power.

What Do We Have the Power to Do?
…There is a modern theologian, Matthew Fox, an Anglican Priest, who speaks of the Cosmic Christ. He reminds us that Christ is the "light in all things". He informs us that science now teaches that all atoms in all living things contain photons or light waves.

Let me repeat that: All atoms in all living things contain photons or light waves.

Matthew Fox says the Cosmic Christ, the Light in all things, is in all beings, not just Jesus.

Jesus welcomed the presence of the Cosmic Christ more fully than most people do.

He was the full presence of divine energy that came into the world and communicated the divine to all through him.

So what do photons, the light in all things, and Cosmic Christ have to do with today’s reading? …you ask…

Imagine what would happen if we acknowledge that Peter was made up of atoms with photons; with light waves. Peter carried the « Cosmic Christ;
the Light in all things;
the risen Christ
within him.

He was able to raise Tabitha – this small, graceful, slender, swift and steady leader, a woman who used her gifts to serve others in God’s name –

Peter was able to raise Tabitha from the dead because he carried the
« Cosmic Christ;
the Light in all things;
the risen Christ
within him.

Miracles do happen. They happened in the first century and they happen now.

Yet, today we have little expectation of life being restored. Stories of raising people from the dead are hard for us to grasp, but this much truth is at the heart of it: wherever the
« Cosmic Christ,
the Light in all things,
the risen Christ
is present there is new power to overcome the handicaps of human experience and new life as the result of resurrection power.

For the first century Christians, widows, by definition, are poor, on the bottom rung of society, without anyone to represent them or to protect them. They are marginalized. These are the ones to whom Tabitha, the Gazelle, has given life.

Tabitha dies and her life-giving work dies with her. Her death causes a crisis in the community. The most vulnerable ones have no one.

Their coats and garments are tangible evidence of the life of Tabitha and what her death means for them. These widows do not concern themselves with questions of theology, are not interested in the consolations of the possibility of a better world someday. They are too poor, too consumed with the need to get by one day at a time for such speculation.

Tabitha is gone; how will they survive? This is a story of the marginalized, a story lovingly recounted by widows and people like them, a story which suggests that like the prophets of old, disciples bring power to bear on behalf of the poor.

In this new community, widows will not be left to perish. Tabitha is restored to them by Peter’s bold word and act of solidarity.

This new, radical community stands beside those who have no one, even as God stands beside, among and within them. Lacking the power of the world, silver and gold, it has only one resource: the
« Cosmic Christ,
the Light in all things,
the risen Christ
that which transforms all structures and arrangements, changing them from structures of death into structures of life; creating new life as the result of resurrection power.

All this means that the
« Cosmic Christ,
the Light in all things,
the risen Christ
is in US!

When I read this story of Tabitha, I immediately thought of my mother, Grace McGaughey. She was a minister’s wife, a nurse who loved to do handiwork.

My mother lived to be eighty-six years old. She had mini-strokes – TIA’s – that diminished her some,

and she came upon her own ministry at some point in her seventies. She decided she would sew clothing for migrant children.

Now, my parents were on a fixed income, and as you can imagine with a minister’s salary, the income was quite limited… People got wind of what my mother was up to. They saw the beautiful dresses and matching outfits Mom was making for these young children – and they wanted to be part of it!

Before you knew it, Mom was being given all kinds of fabric, trims and threads that she could use for her ministry. She didn’t have to buy a thing! Mom made hundreds of outfits, right up to the day she died...

Mom used her gifts and needed only one resource:
« The Cosmic Christ,
the Light in all things,
the risen Christ
that transforms all structures and arrangements, changing them from structures of death into structures of life; creating new life as the result of resurrection power.

Many participated in the Holy Boldness, all-church extravaganza these past couple of days. They have discovered or recovered awareness of their unique gifts.

These gifts are the
« Cosmic Christ,
the Light in all things,
the risen Christ
within us.

We are to let our light shine; we are familiar with the song, "this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine" – perhaps our light is not so little! Maybe we have to envision a bigger light!

Think of all the light waves that exist in us – in each atom that makes up who we are. We are to do all that we can to serve God as we can, where we are today. We are to stand in solidarity with the marginalized. Every time the
« Cosmic Christ,
the Light in all things,
the risen Christ
in us reaches out like Tabitha and my Mom, we bring resurrected life to the wounded world.

Miracles happen!

We learn that Tabitha devised an affordable welfare system. Peter refused to stay with his fishing nets and leave theology to the scholars. The word comes out –
« The Cosmic Christ,
the Light in all things,
the risen Christ
- and stands beside them, among them, within them.

These miraculous events announce a new age, an age where reality is based upon God’s promise; new life as the result of resurrection power.

This is the prayer for my life,
may it also be yours. Amen.

Janet A.M. James
Pastoral Intern
Colgate Rochester Crozer
Divinity School
4-29-07