Tabitha
This Sunday is traditionally known as good shepherd Sunday, due to the theme of the gospel passage. Most preachers will take this as the text for their sermon, but as you probably know by now, I am a bit unusual, so I am not going to talk about the good shepherd. But if you find yourself longing for that, then I commend to you the excellent reflection written by Kelly
Morgan the other day. She was spot on, and you will find it thought provoking.
I want to talk instead about the story from Acts. Acts of the Apostles is in some ways a continuation of the gospels, as it tells the story of the apostles during the time after the resurrection. But it is really not one book so much as a collection of short stories. There is an overarching theme, but it is made up of a number of short episodes, like the one we have today.
We meet Tabitha, a righteous woman in Joppa. Well, we really don’t meet her because as soon as she is introduced she falls ill and dies. Her friends begin to mourn and they send two men to fetch Peter who is in a nearby town. Now at first, this seems strange. Peter and the apostles were clearly well known figures. They still aroused the ire of the authorities, but the
people loved them for their acts of love and kindness. The apostles had begun to work wonders in Jesus’ name, healing the sick and the lame, and giving sight to the blind. But this was different, Tabitha was already dead.
Nevertheless, the men come to Peter and he travels with them to the house. When he gets there the people trip over one another telling him how wonderful Tabitha was. Clearly moved, Peter puts them all out of the room, kneels in prayer, and raises her from the dead. Peter changed her life, and the lives of those who knew her.
Peter had the power to change lives. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter was able to change lives forever. He had the power to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, even to raise the dead. But as miraculous as these acts are, they are not what I am talking about. By sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, Peter was offering people a changed life. For once you meet Jesus, your life is forever changed. The miracles are important, but they are not the entire story.
Through his faith in Jesus Christ, Peter was able to change the lives of all he met. Some in large ways like healing the lame or raising Tabitha from the dead, but also in smaller ways. Think of the people who knew the ones that Peter healed. Their lives were changed by his act of kindness to those they loved. Think also about the untold number of people whose lives were
impacted by their encounter with one of the apostles. Acts is full of stories of the spread of the gospel and people being baptized. It is this sharing of Jesus that changes lives in profound ways.
Just as the apostles had this power, each of us has it as well. In our own baptism, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. That same spirit, in whom we live and move and have our being, imbues us with gifts and talents. It is these spirit-given gifts that give each of us a unique power and a call to ministry.
You may not be able to heal the sick or raise the dead, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have gifts to share. Remember the line from the wonderful old hymn, “If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus and say, “He died for all.” There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.”
We don’t all have the same gifts, but each of us has gifts unique to us, which equip us to share the gospel. Yours may be a gift of hospitality, or music, or teaching, or art. You may be a great cook, or a writer, you may be a good listener, or knit prayer shawls. You may be a leader, or prefer to sit alone in silence and pray. But each of us has gifts. Our task is to identify them, to recognize them for what they are, and to use them to accomplish our mission; sharing the good news with all we meet.
For it is not only the apostles who have the power to change lives. We too, as modern day apostles, have the power to change lives. When we tell the love of Jesus and say He died for all, then we too are changing lives.
But a word of warning to you. Changing lives is not for the faint of heart. It will not be easy or comfortable. To do this, you will be called upon to go places you don’t want to go and to do things you don’t want to do. You cannot preach the gospel only to the folks at Club Med. Using your gifts will take you outside your comfort zone and challenge you in ways you would
likely prefer not to face.
Peter was a humble fisherman who never expected his life to be anything other than ordinary. Yet through his encounter with Jesus, Peter’s life was forever changed and he was transformed into a capable leader who spread the gospel and built the church. Remember Ananias from last week? Jesus sent him to heal Saul of his blindness. Ananias was shocked and tried to talk God out of it as he was afraid to encounter Saul. Yet he did as Jesus asked
and Saul became the apostle Paul. We don’t hear of Ananias again, but I am certain that his life was changed after he embraced his calling from God.
Peter would likely have preferred not to take this journey. Ananias certainly tried to avoid his journey. Yet, once they accepted their calling and used their gifts, they changed the lives of many, including themselves.
Find your gifts, figure out how you are called to use them, and go into the world. That is what it is about; the ability and the willingness to change lives. We say this each week, but perhaps we say it by rote so it may have lost its meaning a bit. We close each celebration of the Eucharist with this admonition. “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” That is a dismissal,
but also a challenge to live into our calling. We are to go into the world, even to the places we may prefer not to go, to show the love of God to a hurting world. When we do that, we are changing lives and are showing our love for God by loving one another.