“The
Text:
Acts
© April 29, 2007 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton
United Presbyterian Church.
What
are we supposed to make of this story? A
woman named Tabitha dies, and then Peter comes and prays, and then the next
thing you know the woman is alive again!
What are we supposed to make of this story?
The
fact is that stories about miracles, like this one that’s recorded for us in
the book of Acts, make some people a bit uneasy. When some people read stories about miracles
in the Bible, they think to themselves, “Come on! That kind of stuff never really
happened! No, there has to be some
simple, logical explanation for what took place.”
For
instance, you probably remember the miracle story in the Bible about when the
disciples were out in a boat on the
But
if there really was ice on the
And
as we listen to this story today in the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter prays
and Tabitha is brought back to life, we need to realize that’s not the only
time that something like that happened in the Bible. In the Gospel of Luke, in the seventh
chapter, Jesus is visiting in a town called Nain. And as he’s passing through the streets, he
comes across a funeral procession. A
young man has died, and they’re in the process of carrying him out to be
buried. And his mother is there, a
widow, who is grief-stricken because now she has no one left in all the world
to care for her. So Jesus stops the
funeral procession, and he touches the stretcher they’re carrying the body on,
and he says to the dead man, “Get up!”
And immediately the young man comes back to life.
Or
just a chapter later in the Gospel of Luke, in the eighth chapter, a leader
from a synagogue, a man by the name of Jairus, rushes
up to Jesus and begs him to come and help his little girl who is critically
ill. But by the time they get to the
house, the child has died. But even
though everyone thinks that it’s too late, that there’s no hope, Jesus goes
into the house and says to the dead child, “Get up,” and she comes back to life
and gets up.
Or
in the Gospel of John, Jesus goes to the town of
It
might come as a surprise to some people, but that kind of miracle – where
people were brought back to life from the dead – didn’t start with Jesus. No, in the Old Testament we read about God
bringing about those same kind of miracles hundreds and hundreds of years
before Jesus. For instance, in the 17th
chapter of the book known as 1 Kings, the prophet Elijah meets a widow in the
town of
Or
in the book called 2 Kings, in the fourth chapter, we find Elijah’s follower, Elisha, doing virtually the same sort of thing. Elisha encounters a
widow whose son becomes critically ill and dies, and God works through Elisha to restore that son to life.
And
so when we read this story in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, about
Peter praying and bringing Tabitha back to life from the dead, what is that
story saying to us? In the Gospel of
Matthew, when Jesus is getting ready to send out the disciples on their first
mission of their own, he said to them, “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
the lepers, cast out demons.” Cure the
sick, raise the dead? If we’re also
Jesus’ followers, should we be out there bringing the dead back to life?
But
then when you think about it, consider how many amazingly faithful people died
in the Bible, but they weren’t all brought back to life. In fact, in all of the Bible only about five
people were ever brought back to life.
Moses died, and he wasn’t raised from the dead. King David died, and he wasn’t raised from
the dead. John the Baptist was beheaded,
but he wasn’t raised from the dead. Or
in the book of Acts, leaders in the early church like Stephen and James were
executed because of their faith, but they weren’t raised from the dead either.
So
what are we to make of this story about Peter praying and bringing Tabitha back
to life? On the one hand, it shows us
that yes there were certain times in history when God’s power was unleashed to
bring life to those who had died. But on
the other hand, I think we realize that God isn’t granting us some magical
power so that we can walk into a funeral home whenever we want and cause people
to leap out of their caskets. I think we
realize that it doesn’t work like that.
So
again, what are we to make of this story?
When Peter prayed and brought Tabitha back to life – what message was
God communicating to us through that miracle?
Well,
like I’ve mentioned before, whenever you come across a story in the Bible that
seems strange or puzzling, the best thing to do is to see how that story fits
into the broader context. In this case,
I think we need to ask ourselves: how
does this miracle fit into the overall storyline of the book of Acts?
You
see, the book of Acts begins after the resurrection – after Jesus had been
raised from the dead and after he had appeared to his followers on a number of
different occasions. And so the story in
the book of Acts begins with Jesus preparing to leave the earth and ascend up into
heaven. But before he leaves the
disciples, Jesus’ final words to them are these: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). That is their mission. To take the good news of Jesus and to keep
spreading it to more and more people.
And
then as you read through the book of Acts, you see how God enabled Jesus’
followers to fulfill that mission. But
what you find is that even though Jesus’ followers were faithful and really
wanted to accomplish the mission that God had for them, they didn’t experience
complete success right off the bat. No,
what you find as you read through the book of Acts is that those Christians
would experience some success in spreading the good news of Jesus to other
people, but then they’d have some setback when things didn’t go so well. But after some time they’d have some more
success, and later there’d be another setback when things didn’t go so well. But as time went by, God kept eliminating
those setbacks so that they could ultimately reach out to more and more people.
For
instance, the Christian church got off to a huge start on the Day of Pentecost
when the Holy Spirit came. And by the
end of that day, some three thousand believers had been added to the
church. But as soon as you turn around,
some of the leaders of the church were being locked up in jail for talking
about Jesus. But then they were freed,
and even more people became Christians.
But then Saul came along, hunting down Christians left and right,
putting them in prison and torturing them.
But then one day Saul met the risen Jesus for himself and his life was
turned completely around, with Saul changing his name to Paul and becoming
perhaps the greatest missionary in the history of the church, helping the
Christian faith spread to even more and more regions.
And
that story in Acts continued in Joppa, a city located along the Mediterranean
Sea. More and more people there were
coming to believe in Jesus, especially the poor people of that city, like the
widows who lived there. But suddenly one
day the church in Joppa experienced a huge setback when Tabitha died. We aren’t given a whole lot of details, but
it seems that Tabitha was the one had taken it upon himself to make sure that
the poor people in the city, like the widows, got the food and the clothing and
the other things that they needed in order to survive. And it seems that with Tabitha gone, there
wasn’t anyone else who was able to step in and take her place. So the Christians in Joppa weren’t the least
bit certain how their church was going to survive and how they were going to be
able to continue reaching out and helping the people around them.
And
so it was then that they sent for Peter when they heard that he was visiting in
a nearby city. And when Peter came, we
are told that the first thing he did was that he prayed. Presumably he prayed that God would show him
what God wanted to happen there in Joppa so that God’s mission could continue
on. And apparently what God told Peter
through that prayer was that in order for God’s mission to continue on in
Joppa, Tabitha needed to brought back to life so that she could go on with her
work. And that’s exactly what happened. That setback, that obstacle, was removed and
God’s mission went on.
For
many centuries there has been a certain dance that has been used in Christian
worship services. The dance is called
the tripudium.
And the tripudium is a very simple dance. It involves taking three steps forward and
one step back. Three steps forward and
one step back. And that dance is meant
to symbolize the way that God’s mission moves forward in our lives and in the
world. Three steps forward and one step
back. Three steps forward and one step
back. In other words, that dance
symbolizes for us that even though we might experience setbacks and obstacles
along the way, ultimately God’s mission is going to keep moving forward.
And
even in our church I think that at times we experience that kind of movement –
that movement of three steps forward and one step back. For example, over the years we’ve moved
forward in many different ways. We have
around 40 elementary school students that spend about three hours here every
Wednesday afternoon at Youth Club learning Bible stories, singing Christian
songs, worshipping together. And most of
those kids are not actively involved in any other church. But God has given us the opportunity to reach
out to those young people.
Or
every month we have more than 50 local families that turn to us for help with
food. God has given us the opportunity
reach out to those people. Or we have the
CAMP senior citizen program on Mondays.
Although many of our own members take part in CAMP, most of the people
who come are not members of the church, but are from the community around
us. That’s another opportunity that God
has given to us to reach out to more and more people. And the list could go on and on.
But
a setback – you might call it – that we’ve encountered along the way is that
for different reasons many of those who participate in those programs don’t
come here on Sunday mornings for Sunday school, or for worship and lunch. And especially among those who participate in
Youth Club and the food pantry, the overwhelming majority of those people
aren’t actively involved in any other church.
And
so to address that setback and help us move forward with the mission that God
wants us to be about, after months and months of prayer and careful research,
the Session has decided for the church to buy a 15-passenger van that can be
used to pick up people and bring them to church.
Now
I realize that some people are probably thinking, “How can we afford to do
that? How can you spend $20,000 for a
van when there are so many other things that we need money for? After all, aren’t we going to need a new
boiler in the relatively near future, and isn’t that going to cost a whole bunch
of money?”
And
those are fair questions. But if those
are the kinds of questions that are flashing through your mind, then I’d like
you to take a deep breath and listen carefully to what I’m about to say. About a year and a half ago a supporter of
our church donated approximately $140,000.
But the stipulation was that that money be used to engage in
outreach. That $140,000, which is almost
entirely still sitting there after a year and a half, cannot be used to pay for
a new boiler. It cannot be used to pay
the electric bill. It cannot be used to
pay the custodian’s salary. It can be
used only for outreach. It can be used
only for reaching out beyond ourselves and engaging in the mission that God
wants us to be about. And when we
received that gift a year and a half ago it was announced in the newsletter and
was recorded in the annual report. But
simply put, you’re not being asked to pay for a van – the money is already
there.
And
I’ll admit that when the idea was first raised about getting a van, I was a bit
skeptical. I wasn’t so sure that it was
such a good idea. But as time has gone
by and as I’ve prayed about it and as I’ve listened to other people share their
thoughts and their vision, I’ve come around and believe now that this truly is
something that God wants us to be doing, that a van could very well be a tool
that we need to move forward from where we are now and expand our ability to
reach out to more and more people.
And
I was excited this past Thursday when Tricia Sanders, our Outreach Coordinator,
came into my office and told me that as soon as we get the van, we already have
at least 9 people who have indicated that they want to be picked up and brought
to church on Sundays – people who don’t currently come to church, but who say
they will come if we can help them with transportation. And it’s entirely likely, she said, that in
the coming weeks, that list is going to grow from 9 to a substantially larger
number. I don’t know about you, but when
I heard that, a smile came to my face and I felt a real sense of excitement –
excited that we could be on the verge of something huge about to take place in
the life of our church, excited that God’s mission is about to move forward in
our midst in a great and exciting way.
God
works in amazing ways. In the coming
months, are we prepared for God to do something amazing in our midst? In the coming months, are we prepared for God
to move us forward in our mission in ways that maybe go beyond anything that we
might expect? Maybe we can’t know for
sure what the future holds, but one thing we do know is that if we put our trust
in God, great things are bound to happen.