Acts 9:36-43

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. ³⁷ At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. ³⁸ Since 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." ³⁹ So 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. ⁴⁰ Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. ⁴¹ He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. ⁴² This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. ⁴³ Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner. 

Year C

Fourth Sunday of Easter

April 17, 2016

April 21, 2013

Cross~Wind

May 8, 2001

Dearborn Hills

Title: Easter People and the Uniqueness of Your Life

Introduction Your 60 second life

Dan Hurley has had an interesting life in writing.[1]

He is now a freelance writer in the science field. He is writing about some things that might show up in another sermon down the road.[2] However, he gained some fame in writing when he made his living on the sidewalk. The result was something called The 60-Second Novelist: What 22,613 People Taught Me About Life. His cheerful yellow fedora, yellow silk butterfly bow tie, yellow blazer, two- tone saddle shoes and his button-down look were not the primary reasons that won Dan Hurley media notice.[3] Mr. Hurley made his name and his fame as a sidewalk performer in Chicago. He started on Michigan Avenue. Here is how he puts it on his Amazon author page. 

I decided to take my manual Remington typewriter onto Michigan Avenue in Chicago, tape a sign to it that said, "60-Second Novels, Written While You Wait," and see what would happen. It was meant to be an absurd performance-art experiment in which I expected most people to squint at me and tell me to get a job. However, like in "The Producers," my bizarro idea turned out to be a success: a line of people formed and started handing me five dollars a pop to talk with them and then write something inspired by our conversation. Within a year I quit my job as an editor at the American Bar Association, moved to New York, and became a full-time 60-Second Novelist, earning as much as $300 a day on the sidewalks of New York. Eventually I started writing 60-Second Novels at corporate and private events around the country. Is this a great country or what?? 

While Mr. Hurley has moved on to new interests, he had an interesting point. What would happen if you could summarize the life of a person in a few words? He made other people think as well. Here is what a few Amazon reviews offered as reactions to his book and his idea. 

Everyone's life has a story to tell.

Some of the stories will make you laugh, others will make you cry, and some will make you smile or laugh aloud. The 60-second novel may inspire you to write a 60-second novel about yourself or someone you know.

It made me cry, and then it made me laugh again. Very inspiring and thought provoking.

Here is what he wrote for Clement: 

I'm Really Satisfied With the

Way I'm Living Now

Not Happy Happy

Just Content

Clement is 40 years old and living in a dumpster. "It's shelter and I don't feel bad," says Clement. "It's four walls and a ceiling and a floor. The only thing it's missing is a kitchen and a bathroom."

Clement says these last words with an impish smile. His unlined face seems younger, except for his graying beard. Clement has lived here in this dumpster, in a lot where dumpsters are stored at the corner of Bay and Court streets in Brooklyn, for a year and a half, since breaking up with his wife and discovering that he really didn't like the shelters. He is not a drug addict or an alcoholic. "The only vices I have are cigarettes and a little marijuana," he says.

Clement makes his money as a "scrapper." He finds cans, bottles, and semiprecious metals - anything he can turn in for cash. He also cleans out people's basements or whatever they want. Amazingly, he earns up to $800 or $900 a month and saves it in a bank account his sister keeps for him. He is not on welfare and does not beg, he says, mostly as a matter of pride.

"I know I could do a whole lot better," Clement says. "But I'm content the way I'm living. Not happy happy. Just content." 

It does not sound like a lot, but it may well push us to ask of others and of ourselves what we are doing with our lives. Every life has dignity and purpose. Every life, regardless of how seemingly insignificant, has a place in the plan of God.

Our lives are complicated, I know. It hardly seems fair to summarize a life in such few words. Yet, I have found it helpful at times, when things become complex, to give myself some time to step back and pierce behind the complexity, for often I am the one making it complex. Simplicity often is there in complex situations, if we just let it emerge. Thus, it might even be a good spiritual exercise for us. How would you summarize your life in about 175 words?

Sixty seconds is not much time, but good stories do not have to take long to tell.  

Application

            Dorcas/Tabitha was simply a female disciple in a time when that title was largely for men. She devoted herself to good works to all. She especially devoted herself to acts of charity for the poor. To provide for herself materially, she also made tunics and other clothing that had become precious to the followers of Jesus in Joppa.

What can we learn from this story?

First, we can all be replaced.

I believe that. One day, someone will replace us. The world goes on. If we recognize this, it might provide us with a bit of humility about our contribution to this world. The reality is that if we die today, many of the roles we now fill someone else fills.[4]

Second, the other side of the story is that each of us is a unique creation of God.

We are each uniquely gifted persons, particular creations of God, with certain skill sets, abilities, and aptitudes. If we do not serve God, our families, our church or our communities in the way only WE can uniquely serve, then someone else will do it, but not in the way only we can do it. In fact, our Creator may have intended the accomplishment of the task in the unique way only you could do. 

We are not carbon copies of each other. If each of us around this room summarized our lives, we might have similar stories, but we are the same. We might give voice to the thought that each of us is replaceable. It is not true.

Someone on Facebook posted the following about the loss of a friend. 

Even though he was retired, it clearly seemed he had more to do in this world. Thus, his death seemed very premature. It felt as if this was not right, as if his death was an intrusion into his life and in the world of all who knew him.

 The death of anyone is a tragedy, but there are certain deaths that seem even more unfortunate. There are those who contribute to others in a way that goes beyond the seeming call of duty. There is something very special about their lives; and because of the contributions they make, their death is more painful. –Alan Bevere 

Think about it.

Who could replace the love and caring of your own mother?

Who could replace your father?

Who could replace your daughter? Any other girl?

Who could preach like Paul or pray like Peter?

The early church could have survived without Dorcas. Eventually, it will have to do so. Do not say that her death would not have made a difference. Do not say the church would not have been weaker. Do not say that just anyone could have done what she did. Do not say anyone can serve as you can serve. One person and one person's gifts can change the world, can change a community, and can change a church.

Third, we are all broken in some way, both sinful and sinned against.

Because none of us has escaped the results of sin, we suffer spiritual and emotional damage.[5] The work of recovery is the work of sanctification. God is redeeming those lost parts of our souls that are injured. God is bringing those parts into the light of grace and truth.

Too many of us develop a theology in which God does the healing, unaided by anyone or anything. Yet, in the Bible we find a beautiful thing happening. God makes room for us to join in what God wants done in this world.

Think about the one person who was present at the right moment when you most needed help, whose presence changed your life. Who could have replaced that one? Think about yourself and the kind deeds you have done, known only to God. Who could have replaced you? If someone could describe the unique character of your life, what would the person write? How would others have suffered had your life not intersected with their life? How would such a person write of your life of love and devotion? How would your uniqueness show through?  

Conclusion  

Listen to this story by Dan Hurley, and judge for yourself if you, too, are unique and uniquely qualified to give and use your God-given gifts. 

Honest Abe

Abe is honest. He's a man of his word. As a CPA, he had to be honest. People depended on him.

He was honest, too, when he promised to Margery 58 years ago that he would always love her and stand by her. They've been married that long, and they now have two children and three grandchildren.

But he was never more honest than the day, six years ago, when his oldest daughter's husband, Fred, was in the hospital and Abe went to see him.

“You need a haircut," said Fred, joking.

But Abe replied in utter seriousness: "I won't get a haircut until you walk out of here."

Fred never did walk out of there. He was carried out. He died.

And so Abe felt that he owed it to Fred to keep his word. That's why he has never cut his hair, why he has a long white ponytail - this conservative CPA.

It is his white badge of honesty, devotion and love.  

Reflect upon your uniqueness, your role in what God is doing in this world, and the gifts God has given you to serve in this world. 

            Here is my attempt
            Listen to the story of Learning [discerning, discovering, pioneering] George. George loves to learn. He is a man who prefers to write down his thoughts, for it helps to keep him focused. He has done so since his youth. Without that, his thoughts would take him to too many different places. His primary thoughts, though, concerned Jesus, God, the Bible, philosophy, history, and the church. Christ and the church came into his life when he was 10 years old. Although he often had to renew that relationship, he has remained faithful to learning about life through following Jesus and being part of the body of Christ. Learning has meant sharing what he has learned with others. Learning has meant development of opinions, beliefs, and ideas. He hopes he has done all of this with honesty, wisdom, faithfulness, understanding, and courage where necessary. He could have easily become a solitary person, but God led him to the life of pastor, and therefore to relationships with people. It requires an open mind and heart to learn, and George hopes he has modeled that in his life.  

Going deeper

Theme of Acts 9:36-43 is Peter raising a woman to life in Jaffa. The story has a parallel in the story of Jairus's daughter in Mark 5. Roloff similarly refers to the parallelism between Mk 5 and Acts 9, but stresses the absence of the motive of faith in Acts 9. Nevertheless, this is no argument against dependence, as the theme of faith is dispensable here because Luke made that clear in the description of Tabitha. Thus, in some ways, the miracle story of Tabitha’s healing is unremarkable. It follows the pattern of other miracle stories in the synoptic tradition (cf Mark 5:35-43). Indeed, the story’s details seem to hearken all the way back to the Elijah-Elisha cycle in I and II Kings. For example, Peter has everyone leave the room so that he is alone before the healing (Acts 9:40), just as Elijah does in I Kings 17:19 and Elisha does in 2 Kings 4:33. The use of the “upper room” (maqhti) might recall the story in I Kings 17:19, although in a typical home of this time period, the upper room would likely be the only place with the requisite privacy for exposing a corpse. I Kings 17:10-24 tells the story of Elijah and the widow who lived in Zarephath. She helps him with lodging, and he provides the miracle of the jar of meal and the oil, which seem to have endless supply. Yet, her son dies, so she is angry with the prophet. The prophet carries him to the upper chamber, stretches upon him, prays, and breath returns. In II Kings 4:27-37 is the story of Elisha dismissing people from the room of the dead son of a woman, lying on him, the boy sneezed seven times and came to life.

In all of these stories, Elijah, Elisha, Jesus and Peter perform two acts simultaneously which cut to the heart of the best idealistic visions of Jewish faith - that the poor (personified by the widows) should be cared for, and that death should lose its power over humanity.

In context, Tabitha's story takes place at a critical juncture of the story of Acts. At the beginning of chapter 9, Saul of Tarsus is still an active threat to the Christian church, but by verse 30 he had had his experience on the Damascus road, and we are told in verse 31 that the church in Judea, Galilee and Samaria now had peace and was flourishing. These three territories constitute the Jewish homeland. By stating that the church in these areas was doing well and growing in number, Luke sets the stage for the expansion of the church into Gentile lands.

The two miracles that follow the conversion and calling of Paul in chapter 9 clearly demonstrate that the church, and especially its leader Peter, the power of Christ filled it and prepared it to convert the world, beginning with the Gentile centurion Cornelius, who appears immediately in chapter 10. Even the physical setting of Tabitha's story is halfway between the Jewish world and the Gentile world. Tabitha's city, Joppa, is modern-day Jaffa, just to the south of Tel Aviv. The town of Joppa was just a few miles from Samaria on the plain of Sharon. The present-day St. Peter’s Church, which is located on a coastal cliff south of the border of modern Tel Aviv, commemorates the mission of Peter to Joppa recorded by our text.

Luke makes the point that the apostles can stand comparison with the prophets of the OT.  Luke is interested in the two stories because it brings Peter from Jerusalem to Caesarea and shows the spread of the church.  They have established congregations in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.  They have accomplished the task in Palestine, and it is time for the Christian mission to seek goals farther afield.

Acts 9:36-43

³⁶ Now in Joppa there was a disciple [She was indeed a unique individual in the book of Acts in that she, obviously a woman, is referred to in the text with the feminine-gendered word meaning "disciple," maqhtria,. This is the only occurrence in the NT of the female form of disciple.  Just like the usual masculine-gendered word, matheytes, the feminine title simply means, "one who has been instructed, or taught." The fact that Tabitha is the only person for whom the New Testament uses feminine-gendered title of disciple, however, does not mean that she was the only female disciple. Like Hebrew, Greek does not have a special way to describe mixed-gendered groups of people and commonly uses the masculine plural even for groups with many women present. Because of this, the text often hides the presence of women among the early disciples. This is not the case with Tabitha, however. Luke speaks of her alone, and he uses the feminine title to describe her. Another woman who is unusual for having a common masculine title applied to her in the feminine form is Phoebe, who, in Romans 16:1, Paul refers to as a "deaconess" or female minister. In Acts, there is a distinction made between "disciples" (which included both men and women who had been instructed in the teachings of Jesus), and the original 12 "apostles," whose restoration to 12 by the election of Matthias after the betrayal of Judas is recorded in Acts 1:15-26.] whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas [both names mean “gazelle”]. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. ³⁷ At that time she became ill and died. [This story shows a concern Jesus and the New Testament have with the poor and with the grief of death.] When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. [They washed the body, but did not anoint it, possibly in hope of resurrection.  The room referred to has its basis on OT models in I Kings 17:17 and 11 Kings 4:32.] ³⁸ Since Lydda was near Joppa [three hours on foot], the disciples, [Luke notes that some “disciples” (uperwon) sent two men to Lydda. Of course, “disciple” is a common enough term for Luke — what should give us pause is how any disciples yet existed in Joppa. Luke has thus far said nothing about any Christian mission to this geographical area. Either some Christians existed in Joppa before Peter arrived (from some earlier, unmentioned mission) or the term “disciple” can be applied to a person who had not yet heard the message of Jesus Christ. Neither option fits very well into Luke’s narrative world, which has led some scholars to propose that Luke adapted these two miracle stories (9:32-35 and 9:36-43) from another source without making sure the details lined up with his own sense of the story. One can defend the scholarly opinion further by noting Luke’s use of the unusual term maqhtria, a word used nowhere else in the New Testament, for “disciple” in verse 36.] who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay." [No explicit mention of what they desire. Why did the disciples at Joppa want Peter to visit so badly? However, the Greek words mh oknhshz carry a connotation of urgency coupled with fear that Peter might not be willing to come. The messengers do not use a simple or polite form of invitation here; they are in a serious hurry and they are worried Peter will not agree to come in time. Now in the case of a sick person, we could understand this interaction between the disciples from Joppa and Peter. However, in the case of a dead person, one cannot easily explain the desire for Peter’s visit. Did the disciples in Joppa expect that Peter had the power to resurrect? In Luke’s world, Jesus had not received the designation as having that power, as it had been in the gospel of John. There are a couple plausible ways to resolve this confusion. On the one hand, the messengers might have wanted Peter to visit soon so that he could see Tabitha before she was buried in a few days. On the other hand, the people in Joppa might have thought that she was not dead beyond recovery. One strand of wisdom in the ancient Near East maintained that the soul lingered near the body for up to three days after death. Perhaps these disciples thought that, as in the familiar stories of Elijah and Elisha, the soul could be convinced to stay by the power of God. (Some scholars think that Jesus waited a couple days before raising Lazarus in order to be sure that he was completely dead.)] ³⁹ So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows [The reference to "widows" may be a reference to those possessing what would become a specific office of the church, or may have included professional mourners who had already gathered in the upper chamber of the house where Tabitha' s washed and prepared body was lying.] stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. ⁴⁰ Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. [Given the healing stories thus far, we could assume that he prayed “in the name of Jesus,” but we do not know, for Luke does not record the prayer. However, a third curiosity in the narrative occurs in the form of the miracle’s efficacy. The majority of the healings performed by Jesus’ disciples in the synoptic gospels and Acts manifest their power through the invocation of Jesus’ name. Previously in Acts, for example, Peter healed a crippled man at the Beautiful Gate through the power of “the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (3:6), but here in 9:40, the name of Jesus is not used as a medium of efficacy to raise Tabitha from the dead. Whatever form of prayer Peter used to resurrect her, it was either silent or unrecorded. It is noteworthy that the connection of Jesus’ name with miraculous healing was so well established that some ancient Latin, Syriac and Coptic manuscripts of the New Testament append a phrase — “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” — to Peter’s words in verse 40.] He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. [It verbally echoes II Kings 4:33 and Mark 5:40.]  ⁴¹ He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. ⁴² This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. [The narrator ends this account in a typically Lukan fashion by noting where and with whom Peter resides during the rest of his stay in Joppa.] ⁴³ Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner. [The miracle story concludes by introducing Peter’s host in Joppa, Simon the tanner, who plays a small role in the subsequent story with Cornelius (10:6, 32). Some scholars have noted that the occupation of “tanner” (burseuz) was despised in the Judaism of the rabbinic era. Throughout several sections of the Talmud, tanners are suspected of immorality and general uncleanness, perhaps because their work involved a bad smell. Therefore, by lodging with a tanner for several nights, Peter might have been portrayed as furthering the transition from the Jewish mission to the Gentile mission. Perhaps his acceptance of hospitality from this man, viewed as unclean by many Jewish leaders, foreshadows Peter’s subsequent interactions with Cornelius and ultimately the Gentile mission of Paul.]           

            The circumstances of this death recall two earlier experiences Peter had with Jesus. One was the death of Lazarus (John 11:1-44). Like Peter now, Jesus was then in another community when Lazarus took ill, and Jesus, too, had visitors summon him to go to Bethany as soon as possible. In that memorable case, Jesus seemed in no hurry to arrive and, indeed, Lazarus died before he showed up. In the other case, the visitors asked Jesus to visit the house of Jairus where Jairus' 12-year-old daughter was dying (Luke 8:40-42, 49-56). By the time Jesus reached the house, the child had died. Since a crowd of family and professional mourners had already arrived, Jesus showed them to the door so that he could be alone with her, with Peter, James and John there as observers. When Jesus said, "Child, get up!" (Luke 8:54), the child arose and was given something to eat.  Both the raising of Tabitha, and the healing of the paralytic Aeneas, which occurs in 9:32-35, echo miracles performed by Jesus in his earthly ministry. The paralytic is told to rise and make his bed, much like the paralytic in Luke 5:17-26 is told by Christ to "take up" his bed and walk. Tabitha's healing echoes the healing of Jairus' daughter (Luke 8:49-56), but strangely enough, the most interesting parallel comes from the Markan version (Mark 5:41). In this version of the story, Jesus takes the girl's hand and says in Aramaic, "Talitha qumi," "Get up little girl!" In Acts 9:40, Peter says to Tabitha in Greek, "Tabitha anasteythi," "Get up Tabitha!" Although the Lukan version of Jesus' healing of Jairus' daughter does not quote Jesus in Aramaic, both Luke's and Mark's version of the story tell us that Peter was in the room to witness the miracle! Another similarity to the gospel miracle is the fact that before raising Tabitha, Peter is said to clear the room of nonessential persons just as Jesus did in Mark 5:40 and Luke 8:51.

            Other echoes of earlier Scripture resound through this passage. The widows, who were supported and cared for by Tabitha, and their obvious distress at the death of the one who so helped them, remind one of 1 Kings 17:17-24, in which Elijah is called on to raise the son of the widow of Zarephath from the dead. Again, here is a poor widow, robbed of her only support in the world, who finds salvation in the power of the prophet to raise her lost loved one from the dead. Similarly, Elisha raises the only son of the Shunammite woman from the dead (2 Kings 4:18-37), a child he had interceded with God to provide so the woman would not be left without support when her elderly husband died and left her a widow (2 Kings 4:14). Jesus, of course, also raised people from the dead, perhaps most notably Lazarus, who seems to have lived with, and perhaps helped to support, his two single adult sisters (John 11). Nevertheless, a closer parallel to the Elijah and Elisha stories is Jesus' raising the only son of the widow of Nain from the dead (Luke 7:11-17).

            The combination of resurrection with the care for the poor, just as Peter and Paul are poised to spread Christianity to the Gentile world, echoes Jesus' own statements about his mission in Luke 4:26. Here Jesus holds up Elijah's raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath as the pattern of his own ministry, contrasting her faith with the lack of faith he has found among his own people. Jesus himself begins the mission to the Gentiles in Luke's gospel, and here in Acts, just as Peter is to take up that mission, he performs a miracle that echoes the very one Jesus used to validate his own acceptance of and ministry with Gentile persons. To complete this miracle tradition, Paul also raises a boy from the dead, in Acts 20:9-12, but there is no widow in the picture here. Thus, the more complete gospel soon to be spread throughout the world is better seen in the story of Tabitha, where death is denied and the poor have their champion restored to them. Peter, perhaps reflecting on both of these events, now arrives at the home of the deceased where the widows had already gathered, including those who had been the recipients of Tabitha' s good deeds and many kindness'. They already displayed her needlework and passed among the crowd as a reminder of the industrious character that had possessed this woman whom they now sorely missed. (9:39). 

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[1] I found a reference in some of my sermon notes to an author and his book from Spring 2001. I have not read the book, largely because it is not on kindle. However, I am reflecting on a review and few Amazon comments with you in a way that I hope will make a helpful suggestion for our thinking and praying about our spiritual gifts, what God has given us to do, and our role in the Body of Christ.

[2] Today, he is fascinated by the way the brain works. He says we need to get away from doing the same thing all the time. We need to vary our activities in order to keep our minds active and creative. I have come across this thought in other writings. Who knows, it may develop into a sermon sometime.

[3] in USA Today, Wired, Reader's Digest, Fast Company, CNN.com and on National Public Radio's Morning Edition

[4] Granted, in some cases, those left behind will be worse off, but life will continue. In Presidential history, the loss of Lincoln mattered greatly, even as Andrew Johnson replaced him.

[5] We will not let others love us. We cannot say no. We do not know how to connect with people. We are unable to be firm in our convictions. We need help to be disciplined, to accept our weaknesses, to stand against those who would abuse us. The broken, damaged, immature parts of our character need to be fixed.