Acts 9:36-43
In this passage a follower of Jesus named Tabitha dies and is raised from the dead by the Apostle Peter. She was living in the city of Joppa, which was a port city on the Mediterranean Sea about 35 miles northwest of Jerusalem.
Luke, the author of Acts, gives us two names for Tabitha. Tabitha was her name in the Aramaic language. The Jewish people had learned Aramaic during their exile in Babylon centuries before. And it was still the language most commonly spoken in Israel at the time of Jesus. Hebrew, the classical language of Israel, at that time was only used for religious rituals and written documents.
Luke was writing in Greek, so he tells us that Tabitha’s name in Greek was Dorcas. Tabitha and Dorcas both mean Gazelle.
Luke writes that after Tabitha dies, she was washed and placed in an upstairs room. An upstairs room would have been more private and quieter than one on the main floor. The body of someone who died would be covered with a white sheet and washed twice with cold water, accompanied by the reciting of psalms. The body would then be dressed in a linen garment and placed in a quiet room to await burial. One or more people would keep watch while reciting more Psalms and prayers.
The burial would take place within 24 hours of death. That seems to be why the men who went to get Peter in the nearby town of Lydda asked him to come “without delay.” So that he would get there before the burial.
We might note that a group of widows were watching over Tabitha’s body.
Apparently, Tabitha herself was a member of this group, who were close friends who cared for and supported each other. Widows had an important ministry in the early church. They dedicated themselves to serving the church and to works of mercy. If they had no children or adult grandchildren, widows were supported financially by the church.
Luke highlights Tabitha’s ministry. He writes, “She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.” We are told that Tabitha was a seamstress who made clothing for others, especially for those living in poverty.
This passage reminds us of the importance of so-called “ordinary” church members to God’s work. Followers of Jesus who aren’t missionaries or preachers or pastors, but who are doing God’s work according to their own callings.
Like Tabitha each of us is called and gifted to serve God and bless others in our everyday lives.
I think of a friend who would often sit with people in the hospital who were dying, talking with them and praying with them. And another friend who has the gift of empathetic listening. People open their hearts to her and find comfort in talking with her. And a friend who is always available to help others with their practical needs at any hour of the day.
God gifts us for his service in many ways. Some of us have a gift of encouragement, with the ability to lift up the spirit of someone who is feeling down. Some can bring people together, organizing them to do a project that improves the lives of others. Some are led by God’s Spirit to spend a lot of time praying for others. The Holy Spirit imparts to each of us abilities that enable us to serve God and bless others.
Using our gifts and abilities to bless and strengthen others is the work of ministry. We may have thought that missionaries and preachers and pastors were the ministers, and the rest of us simple church members, “bit payers” in God’s work. But that’s not how God sees it.
The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians that pastors and other leaders exist to “equip God’s people” – this is, all the church members – “for the work of ministry.” We are all ministers. We all do the work of ministry.
If I may be forgiven for using a military analogy, preachers and pastors are like trainers and supply sergeants in an army. They equip the frontline soldiers to fight the battles. It’s the ordinary soldiers who do the main work of fighting.
Likewise, it’s church members – each of us — who are doing God’s main work of ministry in the world. Through our everyday acts of love and blessing for others. In our families, and neighborhoods, and workplaces and among our fellow church members.
We all have many opportunities to carry out God’s mission by expressing Christ-like love in our everyday lives. Opportunities to strengthen the weak, comfort the suffering, encourage the downcast. To care for the sick, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger. To act justly, extend forgiveness, make peace, to share our faith.
In these ways we bring comfort and healing and hope to our fellow human beings whom God loves. And we bring a foretaste of God’s coming kingdom – of heaven on earth — into the world here and now.
Serving as God’s ministers – which we all do — is a wonderful calling. But we can feel intimidated by the responsibility. We want to serve God and be a blessing to others, but we are aware of our own weaknesses and shortcomings.
This is where Jesus’ parable of the Sower can be encouraging. You may remember it. A farmer walks through a field scattering his seeds, but a lot goes wrong. Many seeds are unfruitful. Some seeds fall on the hard pathway, and birds eat them. Some seeds produce plants which are scorched by the sun and die or are strangled by thorns.
Things don’t seem to be going well for the farmer. But remember how the parable ends. In spite of all the frustration and disappointment, some of the seed falls on good soil. And the farmer reaps an astonishing harvest.
Even though some things go wrong, the farmer bears much fruit. And that’s how it is with us. Even with our shortcomings God will bring good fruit from our lives.
As a new believer, I wanted to share the Gospel with a friend who lived with his wife on a farm in Arkansas. So I went to visit them. But when I tried to talk to him about Jesus, I said confusing and unhelpful things and got off on tangents. I made a real mess of it, and left feeling like a failure.
But in all my muddled word salad of a mangled witness I managed by God’s grace to say one thing that my friend remembered. I told him that God would reveal himself to him if he asked.
After I left, my friend did that. He asked God to show him if he was real. And God gave him a miraculous experience of his reality and presence.
Ninety percent of what I said to my friend about Jesus was useless. But 10 percent was something God could use. And that was enough.
So with our lives before God. We’re not perfect and things don’t always go exactly the way we hope. But in our weaknesses, God will use us to bless others and bear good fruit for his kingdom. As we continue to look to Jesus and trust in him.
Each of us is vital to God’s plan, to what God wants to do in the world. Each of us is called to the work of ministry. To honor God and to bless others with acts of Christ-like love. This is the work of Christ in the world.
Let me close with excerpts from a poem reflecting on the life of Salvadoran bishop and martyr Oscar Romero. I think it expresses a wise and encouraging perspective on our own work of ministry:
It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. We accomplish only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that God’s kingdom lies beyond us.
No words of ours say all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
This is what we are about: We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it with our best effort. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way.
An opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.