Acts 9:36-43
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. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 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.” 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. 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. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.
Who was healed?
It is the question I find myself coming back to over and over as I read our story from the Acts of the Apostles this morning. Admittedly, at first this sounds like a somewhat stupid question, one easily answered with another question, “Who was raised from the dead?” But the longer one sits with this story, the less obvious it becomes.
Who was healed? I think the key to cracking this question open is to ask ourselves another. Who bore the image of Christ in the story?
One could certainly make a good argument that Peter is the one who bears the image of Christ in the story. After all, Peter is an apostle, and not just any apostle, but the one who is identified with being the cornerstone of the fledgling church. Peter is the rock upon which Christ’s church is built, and the story seems to bolster that claim.
As Peter is out traveling from community to community, teaching and healing as Jesus had, he is called upon to make a detour to a nearby Christian community, for one of their own, Tabitha, had died. Upon his arrival, Peter finds the community in mourning and in a sequence of events that should sound remarkably familiar, he is taken up to the room where she lay. Sending everyone out so that he could be alone, Peter prays to God before commanding Tabitha to stand. And she does.
It is a resurrection story that echoes the signs and miracles that Jesus performed in his life and ministry, just as it echoes the miraculous healings and resurrections performed by the prophets of old before him. So, we might well decide that it is Peter who bears the image of Christ in the story, and therefore Tabitha, whom he raised from the dead, is the one who is healed in the story. And you would not be wrong.
But Peter is not the only character named in this story. There is also Tabitha.
Tabitha also bore Christ’s image in this story. She bore it in her life and in her works. Though a widow herself, Tabitha cared for all the people in her community, and especially for the other widows. She clothed them when they were naked. She fed them when they were hungry. In all things she devoted herself to good works and acts of charity and transformed the lives of the people around her.
When Peter arrives on the scene, the whole community is filled with grief, because they have lost one so dear and important to them. Just as the disciples had been filled with grief at the crucifixion, so now was Tabitha’s community, for they had lost one through whom the light of Christ shone brightly in their midst. Their tears were real. Their grief, immense.
But even in her death, Tabitha was not done bearing Christ’s image to them. For having shared in her saviour’s death, Tabitha now shared in his resurrection and showed her community the real joy of Easter.
And if it is Tabitha who bears the image of Christ in this story, then it is the community who receives healing.
As I think of Tabitha and the light she shared with her community and the healing she offered them, I cannot help but think of all the Tabitha’s we have known in our own lives. They are the people we have known who bear Christ to us. I cannot help but think of the Tabitha’s I have known in my life, the people in whom I have witnessed Christ’s presence.
There was the businesswoman, who owned a metal fitting shop. She gave relentlessly to all who needed it and would have readily given the shirt off her back had it been asked of her. She cared fiercely for her community, like a shepherd over her flock, and loved them deeply.
There was the retired school principal, an elderly man by the time I knew him. In his retirement he had devoted himself to caring for the dying and was a regular hospice volunteer for many years. He was a humble elder of our community and people sought him out for his wisdom and compassion when the burdens they bore felt too great. He would sit in the back of the sanctuary after service on Sunday mornings and would pray with anyone who sought him out. I have a wooden bird that he carved and painted, which I keep in my office. I think of him every time I look at it.
There was the former librarian, a woman with a fantastic sense of humour and fabulous taste in hats. She cared deeply about ministry to youth and young adults and was a fierce advocate to ensure that they would not experience discrimination for their sexual orientation or gender identity, discrimination she had witnessed in her own life. She was deeply concerned for those who went without and gave quietly but generously to ensure that everyone in our community who had need was provided for.
These are only some of the Tabitha’s I have known. I’m sure you have known many yourself. They are the people whose deaths deeply grieve us because they are the people whose lives touched and transformed us as a community.
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If this story is primarily about Tabitha and her community, then the message of this story is about how we are to live faithfully as a community.
Because when the community lost Tabitha, they mourned and wept together. And they prayed together as they prepared her body. And they hoped with a hope that is deeper than words as they sent our messengers to find Peter. And they leapt for joy together as one when they witnessed her alive and with them once again.
The reality that Tabitha and her community faced was that though Christ was risen, he had also ascended, and walked side by side with the disciples no more. And the reality that they faced was that Peter, the great apostle and rock of the church, though he was with them there on this day, he too would one day die and be with them no longer. And the reality that her community faced was that even Tabitha, their beloved sister in Christ, who had been raised from the dead and was restored to them once again, even Tabitha would not live forever. The day would come when she would walk among them no more.
Indeed, my friends, all the Tabithas we each have known, all the people who have borne Christ’s image to us and have transformed our lives, will also die. As will each one of us.
All that persists is the community. All that persists is the church and the promise that Christ will come again. This is the truth that is at the heart of the story.
The work of her community of Jesus’ disciples, the work of the community cared for by Tabitha, the work of the community visited by Peter, the great Apostle, and the work of every community through history, up to and including this one here today, is to live faithfully in that truth.
We are to weep together in our grief, to hold one another when the world feels too much to bear. We are to pray together, adding our voices to each other so that even when our breath is heavy within us, our words offered up to God never cease. We are to hope together, resisting the temptation of despair, which is of the evil one, and anticipating the promise of Christ’s return and the fulfillment of God’s creation. And we are to care together, looking after the hopes and dreams and needs of one another so that not one of Christ’s flock is ever lost or driven away.
In short, my friends, we are to foster and raise up pray-ers and preachers, healers and teachers, evangelists and prophets alike. And when we do, we will transform each others lives even as we transform the world around us, because we will be constantly becoming the church that Christ calls us to be as we bear the image of Christ to one another and carry the light of Christ into the world.
Preached by the Rev. Adam Yates