He Showed Her to Be Alive!

I’ve conducted 613 funerals in my ministry, so far.  And just last week I saw “again” the rubric I’ve used so much at cemeteries:  “In the midst of life, we are in death; from whom can we seek help?….Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  One of the specific tasks of the Church is to audaciously speak Life even as –especially as –we are confronted and overwhelmed by our mortality.  Eastertide is a splendid season to wrestle together with the Powers of Death as met and defeated by the Resurrected Christ.

St. Luke’s second volume (aka The Acts of the Apostles) tells about the spread of the Jesus-story in ripples from Jerusalem.  This week’s episode (Acts 9:36-42) takes us to Lydda, a suburb of Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean, a rather cosmopolitan place.  Here resided one Tabitha, or Dorcas:  a devout disciple who lived her faith by making clothes for the poor.  But illness and death play no favorites; and the congregation mourned.  Peter was sent for, and after prayer, Tabitha came back to life!  “Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.” (v.41)

In the 23rd Psalm, one who has walked in the shadow of death/the darkest valley says that “(the Lord) restores my soul”.  And here he is to tell about it!

What?  Another reading from Revelation?!  Yes, ’cause this is the season for unbridled visions!   The seer tells of the Great Multitude, all-inclusive, who have gathered in the Presence to shout out, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.”  (7:10)   These have come successfully through of the great ordeal, and now in renewal of life they will hunger and thirst no more….  Let’s tell it!

John’s Gospel account is a rather testy encounter of Jesus with the Jewish religious leaders, a meeting between Old and re-Newed.  “No one,” says Jesus, “will be able to snatch (my sheep) out of my hand.” (10:28)  He continues, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.”

Cynics will say that we ARE in the midst of death.  Those who slept through history class will say that things are worse than they’ve ever been.  This weekend’s worship is but only one occasion to respond with a message of Life:  in our preaching and study, to be sure, but also in imitating Dorcas who clothed the poor; and so many other visible proclamations of God’s care through justice, compassion and mercy.

God Bless Us, Every One — as we live the Resurrection!          H   B   King