Sermon 07 May 2022

Rev. Wesley Menke

Today is Mother’s Day, and I’d like to wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all of the Mothers. Motherhood is a very important vocation, probably the most important job any human being could do. Motherhood is also extremely varied. There are many different kinds of mothers. 

Once, a few years back, I was working with a couple who was getting married. They shared with me about their families. I asked the groom about his parents. He said quite firmly and directly, “my mother is both my mother and my father.” He meant that she had so seriously taken her job to raise him, that he didn’t consider her to be a “single mother” but to be both. Wow! There are so many different kinds of mothers.

Some women who don’t have biological children are still mothers to children in their lives; taking on a role of caring for the children, they are sometimes called “other mothers.” This is probably how Dorcas was according to Acts 9. We find out about Dorcas who was a disciple and her life was committed to doing good deeds and acts of charity. That’s pretty much the definition of a mother: someone committed to good deeds and acts of charity day after day after day. 

It’s impressive how they treated her body. They washed her, clothed her, and put her in a room for people to come and say goodbye. They send for Peter to come and be with them during this time of sadness and mourning. When Peter gets there they show him the clothing that she made for them. Then Peter asks everyone to get out of the room, and he when he is alone with her he says, “Tabitha get up!” She does. It’s totally remarkable and incredible that Peter has the power to bring someone back from the dead. It’s unbelievable! Peter has come a long way from denying Jesus and fishing. He is doing the ministry taught him to do, and he is performing miracles! Way to go Peter! This is a great example of the capacity each of us has as disciples of Jesus. We are not just passive beneficiaries we are co-workers with Jesus.

I do wonder, why? What is the purpose of bringing her back to life?. I think one possibility is that nobody else knew how to sew. What would Tabitha do with her new lease on life? Maybe she would take these extra days given to her and teach others to do the work that she had been doing. Maybe she would get around to teaching others how to sew. According to the text, the main purpose for this thing to happen was to impress upon people the power of Jesus, and thereby bring people to believe in the Lord. Verse 42 says that this miracle become well known in Joppa and so many believed in the Lord.

But what does that mean? To believe in the Lord? We can suppose that it means to believe that Jesus is the Lord, the king, the savior sent from God. To believe in the Lord is to believe in Jesus and everything that he stood for. It means to believe that he died on the cross for our sin; and rose again. It means to believe that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by our works. 

Tabitha was a woman of great faith. We know that she had faith because of how she lived her life. She was committed to good deeds and charity. Good deeds and charity are not always easy. Sometimes when we do a good deed or an act of charity people may not appreciate it. Oftentimes we may feel that people don’t deserve charity, because they have made choices that got them into a not good place. But that’s the thing about grace: it is God’s unconditional love for all people whether they deserve it or not. People like Tabitha love unconditionally because they have faith that that is how God is. 

While the miracle of Tabitha coming back to life is certainly impressive, it is really just the icing on the cake. So many people came to have faith in t