A story is told of a little girl who was seeing stained glass windows for the first time. It was the right time of day, so that jewels of colored light poured through the windows. Her grandfather was telling her her whose pictures were in the stained glass. “See, there is Peter, and Paul, and Matthew, and Mary. They are all saints.” “Oh, I get it,” she said. “A saint is someone who has light shining through them.” Indeed. In the New Testament Paul and Luke use the word “saints” (or we could translate “holy ones”) to describe all the followers of Jesus. Not just the perfect ones. So even you and I are saints. They seldom talk about one saint, singular, instead almost always a group of them, supporting one another. Jesus does not use the word saint, rather he uses follower, disciple. If we are followers of Jesus, God’s light shine through us.
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Video version: https://www.facebook.com/terry.lepage/videos/10217632643991923/
Brea Congregational United Church of Christ
Brea Congregational United Church of Christ
September 9, 2018
(Extra)Ordinary Service
Acts 9:36-42 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.
Today we heard a story about a woman who followed Jesus. Her name in Aramaic is Tabitha. In Greek, it is Dorcas. Both words mean “gazelle,” the graceful desert deer that can leap so high. Tabitha is the only woman who is listed by name in the bible as a disciple, a follower of Jesus. So how did she follow Jesus? Apparently she sewed clothes.
Sewing is so ordinary that you might not have thought of it as discipleship. People like me, who are good with words, have plenty of role models in the Bible. Prophets and preachers who share the Good News. But God’s children have physical needs too, and I know that many of you are more comfortable serving in that way. I know my Grandma Lucy was. Grandma Lucy got surplus parts from clothes factories, and sewed dozens of quilts with her friends; some were made all out of collars, some all out of sleeves, to donate to families in need. Those quilts weren’t works of art, but they were unique, and warm, and labors of love. Grandma Lucy also sewed a patchwork quilt for each of her grandchildren. I was old enough to help with mine, so I had pride of accomplishment, of making something warm and useful and pretty out of my old pajamas and sundresses. A lot of people besides Grandma Lucy serve God in ordinary ways like sewing. So I’m glad Tabitha made it into the bible.
I suspect there was a lot more to Tabitha than sewing. Her friends were weeping and showing off the tunics she had made. In those days there was no Macy’s or Target. All clothes were hand sewn, all cloth was hand spun and woven, all very labor intensive. Those without the money or the relatives to do that labor had only scraps to wear. Tabitha may literally have been clothing the naked. Imagine: a tunic made just for you: showing that someone cared enough about your dignity to invest hours and hours of their labor into making you presentable. Tabitha would treat you like the beloved child of God you are, so that the ordinary service of sewing became extraordinary.
And there’s more. I’m pretty sure Tabitha was the leader of her sewing circle. When she died, her friends were missing more than her flair with tunics. We can only guess at the ways that she inspired them and encouraged them. Maybe just by taking their work seriously. This ordinary skill that they discovered could be a service to God. Maybe Tabitha talked with them as they worked, about their lives and their faith. Maybe it was her laughter, or her quiet caring. Somehow, Tabitha showed forth the love of God with a needle and thread. Tabitha’s body is long gone from us now. But her spirit has lived on over the centuries in thousands of church sewing circles, often called Tabitha circles, or Dorcas circles, continuing to show forth the love of God through needle and thread.
The apostle Peter was a different kind of disciple. The story says that because Peter prayed, Tabitha came back to life. That skill is too extraordinary for me to believe. And on this particular day, that part of our story leaves me grumpy. So I want to leave Peter for today and skip to the book of Hebrews instead.
The book of Hebrews tells us we have a “ great cloud of witnesses,” people who came before us and were faithful in hard times. We can remember these people when we need encouragement. Though they died long ago, they are somehow still a part of us. Some of them are biblical characters of old, like Tabitha. Some are historical figures whose stories can inspire us, like Harriet Tubman, a personal favorite of mine. And some are people we have known personally, who did ordinary service, or extraordinary service, for us and with us. The longer we hang around, the more people in that cloud of witnesses we know personally. Ordinary people who have died and gone home to God. In the light of God’s love, we know how extraordinary they were. Now Bill and James have joined that cloud of witnesses.
I don’t know how life after death works. At seminary I heard process theologians arguing over it– that was entertaining. I just trust that God has a place for us. But I also suspect that certain church folks are not going to go marching in with the saints without stopping back regularly to encourage and support us here on earth. We are not alone.
So we can wash dishes with Brother Lawrence, and we can repair the church with Saint Francis, and we can discuss theological books with Harry Emerson Fosdick. And through it all is the Holy Spirit, who prays when we don’t have the words, and makes of our ordinary teaching and cleaning and singing and bookkeeping and cooking and letter writing and gardening something extraordinary. All we have to do is show up, and be willing to go with the flow of the Spirit, be part of something that is much bigger than us, that transcends time and space, the Spirit that gently sews the broken pieces of our lives and our community together.
I believe this, but it helps to be reminded. We need church. This idea of banding together to follow Jesus with other living people, to know each other personally and commit to supporting one another: it’s not in fashion. Churches, even the most fundamental ones, often struggle these days to get people to make commitments of time and money. At the same time people gobble up spiritual books and videos… The hunger for God is there. What can we as a community offer that a book can’t? Real lived examples of following Jesus. Complete with mistakes! Real interactive discussions. Although that means we’ve got to be together for more than this hour. Books are lousy listeners. Books give you so much advice. I’ve read so much great advice in books it would take me dozens of lifetimes to live it all. But I’ve never once had a book ask me, “So, how did that work out for you last week?” Nor have I ever had a book notice when I was feeling up or feeling down and ask me about it.
We as a church may not always live up to this high calling of supporting one another on the path of discipleship. Sometime people think the sewing is the whole point of the sewing circle, or that cleaning the church kitchen is tedium instead of privilege. Sometimes we get caught up in our own dramas and forget to let go and let God. After all, the church is full of people, and people are full of flaws. And if that’s all it’s got, we’re in trouble. But that is not all. It is full of people surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, opening themselves to God’s Spirit, so we can show forth the love and transforming power of God. When we are willing, God’s Spirit has room to act among us, and make us more than we could ever be alone.
A particular calling of this church is not sewing but hospitality. So in the spirit of Tabitha and all the people who love and serve in practical ways, let us remember that our ordinary hospitality makes a difference. When we bring snacks to share after worship, we are providing a excuse for people to make connections and share a little of themselves. Perhaps we even provide a meal that someone really needs. When we take time to introduce ourselves to someone new, or to warmly greet a person who is not yet a special friend, we are doing that work of hospitality, letting people know that it matters to us that they’re here. When we invite a church friend, old or new, to share a meal, we are, and making space to know and be known in the light of God’s love.
A lot of ordinary work is required to keep a church running. Depending on how we do that work though, it may not be so ordinary after all. If our intention is to help the sacred be known and love to be shared in this community, our acts of service will be extraordinary—devotion or meditation for us, and more often than we realize, a gift to someone else. Please don’t wait for someone to serve you. Take small opportunities to serve as those before us have done. Do it, knowing that God can use our ordinary acts to do extraordinary things, though we may never know the details. Do it in honor of people like Tabitha, and Bill, and James, and other faithful people who have served with an unexpected gift or a warm welcome, or a casserole, and have helped to make God real to someone in that small way
As we mark the passing of two generous and caring souls, one of whom was so dear to so many of you, one of whom we were just getting to know, it seemed appropriate to sing “For All the Saints” as our opening hymn. Saints are not perfect people, just people seeking to live in the light of God’s love. Their service might appear ordinary, but nothing is ordinary when we see it in the light of God’s love for us.
A story is told of a little girl who was seeing stained glass windows for the first time. It was the right time of day, so that jewels of colored light poured through the windows. Her grandfather was telling her her whose pictures were in the stained glass. “See, there is Peter, and Paul, and Matthew, and Mary. They are all saints.” “Oh, I get it,” she said. “A saint is someone who has light shining through them.” Indeed. In the New Testament Paul and Luke use the word “saints” (or we could translate “holy ones”) to describe all the followers of Jesus. Not just the perfect ones. So even you and I are saints. They seldom talk about one saint, singular, instead almost always a group of them, supporting one another. Jesus does not use the word saint, rather he uses follower, disciple. If we are followers of Jesus, God’s light shine through us. How extraordinary you are. Amen.
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