TITLE: GET UP
SCRIPTURE: ACTS 9:36-43
I am glad to return to the pulpit as Sis. Lawson and I struggled with COVID the past week and a half. My desire was to honor our woman last Sunday as March was “Women History Month.” I do want to recognize the importance and critical role women have in the Kingdom. I also, at the same time want to point us to the significance of this Palm Sunday which begins Holy Week. We will host Holy Week here at ‘First Church’ beginning tomorrow evening and concluding on Good Friday – please take note of the weekly schedule that has been printed in your morning bulletin. In this recognition, I call your attention to our text for examination where we find a beautiful woman of God. Let’s review her life and her story together this morning. Go with me to ACTS 9:36-43. If I had to tag the text it would simply be ‘GET UP.”
I often see memes posted on social media thanking God for allowing us to wake up every morning. Sometimes they’re catchy and cute like –
• Don’t forget to pray today, because God didn’t forget to wake you up this morning
• Sometimes they’re a beautiful prayer like -- Thank you God for the sounds that disturbed my sleep, for many woke today and could not hear
• Thank you God for all the things I see around me, as many woke today and could not see
• Thank you for muscles that move and allow me to get up, as many woke today and could not
• I thank you most of all for allowing me and those I love to wake up, as this morning many woke not
For most of us, getting up every morning is a blessing. It means we got to leave behind all that was terrible yesterday, give our minds and our bodies some rest, and then begin the day fresh, with new and promising energy. And we all have different ways of getting up.
• Some of us might spring out of bed at 6 AM, workout, eat breakfast, and move headfirst into the day, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
• Others of us might hit the snooze button one too many times and sluggishly grab a cup of coffee before driving to work, bleary-eyed and dragging
• Some of us feel great in the morning and others might hear the popping and cracking of joints as we groan with every movement
• But we all eventually have to get up and get moving into the day that God has provided
Our Scripture lesson for today in the book of Acts is about Getting Up. There are so many interesting things in this text. Do you remember in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus says to the leader of the synagogue that his daughter was healed? The man didn’t believe it, so Jesus took Peter, James, and John and went to the house where the girl had died. Jesus reached out his hand and said, “Talitha cum.” or “little girl, arise!” get up! And we get a similar phrase here in Acts. Peter says to the recently deceased Dorcas, “Tabitha, Get Up!” Dorcas is the Greek name for Tabitha. I think we are meant to see that Jesus and Peter both desire that the people of God, those who are desperate, sick, and even dead, and in this case, especially women and children, need to get up, to arise and continue their good and purposeful work in the world.
Here in our text, A great woman of God lay down in her bed.
• Lifeless - but filled with love from the people around her
• Dead - but alive in the memories of her loved ones
• Great cries and sighs filled the room as people bitterly grieved her death
• You can tell by the emotions of these people how this lady touched their lives in a special way
• Yes, Yes, Her name is Tabitha
Her good works were too difficult to ignore to the point that her good works were recorded in the Bible. Remember after all REVELATION 14:13 “YEA, SAITH THE SPIRIT, THAT THEY MAY REST FROM THEIR LABOURS; AND THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM.”
• Though she died, her legacy of zeal and passion for God’s work lives on through the pages of the Holy Book
• Thus, I strongly believed that we, as Christians, today would learn a lot of beautiful lessons from this amazing lady
• So, let us take a deeper look at Tabitha’s life and see what we can learn from how she lived her life
Tabitha is that woman you know, who is a cancer survivor who also knits hats for the chemo room. She knows from experience how cold it gets when you're in treatment. She knows that it is easy to feel lonesome when you're on isolation. So, she knits, or maybe crochets, little warm reminders that she is thinking of you as you work to get well and to remind you that God is with you while you sit there with the needle in your arm.
• Dorcas is the 10 year-old boy who, having lived in homeless shelters with his family, takes his own money and buys fabric. He gets sewing lessons from his mom. Now that his family has some stability, he wants to help other kids who were in the position that he once was in. He has learned to make them stockings and Easter bags. He plans to make them clothes. He knows that the kids at the shelter will need clothes
• Tabitha lives on in the art professor to sets up his sewing machine on the sidewalk in San Francisco, mending the clothes of anyone who needs it
• Tabitha is the woman from Iowa who sewed more than 1,000 dresses to send to children in need
• Tabitha is the man that owns the dry cleaners who will dry clean your outfit for free if you are going on a job interview
Yes, Tabitha, who is also known as Dorcas, whose name means Gazelle, was the first woman explicitly called a disciple in the book of Acts. What did she do that merited being called a disciple?
• She saw people in need, and she helped them
• She wrapped people in love, the love that she had come to know through her faith in Christ
• Tabitha did everything she could possibly do to love and help others
Tabitha understood what it meant to use her privilege in the service of the needy.
• Rev. Dr. Mitzi J. Smith, Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary in Detroit says -- “Tabitha understood the flip side of privilege to be responsible to those less privileged, including the colonized and marginalized”
• Isn’t this, after all, the mandate of the Church.
o Not to save up our money
o Not to invest in CDs
o Not to have programs as fund raisers under the guise of worship
o But to help those that are in need and less privileged
Tabitha bore the burdens of being the first woman named as a disciple in the New Testament. And in those days, women were seldom seen as spiritual leaders. For instance, Tabitha was not said to have been full of the Holy Spirit, as that, during that time, was just reserved for men. But it says she did good works and loved others. That was her passion and her calling. And I think that made her full of the Holy Spirit, maybe even more so than the men. I wonder if we all need to look toward Tabitha as what a disciple of Jesus should be, to be full of “Good Works” just as much as those who were full of the Holy Spirit. She spent all of her time and energy to benefit others and to help them get up. So, as she grew sick and near death, Peter went to her bedside in order to help her get up, once more.
The author of Acts, whom we know to be Luke, says she was a particularly good disciple because, as one translation says, “her life overflowed with good works and compassionate acts on behalf of those in need.” And those poor widows whom Tabitha helped and supported, widows whom Tabitha made clothes for, were right there with her at her bedside, weeping, after she died.
• Their hero, their helper was dead
Peter entered the scene to restore this disciple to life. He told her to Get Up. What an odd and wonderful story! Peter is the agent of resurrection, but the narrative clearly focuses on the disciple, Tabitha, and her good works. Because although the resurrection from the dead was an awesome miracle, the true miracle was that Tabitha brought resurrection to the widows and orphans and poor and outcasts where a form of death had stolen their lives. And isn’t that what this time leading to easter is all about? Isn’t that what the resurrection of Jesus tells us? Don’t we need to be shocked again by the power of resurrection, what it means, and how utterly strange and amazing it is?
Duke professor Will Willimon says that the world after Easter is not like the world before Easter.
• Before Easter - everyone who lived died, and all who died stayed dead
• Before Easter - poor people are totally at the mercy of external forces over which they have no control
• Before Easter - there is much grieving as we bid farewell to those dear saints who depart us in death
• But After Easter - after God’s great defeat of death in the raising of Jesus, death is not given the last word
• After Easer - those who are poor and vulnerable have hope because there is a power for good let loose in the world that is greater than the powers of evil
• After Easter - we are able to have hope that the future is not totally constrained by the past
• After Easter - we Die that we may Live Again
There is more at stake in Tabitha’s restoration because she has a great reputation for all her good works and charity. Tabitha’s absence would leave a big hole. The widows of her congregation cry out to Peter when he arrives showing him the clothes she had made for them. It’s hard for faith communities to lose key leaders, in Tabitha’s case, one who helped the church fulfill its responsibility to care for its needy widows. There’s no indication in this narrative of Tabitha’s marital status, there is no mention of her being married, if she had a husband or not.
When this crowd of mourners heard that Peter was in Lydda about a 10 mile journey they sent for him. Word had gotten around of Peter’s great healings.
• In those days they buried a person on the same day
• So there was a bit of a rush for Peter to arrive
• We don't know why they called Peter
• Perhaps, they wanted him to comfort them
• Perhaps they wanted him to deliver the Eulogy
When he arrived the women are weeping and showing him the things that she had made for them, and the others who were poor.
• They had great respect for her
• They honored her for the great things, the labors she had done on their behalf
Peter Is Summoned And He Is Empathetic And Direct – He hears their lamenting and he sends them outside “AND THEN HE KNELT DOWN AND PRAYED.” It is really easy to read past those few words “AND THEN HE KNELT DOWN AND PRAYED.” Peter understood Tabitha, as both were people of great faith.
• Tabitha stepped out in faith by putting her time, resources and energy into helping those who needed it the most
• She was an instrument of God’s love and care for widows and she gave of herself, her time, skill and money in such a generous way that she was loved and respected
She “WAS DEVOTED TO GOOD WORKS AND ACTS OF CHARITY.” As followers of Jesus we’re called to do the same to be “DEVOTED TO GOOD WORKS AND ACTS OF CHARITY.”
• Charity is not just giving a small donation to a cause, but in Christian terms it involves esteem, affection, and caring that reflect God’s agape (self-giving) love
• Clearly the impact of Tabitha’s kindness was that other people were helped, she felt good knowing she was making a difference and the kingdom of God grew as a result
• Good works and charity aren’t done only with money – it can be with our Words, our Time, and our help to our family or neighbors
• Tabitha stepped out in faith and impacted a whole community
Peter had to step out in faith – as far as I can recall, this is the first time he has been asked to pray for someone who has died to be resuscitated to life. I’m sure we all have lots of people and situations we may be praying for, but this is a tall order with lots of high expectations.
• On the one hand, she’s already dead so how much worse can it get?
• On the other hand, how do you pray for something that seems so difficult, unlikely, and overwhelming?
Take a moment and think about the biggest challenge or problem or the most stressful situation in your life right now. Think about it and get it in your mind. Are you like Peter lifting that biggest challenge to God in prayer?
• It can be hard for us because many of us have been praying for people and situations and they don’t resolve immediately
• Our loved one doesn’t rise up healed and restored
• Yet, we’re called to step out in faith when we’re faced with situations that seem too big for us and we’re to seek God’s help
I think it’s significant that we’re told Peter “KNELT DOWN AND PRAYED.”
• Kneeling is an act of humility
• We kneel before situations that seem too tough for us to handle ourselves
• Yet in kneeling we tap into the power of God
He put everyone out of the room. You can’t pray with everybody.
• ST. MATTHEW 9:25 -- Jesus entered RULERS HOUSE – put them out’
• ST. MARK 5:40 Jesus entered the house of the RULER OF THE SYNAGOUGE – put them out
• You can’t pray in front of everyone
• Sometimes you have to put them out and then ‘Kneel Down and Pray’
After he has prayed then Peter looks at the body and says “Tabitha, Get Up” which reminds us of Jesus raising the little girl as well as Lazarus in St. John 11 and of the resurrection of Jesus himself. Peter’s power to heal is not to be seen as magic but a function of his close relationship with Christ who is risen in power and glory. Peter returns Tabitha to the saints and widows and presenting her to them alive - people come to believe in the Lord as almost always happens in Acts when God’s power is displayed.
Peter called Tabitha into new life with the simple words, “Get Up.” What are the words that will call us to new life? There must be something that will call us all into new life.
• Many of us are half asleep and may even feel half dead under the weight of recent years, and the fear of what is to come
• Between grief and fear we could fall under the power of Apathy or Ambivalence
• We might believe that what we say and do, won’t make a difference and, thereby, keep doing nothing
Many of our churches are caught in a routine that needs transformation. We have much to learn from the narratives like that of Peter and Tabitha.
• Tabitha was quite a worker in the early church from what we can gather
• She engaged the work of caring for the community and other things such as needlework
• She was beloved
• Yet, she became tired out and ill to the point to of death
• She was cleaned up and laid to rest while those who knew her mourned
What if we take Tabitha as a representative of the church.
• The Church was good and helpful and caring
• Then she got worn out and became sick to the point of death
• Attempts have been made to clean her up and there are those who mourn what used to be
• This could be Dire
• Or it could be Hopeful
In this season of Easter, we could discover a Word of Life – a word that will call us to live again. Perhaps it is the call to combat the fear that reaches for us. There is a word of life out there if we are listening. It took Peter to awaken Tabitha.
• What will it take for the church to come to new life?
• We will not find it doing all the things we have always done
• This is an excellent season to ask ourselves what no longer serves or where we expend energy that no longer makes a difference
• What does it mean to be a church in 2023, in this strange world where COVID, fear, and the powers of Empire rule the day?
• What would bring new life to more than church?
• What word do we need to hear?
--Personally, I hear “Get Up! And Be of Service”
--Get Up and be of service to those who have historically been condemned, overlooked, or purposely pushed out
--Get Up and let’s become agents of Agape and demand justice and equity for all of God’s people, beginning with the most vulnerable among us in this moment
--What word do you hear?
--Is there life in it?
--If there is no life in it, then it is echoes from the past or of our own fears
--If there is life and love in it, then it is coming from God
--The key to the narrative is Tabitha
--We may think it is Peter
--Yet, what good would Peter’s words have done if Tabitha had not responded?
--Church has spent enough time looking back to what was and lamenting the loss of it
--Isn’t it time we Get Up and enter into new life?
--It won’t be easy – it’s not supposed to be
--It’s time to Get Up
--Get Up and Work for the Lord
--Get Up and press through your Aches and Pains
--Get Up – somebody needs to hear a Word
--Get Up and stop living in the Past
--Get Up and walk into your Destiny and Purpose
--Get Up from your Pity Party
--Get Up and Shout for the Lord
--Get Up and Dance for the Lord
--Get Up
--Get Up, there’s a new day dawning
--Get Up, walk in your Destiny
--Get Up and walk in Victory
--Get Up it’s your Season
