Get Up

Lectionary readings for this week:

Acts 9:36-43

Psalm 23

Revelation 7:9-17

John 10:22-30

Acts 9:36-43 (NIV)

³⁶In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor.

³⁷About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.

³⁸Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!"

³⁹Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

⁴⁰Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up."

She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.

⁴¹He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive.

⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

⁴³Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

When I read this story, I'm immediately transported in my mind to a terrible, difficult, pastoral moment.

Years ago, I found myself at the side of a mother and father who had just learned that their son had been killed.

"Can't you bring him back?" she asked, in her grief-stricken delirium. "They did that in the Bible. You pray, and he comes back..."

My heart was broken.

I don't know why Peter could have that prayer answered, and I can't.

But I do know that I don't need to have the power of life and death in my own hands, either.

I don't know why Tabitha...why Joppa...why that place and time.

But I do know this from the story: the news of her restoration quickly spread throughout that city.

Can you imagine? I think news like that would really travel.

Tabitha was a good woman who loved the poor. The fledgling church was small and vulnerable. Her death hurt them deeply...perhaps without her leadership in that critical moment, they would have been pushed almost to extinction. God used her life to bring many, many others into the faith and to establish the church in that place.

News of resurrection still travels today.

I don't mean "just" physical resurrection...I mean the spiritual kind that we think is not nearly as exciting.

It is.

I have seen the power that happens when a believer stands in worship and shares their story of moving from spiritual death to life.

I have seen how God can build the body of believers through the undeniable proof of a changed life.

We definitely don't have all the answers.

But I can tell you that those grieving parents I stood with years ago went on to build their faith, to be loved by the church, and to become witnesses of God's powerful love that endures, even in the face of brokenness and death.

That's the power of resurrection.

Grace & Peace,

Adam

The Easter video we used in worship at SOTH, which does a great job of connecting Jesus' resurrection to the spiritual rebirth that God invites us to experience.