Sermon: Dorcas the disciple (May 12, 2019)

Easter 4C

May 12, 2019

Acts 9:36-43

INTRODUCTION

         This 4^th Sunday of Easter is always known as Good Shepherd Sunday – we hear Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”), and a part of John’s Gospel where Jesus talks about being the Good Shepherd. It’s a beloved and comforting image, and one of the first images used for Jesus, and one worth reflecting on during this Easter season each year. But today, I am drawn to the reading from Acts, which tells the story of Dorcas. I’m drawn to it both because it is Mother’s Day, and a day we celebrate and lift up the particular ministry of women, and more uniquely because the name of Dorcas is kind of a big deal here at St. Paul’s! And that’s pretty cool, because it turns out, the only time the feminine version of the word “disciple” is used in the New Testament, is in reference to Dorcas. Pretty cool legacy!

So I’m going to focus my attention today on the story of Dorcas, though we will also hear these Good Shepherd texts. So how about this: as you listen to the texts today, think about the women in your life who have modeled faith for you, or shepherded you in your faith. How have they shown you what discipleship looks like? How have they shown you what it means to be sheep, following the Good Shepherd? Let’s listen.

[READ]

Dorcas / Tabitha, sewing

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia! Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

It was the beginning of the 20^th century, 1902. St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, of Pittsford, NY, a rural church made up mostly of farming families, was just 35 years old, and had fairly recently built their sanctuary on the corner of Lincoln Ave. and Washington Ave. The women of the church desired a place where they could encourage a spirit of Christian fellowship among women, a group that could respond faithfully to the needs of the poor in their own church, or the community, or wherever aid was needed. In short, they wanted to live out their discipleship, within a community of faithful women, and be devoted to good works and acts of charity. They wanted to serve the world. In September of that year, a society of women was formed with 28 members, and took the name of the biblical women, Dorcas, who was known for her good works and acts of charity and notably touched many people in her community, especially the widows, by sharing her gift for making clothes.

         Almost immediately, the newly formed Dorcas Society saw a need: they did not have a room large enough to meet in! They held a chicken and ham dinner that raised $155.14, got some additional aid from the congregation, and with $600 in hand, St. Paul’s began construction on the Dorcas Room, which was completed by their first anniversary. That room would be home base for this group of faithful women as they served the community in myriad ways – supporting missions both global and local, providing clothes (just like their biblical namesake) for people during times of war, hosting meals for those in need, and faithfully meeting each month for devotions and fellowship. When the high school burned down, they offered this room for the students to meet in until the school was rebuilt. When the church embarked on a remodel that would add a kitchen to the building, Dorcas raised some $20,000 toward the project. They donated three leaded glass windows, and helped build our sacristy. Today, 117 years later, the Dorcas Circle continues to meet faithfully each month, and the room their grandmothers made happen hosts myriad church and community groups, from AlAnon, to a lace guild, to Bible studies, to Sutherland High School AP exams just this week! As one history written on the group said, “Our group has always been called the Mother of the church, but a better name today would be the Grandmother,” and another said, “God has always blessed the Dorcas, and we hope there will always be a Dorcas Circle at St. Paul’s.” …

         It was the middle of the first century. News of the story and teachings of Jesus was spreading through Greece, reaching Jews, Gentiles, and even Romans, thanks especially to the work of Peter, one of the apostles. It had also reached a successful businesswoman, by the name of Dorcas, or in Aramaic, Tabitha. Yes, she went by both her Greek name and her Aramaic name, because she ran in both circles. You might even say she was something of a bridge-builder between different kinds of people. She was a sought-after seamstress, you see, and known in the region for her skills and gifts. Yes, she had done well for herself and her family, and she could be very proud of that.

         But then she heard about Jesus. She was moved by his teachings. The possibility that someone, that even she, could be forgiven, freed from the power of sin, and live without guilt, was incredible to her. She had assumed that guilt was simply a part of life, but these teachings compelled her into a different way of viewing life. And Jesus also taught her a radical way of loving her neighbor – for it was a love that depended not upon success or prestige, but only on the fact that a person in need was a person worthy of love, care, and compassion.

In light of Jesus’ teachings, Dorcas was moved to use her position, her success, and her particular skills and gifts to serve the under-served around her. In particular, she had a heart for the widows – an oft-overlooked segment of the population, and a particularly vulnerable one in a society in which most women depended upon a man for her survival. For these widows, Dorcas gave herself: her time, her resources, her skills, and most of all, her love.

No wonder so many gathered to grieve when Dorcas fell sick and died. She had shared so much love with so many people – and they all came to share that love right back to her. So deep was their devotion to this disciple of Christ, that when she died they immediately called the apostle Peter to come. See, they heard he was just in the next town over, and that he had recently accomplished a great miracle: he caused a paralyzed man to walk again! Though Dorcas was already dead, maybe, just maybe he could do something for their beloved friend.

Maybe it was Dorcas’ faithfulness. Maybe it was Peter’s. Maybe it was the fact that Dorcas had been such a devoted disciple that her own faith oozed onto all those with whom she came in contact, and it was in fact the resulting faithfulness of the gathered crowd that did it. Whatever it was, when Peter uttered those words, “Get up!” – she did! She sat upright, took Peter’s hand, and stood up.

And without skipping a beat, she went right back to using her myriad gifts to serve the Lord.

There aren’t many women in the Bible who are of means. Most of the ones we encounter are poor, sick and vulnerable, and many of them are unnamed, identified only by her ailment or by he to whom she is related. But in the book of Acts, we get several named women – stories of generous and successful women who were patrons of the early Church or notable disciples – and the story of Dorcas is an important one. It would be easy to focus in this story on the work of Peter, which is far more dramatic (raising someone from the dead!). But just look at the outpouring of love for Dorcas, the disciple of Christ who is devoted to good works and acts of charity. Widows gather round to tell stories of how her love and faith had touched them. They weep for her, genuine tears. It is such a tender and beautiful scene. You see, they had been touched by the love of Christ, through the work of Dorcas. Dorcas’ story – her life and her death and her return to life – brought many people to the Lord.

Hers is a dramatic story of life coming out of the death – the very same narrative we celebrate throughout the Easter season, about the power of God to bring life from death. But this story is not only expressed by Peter’s dramatic act. Dorcas brought life out of death by the way she lived, well before Peter came into the picture. She brought life out of death by the ways she used her skills to serve those in need, especially the widows in Joppa. She brought life out of death by the love she shared, by her selflessness, by her devotion and commitment to her Lord.

Hers is a legacy that lives on among faithful women and men all over the world, including here at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, through the long ministry of the Dorcas women’s group, and in so many other ways – any time we use our particular gifts to meet a need around us. It can be easy to think little of our gifts, to imagine them as purely secular, with no possibility to share God’s love through them. But Dorcas did not do that. She had an abundance to share, and she saw a need around her, and so she used her abundance to serve the Lord, and bring hope and life where there was previously despair.

That is our call, too. It is a call that has been faithfully lived out by the women of Dorcas here at St. Paul’s, and by the many other members throughout our 152 years history. It is a call we continue to live out – and we do that by always keeping our eyes open for what abundance we may have that can serve and bring life to the lack in our community and in the world. Let us follow in the path of so many women of faith, and especially Dorcas, as we step into that call each and every day.

Let us pray… God of abundance, you have lifted up many women of faith over time. On this day when we celebrate women, help us also to remember Dorcas, and the legacy she has here at St. Paul’s, and move us all to use our particular gifts to serve the needs around us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


We sang this wonderful hymn as the hymn of the day. It made me cry!
https://www.carolynshymns.com/god_of_the_women.html

Sermon: Throw your nets on the other side (May 5, 2019)

Easter 3C

May 5, 2019

John 21:1-19

INTRODUCTION

         As I mentioned last week, during this season of Easter, seven Sundays in all, we will be hearing from the book of Acts, the book of Revelation, and the Gospel of John. I want to give you some context for the Acts reading and the Gospel reading. Today from Acts we hear the fabulous story of Saul’s conversion. Right before this story, Saul has overseen the killing of Stephen, the first martyr of the church. Saul is one bad dude, a top-notch persecutor of the fledgling church. And yet here in this story, God takes this most unlikely candidate and turns him into Paul, the foremost promoter and planter of new church communities. Paul would of course go on to write much of what is now the New Testament.

         In John, we have just heard the story of the resurrection, and his appearance to the disciples in the locked upper room (we heard those stories last week and the week before), and now we’ll hear this one more appearance Jesus makes in a very ordinary setting: he shows up at the disciples’ “office,” so to speak. Both stories show us how Jesus shows up in all sorts of places we would not imagine, and they beg us to keep our eyes open for that in our own lives, too. Let’s listen.

[READ]

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

         Well, it’s been a pretty wild couple of weeks for the disciples, huh? After following Jesus around for the past few years, being challenged and fulfilled by his teachings, having their eyes opened to ways of understanding God that they had never before experienced, they all watched in fear and horror as he was arrested and hauled off, tried, and tortured before their very eyes. Not knowing what to do, they fled the scene. Peter tried to stick around, but in his own fear and uncertainty he had denied even knowing this man he’d pledged never to abandon. Then of course there was that crazy morning a couple weeks ago, when the women went to the tomb only to find it empty, and then Mary Magdalene came running to say she had seen the Lord, alive and well, in the garden. This was all getting very strange, and frankly, pretty scary.

 Not knowing what to do, that night the disciples had locked themselves in a room… but lo and behold Jesus appeared to them there! And rather than getting on their case about all the ways they had messed up the past few days, he breathed his peace on them. Remarkable! Now they, too, had seen the Lord! And then, just in case they had not gotten the message, he showed up again in that room, this time offering his wounded hands and side for Thomas, who had missed out the first time.

         If the disciples were being honest, this was all a lot to process. They were still quite afraid, you see – even aside from fearing the Jewish authorities who now might be seeking them out, they were afraid because their entire world view had been shaken. Sure, they were happy to see Jesus again, but what kind of world was this where dead people don’t stay dead? What could they count on anymore? What was real? How would the world view them in light of what happened? What sorts of responsibility, if any, did they bear as a result of these events? And, what on earth were they supposed to do with this new reality that Jesus had brought about?

         I can’t blame the disciples for what they did next: they look at each other, shrug their shoulders and say, “Welp, I guess we’ll just go back to what we’ve always done.” Unsure of what the future or even the present held, it made sense to them just to go back to where they were, back to a life before Jesus, before everything got turned upside down. Sure, it was an unenlightened life, but it was simple, it was straightforward, it was known. And there was a certain comfort in that.

         No, I can’t blame them for that at all… because I would do and have done the same thing. I’m going to start an exercise regimen, I say, or a new prayer practice, or organize my meal planning, and I’m great for a week, maybe two… but I quickly revert back to the way I have always done things before, because that is so much easier. And no, it doesn’t feel great, physically or emotionally, to fall victim to old habits, but it is easy, and easy so often wins out. Easier to stay put than to move or change anything.

I know I’m not alone in this – how often do we see a need for change in our lives, yet still just cling to the past, or the present for that matter, cling to old patterns, cling to what is familiar even if there is no chance of it ever coming back or working again, simply because doing anything else seems impossible. We do it with the little things, like exercise. We do it within our communities, like in the church, or in our jobs. And we do it as a society, in which we are continually plagued and even held hostage by systemic issues, like racism and poverty. It is really, really hard to change what feels safe and comfortable.

         But then along comes Jesus. And as we have repeatedly seen from Jesus – from the wedding at Cana, his first sign when he turned water into wine, to the resurrection, and everything in between and everything since – when Jesus shows up, things cannot and will not stay the same. Jesus does not allow us to fall back into the old ways, because he is always pointing us toward a new and better way. And that is precisely what he does in today’s story. “Hey, guys!” he calls from the beach. “You haven’t caught any fish, have you?” I imagine him with a twinkle in his eye – perhaps even one that could be seen from about a hundred yards off as they were – a twinkle that says, “How many times and ways must I show you that going back to the way things were is not the right direction?”

Caught in the act of returning to ways that do not bring life, the disciples respond with what I imagine is an embarrassed, “No.” And then Jesus calls out, “Hey… Do it the exact opposite way you are trying now. Throw the net on the other side. Flip your whole view around, and then you’ll see what I’m really about.”

         To their credit, they do it. And what they find is that what Jesus is really about – always has been and always will be – is abundance and life. A huge catch, and in the light of the morning, no less, when fish don’t usually stay near the surface! So much abundance and life, that they scarce can take it in. So much abundance and life that they know it can only mean one thing: “It is the Lord!”

         They did not expect to see him there that day. They did not expect to be once again set upon a path completely unlike that with which they were familiar. They did not expect to have to change their ways – again! And yet there, on a regular day “at the office,” Jesus shows up. There, around a campfire having breakfast, they experience a comfort beyond what any past habit or way of life could ever provide, as Jesus offers grace, companionship and sustenance for this bunch of deniers and abandoners, rather than the shame and correction that they likely deserved. There, sharing a meal with the very embodiment of God’s light, love and life, they receive a new call, a new direction, to be shepherds, care-takers, providers and sustainers of God’s sheep, and then they receive the oft-repeated command to, “Follow me.”

         With Jesus around, things never stay the same – Jesus is always calling us into something new, out of death and into life. Where have we missed that call, or overlooked it, or convinced ourselves that that isn’t really Jesus calling me, so I’m just gonna ignore it? When or where has Jesus showed up, and we didn’t even notice, and just kept going about our business, same ol’, same ol’? When have we missed the chance to shout, with the disciples, “It is the Lord!” and, hauling with us all his abundance and promise, eagerly sought to go where he directs?

         I see so much of my own story in this encounter the disciples have with Jesus, and I hope you can too. Jesus always has this way, doesn’t he, of drawing us into things that are new and different and not what we’re used to – in fact, “new and different and not what we are used to” is kinda Jesus’ jam! But then who knows what sort of life we might find there?

         I see so much of my own story in this encounter the disciples have with Jesus, and I hope you can too. Today after worship, you will have a chance to find other ways that Jesus might be showing up in your daily life and activities. We will engage in a synod-wide event called, “Learning Together Across the Synod” – we’ll set up stations around the church where you can engage in this story through playing games, art, conversation, and prayer. It might be very different from what you’re used to – but as we’ve seen, “very different” is kinda Jesus’ jam! I hope you will come and try it out, and discover where Jesus might be appearing, even unexpectedly, in your life, and asking you to throw your nets on the other side of the boat – and then perhaps we, too, might find ourselves crying out, “We have seen the Lord!”

         Let us pray… Present God, you appear to us at times and in ways we do not expect, and call us into something new. When we resist change and crave the familiarity of yesterday, give us courage to trust you and walk forward in faith. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.