Acts 9:32-42 (New King James Version)
32 Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country, that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda. 33 There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” Then he arose immediately. 35 So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
36 At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did. 37 But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. 39 Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord.
I have lived most of my life in small towns. The town I went to high school in had no stop lights, although the population of the town was a little closer to Rocky Ford than to Fowler. I went to college in the big city for a year, but after a year I had enough of it. I moved to a college of 500 in Kansas in a town of 2000 people. I attended an American Baptist Church of about 30 to 40, and felt right at home.
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There are a lot of things that love about small towns. I love that you can walk into the grocery store downtown and people know who you are, and sometimes they know exactly why you are there without saying anything. I love that you can see a car driving through town and know exactly who is in the car when the car is two or three blocks away. I like that one of the clerks at the city hall when I pay my water bill is the daughter of the guy who has been working on the church furnace and the furnace at the parsonage the last couple of days. When I lived in Kansas in college, I came back a couple years later for a visit and to attend a wedding. I went to Shirers restaurant just north of town in Lyons, KS. It was a restaurant I went to with the church people on a weekly basis. I always drink a lot of water with my meal. When I walked into the restaurant the same waitress was working that often worked while I dined there. And she served me the way that she remembered from being there. Which meant that the waitress remembered to put a pitcher of water at our table near me, because otherwise she would have to run back and forth to refill my cup every minute or two. I loved that. And I like that when my wife worked in La Junta and lost her phone that someone was able to track her down at the Arkansas Valley Community Center and was honest enough to give it back. There is a lot to love about a small town.
One of my wise friends, now passed away, was a human resources manager. He was also my landlord for a while. One night while sitting out late in the hot tub visiting with him, he was telling me about his approach to interviewing people. He said, “I always just ask people their strengths. Because, if I ask them their strengths, I can easily figure out what their weaknesses are.”
“How’s that?,” I asked.
Vic said, “A persons greatest weakness, or even an organization’s greatest weakness, is always a result of their greatest strength. If a person is a type A go-getter, don’t expect them to be meek and sensitive. If a person is really strong is supporting and caring for each individual person, don’t expect them to be a numbers driven, hard-driving type. You can always tell a person’s weakness simply by discovering their strengths.”
A small town’s greatest strength can also be its greatest weakness. Sometimes, during the first year of being here, when friends from out of town would ask me about how things were going I would say something like this, “Well the nice thing about being in Fowler is that it is a slower pace of life, things move more slowly, and everybody knows what is going on with everybody else. The challenging thing about moving to Fowler is that things it is a slower pace of life, things move more slowly, everybody knows more about you than you know about them.
A small town’s stability, consistency, and sameness year after year is its greatest strength. At times it can be its greatest weakness as well. Once people make a judgment about you, that judgment is pretty much set for decades if not for life. At times it can be comforting to head into the store or restaurant for coffee and see the same people in the same chairs week after week and year after year. But there are some times for many of us when going to the same places at the same times day after day and week after week can begin to feel like we are stuck in a rut that we will never get out of. Like we are living in some small town version of the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray is forced to live the same day over and over again.
The attitude about things never being able to change can seep into our own view of ourselves and our situation. We can feel like we are stuck in our personal lives. Maybe we are stuck in a grudge that we hardly even understand why we continue any more, like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matheau in the movie Grumpy Old Men. Or maybe we never see how our financial situation could improve. Perhaps we wonder if we will ever find a way to get healthy again. Or we just want to stop having the same argument with our spouse over and over again, or having to listen to the same complaint.
I cannot tell you how many times when I have heard one person complain about another person, and then say, with their hands thrown up in the air, “But they ain’t never gonna change”.
Both of the people that we find in Scripture this morning are in the middle of situations that most doubt are really going to change. They and the people around them are in differing stages of grief and loss. Each of them is a part of a church which is kind of an upstart church. They are not in significant cities, although Joppa is closer to that than Lydda.
The apostle Peter, as a leader of the young church of Jesus Christ that is just being born, is going from congregation to congregation to help them get headed in the right direction, and get square about good doctrine, and to offer these very new congregations support from their mother church.
While on his listening tour, he performs one miracle in each city that makes a big difference. Each miracle is performed for one specific person. Each miracle requires Peter to come to them, instead of them seeking out Peter for help. Of course, it would be hard for the dead person to go anywhere as Tabitha was…but still..Peter comes to these people in need. But Peter comes to these people, in their homes, in their rooms, to perform the miracles.
Each miracle intervenes in what is assumed to be a hopeless situation. Aeneas was completely bedbound for 8 years the Scripture says. In other words, people had given up hope of him getting better. Tabitha or Dorcas, both names mean “Gazelle”, was dead.
Each miracle is not simply to benefit the person receiving the healing. Each miracle builds up the community and church as a whole. A bunch of people came to believe because Aeneias was healed.
With Tabitha, there is more detail. You see, Tabitha lived her life as a blessing to others. She took care of widows, who were the poorest of the poor in the ancient world. She made and gave them clothes to wear. She was, as a matter of fact, the leader of the church of the outreach to those in need. She was known for being charitable to numbers of people.
Peter was called to her. The women were all grieving at her house. It was a mad house. All of these poor women were carrying tunics and dresses and all sorts of clothes that Tabitha made for them.
We don’t realize what a big deal this is today. We can run to a second hand store or Family Dollar or Walmart and buy clothes fairly inexpensively. Not so in the days of Tabitha. Most people had one garment to wear. Maybe two. Yet, Tabitha was making these women who did not have anything clothes. And beautiful clothes at that. Clothes that they could be proud of.
The house is a madhouse. Peter asks everyone to leave to room. He tells Tabitha to wake up. She opens her eyes. She sees Peter sitting there. She quickly sits up. There is more work God has for her to do after all!
Her life is extended. The widows and destitute receive their leader and caretaker back from the dead. The churches compassionate ministry goes on. The church’s reputation grew. Many people came to the Lord.
What you need to learn from Peter’s ministry with the church in Joppa and Lydda through miracles is this: YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. YOU HAVE HOPE. GOD IS LOOKING TO, IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, INTERVENE IN YOUR SITUATION. IN YOUR LIFE.
So often it is easy to believe that we are just stuck. Our health declines, and we forget that as long as we have breathe, and as long as we have life, God has a purpose for us. WE ARE NEVER GOD FORSAKEN. WE ALWAYS MATTER TO GOD.
So often we feel trapped. We believe that our choices or circumstances have led us to an undesirable and inescapable future. You don’t have to feel that way. God wants to strengthen you. God wants to heal you. God offers you new life. God offers you new hope. God offers you a new heart. WILL YOU TRUST HIM?
We can also see that God had a plan for each of the churches that Peter visited. They would never be the same. Nor should they ever be.
Sometimes, when we live in a place where there is a slower pace of life, where things don’t change very fast, it can be hard to see and understand how the Holy Spirit works within people, how God is growing us as individuals, and how God is working in our congregation. We wonder what God is doing. But if you pay attention you can see God’s hand at work all around you. In the slow but steady change of a person’s heart. Through the growing joy in an otherwise dour acquaintance. Through a new visitor attending on Sunday morning. Through a significant conversation with someone that you never really expected. Be assured that he is at work. Like God’s healing power in this story, God is coming toward us, offering us new hope and the opportunity for new growth and new life. He is not leaving us to our own devices. God is coming into our lives, our churches, our homes, our rooms with his gift of healing and hope. We just need to open our eyes to see it. Amen.
36 At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did. 37 But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. 39 Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord.
I have lived most of my life in small towns. The town I went to high school in had no stop lights, although the population of the town was a little closer to Rocky Ford than to Fowler. I went to college in the big city for a year, but after a year I had enough of it. I moved to a college of 500 in Kansas in a town of 2000 people. I attended an American Baptist Church of about 30 to 40, and felt right at home.
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There are a lot of things that love about small towns. I love that you can walk into the grocery store downtown and people know who you are, and sometimes they know exactly why you are there without saying anything. I love that you can see a car driving through town and know exactly who is in the car when the car is two or three blocks away. I like that one of the clerks at the city hall when I pay my water bill is the daughter of the guy who has been working on the church furnace and the furnace at the parsonage the last couple of days. When I lived in Kansas in college, I came back a couple years later for a visit and to attend a wedding. I went to Shirers restaurant just north of town in Lyons, KS. It was a restaurant I went to with the church people on a weekly basis. I always drink a lot of water with my meal. When I walked into the restaurant the same waitress was working that often worked while I dined there. And she served me the way that she remembered from being there. Which meant that the waitress remembered to put a pitcher of water at our table near me, because otherwise she would have to run back and forth to refill my cup every minute or two. I loved that. And I like that when my wife worked in La Junta and lost her phone that someone was able to track her down at the Arkansas Valley Community Center and was honest enough to give it back. There is a lot to love about a small town.
One of my wise friends, now passed away, was a human resources manager. He was also my landlord for a while. One night while sitting out late in the hot tub visiting with him, he was telling me about his approach to interviewing people. He said, “I always just ask people their strengths. Because, if I ask them their strengths, I can easily figure out what their weaknesses are.”
“How’s that?,” I asked.
Vic said, “A persons greatest weakness, or even an organization’s greatest weakness, is always a result of their greatest strength. If a person is a type A go-getter, don’t expect them to be meek and sensitive. If a person is really strong is supporting and caring for each individual person, don’t expect them to be a numbers driven, hard-driving type. You can always tell a person’s weakness simply by discovering their strengths.”
A small town’s greatest strength can also be its greatest weakness. Sometimes, during the first year of being here, when friends from out of town would ask me about how things were going I would say something like this, “Well the nice thing about being in Fowler is that it is a slower pace of life, things move more slowly, and everybody knows what is going on with everybody else. The challenging thing about moving to Fowler is that things it is a slower pace of life, things move more slowly, everybody knows more about you than you know about them.
A small town’s stability, consistency, and sameness year after year is its greatest strength. At times it can be its greatest weakness as well. Once people make a judgment about you, that judgment is pretty much set for decades if not for life. At times it can be comforting to head into the store or restaurant for coffee and see the same people in the same chairs week after week and year after year. But there are some times for many of us when going to the same places at the same times day after day and week after week can begin to feel like we are stuck in a rut that we will never get out of. Like we are living in some small town version of the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray is forced to live the same day over and over again.
The attitude about things never being able to change can seep into our own view of ourselves and our situation. We can feel like we are stuck in our personal lives. Maybe we are stuck in a grudge that we hardly even understand why we continue any more, like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matheau in the movie Grumpy Old Men. Or maybe we never see how our financial situation could improve. Perhaps we wonder if we will ever find a way to get healthy again. Or we just want to stop having the same argument with our spouse over and over again, or having to listen to the same complaint.
I cannot tell you how many times when I have heard one person complain about another person, and then say, with their hands thrown up in the air, “But they ain’t never gonna change”.
Both of the people that we find in Scripture this morning are in the middle of situations that most doubt are really going to change. They and the people around them are in differing stages of grief and loss. Each of them is a part of a church which is kind of an upstart church. They are not in significant cities, although Joppa is closer to that than Lydda.
The apostle Peter, as a leader of the young church of Jesus Christ that is just being born, is going from congregation to congregation to help them get headed in the right direction, and get square about good doctrine, and to offer these very new congregations support from their mother church.
While on his listening tour, he performs one miracle in each city that makes a big difference. Each miracle is performed for one specific person. Each miracle requires Peter to come to them, instead of them seeking out Peter for help. Of course, it would be hard for the dead person to go anywhere as Tabitha was…but still..Peter comes to these people in need. But Peter comes to these people, in their homes, in their rooms, to perform the miracles.
Each miracle intervenes in what is assumed to be a hopeless situation. Aeneas was completely bedbound for 8 years the Scripture says. In other words, people had given up hope of him getting better. Tabitha or Dorcas, both names mean “Gazelle”, was dead.
Each miracle is not simply to benefit the person receiving the healing. Each miracle builds up the community and church as a whole. A bunch of people came to believe because Aeneias was healed.
With Tabitha, there is more detail. You see, Tabitha lived her life as a blessing to others. She took care of widows, who were the poorest of the poor in the ancient world. She made and gave them clothes to wear. She was, as a matter of fact, the leader of the church of the outreach to those in need. She was known for being charitable to numbers of people.
Peter was called to her. The women were all grieving at her house. It was a mad house. All of these poor women were carrying tunics and dresses and all sorts of clothes that Tabitha made for them.
We don’t realize what a big deal this is today. We can run to a second hand store or Family Dollar or Walmart and buy clothes fairly inexpensively. Not so in the days of Tabitha. Most people had one garment to wear. Maybe two. Yet, Tabitha was making these women who did not have anything clothes. And beautiful clothes at that. Clothes that they could be proud of.
The house is a madhouse. Peter asks everyone to leave to room. He tells Tabitha to wake up. She opens her eyes. She sees Peter sitting there. She quickly sits up. There is more work God has for her to do after all!
Her life is extended. The widows and destitute receive their leader and caretaker back from the dead. The churches compassionate ministry goes on. The church’s reputation grew. Many people came to the Lord.
What you need to learn from Peter’s ministry with the church in Joppa and Lydda through miracles is this: YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. YOU HAVE HOPE. GOD IS LOOKING TO, IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, INTERVENE IN YOUR SITUATION. IN YOUR LIFE.
So often it is easy to believe that we are just stuck. Our health declines, and we forget that as long as we have breathe, and as long as we have life, God has a purpose for us. WE ARE NEVER GOD FORSAKEN. WE ALWAYS MATTER TO GOD.
So often we feel trapped. We believe that our choices or circumstances have led us to an undesirable and inescapable future. You don’t have to feel that way. God wants to strengthen you. God wants to heal you. God offers you new life. God offers you new hope. God offers you a new heart. WILL YOU TRUST HIM?
We can also see that God had a plan for each of the churches that Peter visited. They would never be the same. Nor should they ever be.
Sometimes, when we live in a place where there is a slower pace of life, where things don’t change very fast, it can be hard to see and understand how the Holy Spirit works within people, how God is growing us as individuals, and how God is working in our congregation. We wonder what God is doing. But if you pay attention you can see God’s hand at work all around you. In the slow but steady change of a person’s heart. Through the growing joy in an otherwise dour acquaintance. Through a new visitor attending on Sunday morning. Through a significant conversation with someone that you never really expected. Be assured that he is at work. Like God’s healing power in this story, God is coming toward us, offering us new hope and the opportunity for new growth and new life. He is not leaving us to our own devices. God is coming into our lives, our churches, our homes, our rooms with his gift of healing and hope. We just need to open our eyes to see it. Amen.
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