Sermon for May 11, 2025: Devoted based upon Acts 9:36-43

Scripture: Acts 9:36-43
 
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 

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

Peter 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.

Peter 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.  He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet.
Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 

This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.  Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

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     Mathetria... that is the feminine form of the Greek word for “disciple.” Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, was a disciple in a place called Joppa. We know she’s a disciple because, well, for one, it’s stated explicitly in the text, but also she does disciple stuff, namely doing good and helping the poor. In commentary on the book of Acts, Gail O’Day points out that while we know that women were among the people who became disciples of Christ after the first twelve, only Tabitha is singled out and referred to with the specific feminine translation of the word.

     Mitzi Smith, in a commentary she has on Tabitha, points out that we don’t know a lot of specifics about her life, like how she came to have the money she uses to help people or if she is from the area or moved there to do ministry or what her family looks like. We do know that she is special, and that she is loved. In fact, she is so beloved in the Christian community in Joppa that when she dies, her disciple friends send two men to find Peter the apostle in the next town over. Peter had just healed a man named Aeneas. Maybe they hoped he could do something for Tabitha. Maybe they just wanted him to know that a beloved disciple had died.

     Resurrections are not everyday occurrences, even the Gospels. Jennifer T. Kaalund notes in her commentary on this text, in the Gospel of Luke and its sequel Acts, there are three resurrections before this story and one of them is Jesus’. Kaalund goes on to describes miracles as “demonstrations of the power of God” and “guideposts, leading people to God.” She also writes of miracles as “fuel for our faith” which can help people come to believe. Because so many of Jesus’ miracles and the miracles done through the power he provided his disciples are healings, I also think we should follow the work of Wil Gafney who says that each miracle is an epiphany, revealing something to us about the nature of Christ. What is revealed to us in this miracle, once again, is that healing is central to Christ’s mission, whether he or a disciple is the one doing it. And, we see that you don’t have to be the Messiah to be worthy of a restored life. Three resurrections happen before Tabitha, and two of them are regular people (the son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of a man named Jairus). Sometimes, when you restore one person’s life, you restore a whole community.

     The women who Tabitha helped bore witness to her legacy after she died, as they waited for Peter. What we know about her good works largely comes from them. The widows take Peter up to the upper room when Tabitha’s body is being tended to, and they show him the clothes that she had made either with or for them. Mitzi Smith notes that verb here could indicate that Tabitha created and provided the clothes to the women, or that she made the clothes with them. It is possible that, like Lydia, who we’ll learn about in the next couple weeks, Tabitha had worked in the textile business and used those professional connections to provide for widows who needed extra support. However Tabitha helped the women, whether she made the clothes or provided the materials to make them, it is a testimony to her good work that they had them and used the clothes to show Peter just how much she had meant to them. May each of us be so blessed to have others be able to demonstrate our legacy of care this clearly.

     If you are familiar with some other resurrection stories, I imagine aspects of this story might be familiar. For one, it takes place in the upper room, which is an upstairs part of the house. In her commentary, Mitzi Smith notes that throughout scripture, important things take place in upper rooms. Jesus and his disciples regularly met in upper rooms in people’s homes (Mark 14:15, Luke 22:12, Acts 1:13). In addition to a place of prayer and teaching/preaching (Acts 20:8) in Christian scriptures, in Hebrew scriptures, healing takes place in upper rooms. Elijah and Elisha perform healings in upper rooms (1 Kings 17:19, 2 Kings 4:8-37). And, it appears to be a place where you might prepare the body of one who has died, or spend time mourning the death of a loved one (2 Sam. 18:33). Given that Tabitha was wealthy enough to financially support other people, it may even be in her own home that people gather to tend to her body and mourn her death. How poignant is it to gather in her home, in a place set aside for mourning, healing, fellowship, and teaching, and then restore her to the people who loved her most?

     The tending of her remains by a group of women evokes the women who went to Jesus’ tomb. Like the women who found the tomb empty and testified to the resurrection, these women testified to Tabitha’s generosity. Smith argues that Tabitha’s good deeds are intended to be reminiscent of Jesus’. While we know that Peter has been empowered to do good deeds following Jesus’ model, these widows make clear that Tabitha, too, cares for those whom Christ loved. They are the ones who would share news of Tabitha’s resurrection, as Jesus’ women friends did his. The people who came to believe in Joppa likely did so because of the widow’s testimony.

     Peter’s actions mirror closely Jesus’ actions in two other Gospels: Lazarus’ resurrection in John and the little girl’s resurrection in Mark 5:35-43. Both Gafney and Smith note that the words Peter says to Tabitha “Tabitha qumi” - Tabitha, get up- are very close to the words Jesus says to the small girl he raised “Tali-that qumi”- little lamb, arise. In the Lazarus story, people come to get Jesus to bring him to Lazarus, like the two disciples came to Peter, and he was definitely dead, as Tabitha was. While the person who wrote Acts was not the same person who wrote John or Mark, given that all the stories about Jesus existed before they were written down, since multiple Gospel writers tell a version of a story where someone is restored to life in this way, it probably means that multiple early followers of Jesus were inspired by these kinds of stories, and they thought we can find guidance in them, too.

     What does discipleship to Christ mean? Tending to the vulnerable. Offering healing. Making space for mourning. Showing up when people ask for help. Testifying to the legacy of our friends. Using our resources to restore life to those who need it. The core of discipleship is healing and serving. Our reading today offers us two fine examples of it, Peter and Tabitha. May we be like Peter and show up in the places where death has come to call. And, may we be like Tabitha, devoted disciple and lover of God and neighbor. Let us relieve suffering where we can and share the stories of new life when we see it. This is what Christ empowers Tabitha and Peter to do. We can do it, too.
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Jennifer T. Kaaland: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-936-43-6
Mitzi Smith:

• https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-936-43-3
• "The Many Faces of Tabitha," I Found God in Me: A Womanist Hermeneutics Reader (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2015)

Gail R. O'Day, "Acts," Women's Bible Commentary, expanded Edition with Apocrypha, Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998).
Wil Gafney, "Epiphany VII," Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2022)