The Park Road Pulpit
Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church
Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors
Acts 9:36-43
Amy Jacks Dean, May 6, 2001
In an article for The Christian Century, Barbara Brown Taylor says this: “One reason I teach undergraduate religion instead of preaching is that I am not sure preaching can be taught.” I disagree. I know that before my first preaching class I knew nothing about preaching – except what I liked and what I didn’t like and that was completely subjective with no formula or criteria for what makes a good or bad sermon. My first preaching class at Southern Seminary was a wonderful experience. We spent all but the last 2 weeks of the semester writing one sermon – one sermon! I could tell you a lot about Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel about not worrying. There were only a couple of other women in the class, and I recall several “preacher boys” – you know the ones who carried their “Kingdom Kits” everywhere. (Kingdom Kits were what us heathen students called the preacher boy’s briefcases which held their big ole’ Bibles that they could quote – especially from Timothy and Ephesians – to us preacher wanna bes.) My professor, Craig Loscalzo, was a wonderful human being who took much time dealing with gender issues and equality of all persons who might stand in this place to somehow “proclaim” a word from God. I take full responsibility any time my preaching is less than – but give all credit to Dr. Loscalzo anytime my preaching is on. I believe preaching can be taught. After teaching an elective course at McAfee School of Theology entitled “Preaching Difficult Texts,” Barbara Brown Taylor agrees – preaching can be taught. She and the students spent the first day of the class deciding what kinds of texts were difficult to preach. She says by the time they finished “most of us had to admit that our faith has been shaped by a canon considerably smaller than the official one…we live by edited versions of our favorite Gospels and the epistles of Paul that we like.” She goes on to say that “while we publicly affirm the God of the older testament to be the God of the newer one, we secretly believe that Jesus is a great improvement on Yahweh” and “if we looked at our closed Bibles from the side, it would be easy for us to see how few pages we have smudged through frequent use.” Interestingly enough, the class decided that at the top of the list the most difficult tests to preach were miracle stories, “[They] were not as bothered by Moses’ parting of the Red Sea of Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 as [they] were by the simplest healing miracles.” (The Christian Century, May 2, 2001)
That’s really not surprising, is it? Nothing hits home like the healing miracles. Everyone in this room knows of at least someone who is in need of a miraculous healing. It may even be you. I can name several of our own church family. So it goes against our grain to hear of someone named Tabitha – who was dead – being brought back to life. It at least goes against my grain. Having been a hospital chaplain and working the emergency room and the oncology units and having been a minister when one of my college students at Clemson committed suicide and a youth was killed in a car accident and having been an aunt at the bedside of my dying nephew – I know what it is like to pray for things I don’t even believe – grasping for some hope – some supernatural miracle – some intervention that would make death go and life return.
My guess is that most folks in this room may not have even heard of Tabitha, whose Greek name was Dorcas. We don’t know much about her. To be honest, I couldn’t find much at all – certainly not much of substance about this passage. Perhaps because it’s one of those difficult texts of healing that no one wants to deal with. If Tabitha could be raised from the dead, if Tabitha could be brought back to life – then why not someone I know or someone that you love? We do know that Tabitha is the only woman in Scripture to actually be called a disciple. We do know that she was known for her good works and acts of charity – especially concerning the care for the widows. We do know that they sent for Peter when they didn’t know what else to do. We know that the community grieved her death – they needed her and I’m sure they loved her – but more than that she was needed in the community of faith and they didn’t know what they would do without her. And we know that Peter ordered everyone out of the room and he prayed. And the story spread that Peter said, “Tabitha, get up.” And she did. And many believed.
Mark’s gospel records a parallel event in the ministry of Jesus. Jairus, the synagogue ruler, was told that his daughter was dead. Jesus went to her bedside, ordered the crowds away and said, “Talitha Koum!” (which meant little girl, get up) (Mark 5:35-43) And she did.
So what do we do with this story of Tabitha? Many of our fellow Christians site this story as support for healing services. Many churches use this story as evidence that it can happen – that illness and death can be overcome with prayer. Many television evangelists prey on those like the women gathered at Tabitha’s deathbed – those grasping for any ray of hope – “touch the TV set and send me money and you’ll walk again, or you’ll see again, or you will be healed – and if it doesn’t work it’s because of your lack of faith.”
If that is all we see in this text, I think we’ve missed the point. My definition of life is more than breath – more than a beating heart. Hospitals in this city alone are full of people on the brink of their last breath and at the last beat of their heart. And I believe God is busy doing all that God can do, with the help of able doctors and nurses and loving caregivers. And that’s about all I have to say about that. But I have a lot to say about the people all around us – even in our midst this day – who are not really living.
Beginning last Sunday, Russ introduced us to a journey that we would take from Easter to Pentecost. We are on a journey through Acts. On these Sunday journeys, we are going to take a look at some of the stories from the early church. How did that early group of fledgling Christians come to form a community? And is there anything that today’s post-Christian Church can learn from them? In today’s text when Tabitha died, they heard that Peter was in a nearby town and they sent for him. What is striking is that they didn’t ask him to DO anything in particular – they didn’t ask even for a miracle. They just wanted him to be there. Tabitha lay surrounded by the people that needed her and loved her and Peter joined the company and prayed.
This past week alone, I have been shocked at what people are dealing with – sadness, grief, fear, depression, anticipation, anxiety. Confidentiality won’t let me reveal details, but let me assure you that there are many people who are not living. They may as well be on their deathbed, because that is how their heart and head and soul feel. And the early church took care of one another and brought people back to life. I have every confidence that if Park Road Baptist Church continues to strengthen the way we care for one another – the way we take care of each other – the news will spread and people will come to us to be healed.
Just last Sunday afternoon at Robbie Shaw’s memorial service, I thanked Marcia Orr for showing me what it means to be church for one another. Robbie was truly cared for by Marcia. Tomorrow night, our orientation session for our first Interfaith CareLinks care team will meet. We have enough people interested to possibly start more than one care team that will provide care for our homebound church members. I am so excited about this ministry. It is not too late is you are interested. Linda Hefner has agreed to be our team’s leader.
We have got to be intentional in the way we care for one another. I don’t know what Peter did or said. I don’t know what happened at that bedside in an upper room in Joppa. What I do know is that there was a disciple named Tabitha who was surrounded by a community of faith that cared for her the way she had cared for them and the Church lived. If the Church is to live today in our world, it will be because we are community to one another. Will Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, says, “We all know that we are a nation full of Lone Ranger individualists. There is a great hunger for community…the church often takes for granted the powerful impact of its own communal life. There are few places in modern society where two generations meet, where the young are empowered, and the old are given something significant to be and to do, where people meet across lines of race, gender, and class. The church can be, at its best, one of those places.” (Pulpit Resource, April, May, June 2000)
But this is a two-way street. First, we must be willing to offer help. We must work together to recognize needs and resources for help. We must be willing to work as a group when appropriate and know when an individual response is needed. We must be willing to care for one another. Secondly, we must be willing to receive help. And the second thing is more difficult than the first.
Just before Jesus’ arrest, he was speaking with his disciples and he said one of those I-tell-the-truths…”anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. [That one] will do even greater things than these.” When we take someone in and help to shoulder their burdens; when we comfort those who grieve; when we gather people who feel as though they are about to suffocate under our wing and offer a listening ear; when we allow tears to flow and fears to be voiced; when we take care of the menial tasks that depression won’t allow for; when we offer life in place of death – then we are doing even greater things.
The Church survived because of what Peter and those widows and that community did for Tabitha? The question is: Will the Church survive today because of what we do in restoring life to those who feel dead? I heard just yesterday, “We have not been called to be holy. We have been called to be obedient.” (Robert Johnston, professor at Fuller Seminary) Greater things await us still. May we be found obedient.