Sermon given by Pastor Dawn Coffey, preached on Lopez Island

In honor of Mother’s Day, let us go to the second reading we heard this morning, from the book of Acts, the story of Tabitha. Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, also known as Gazelle, must have been a woman of diversity. To have three names, and all of them mentioned in the Bible! She must have been someone! And she was! To her little church, in her little town of Joppa, she was a beloved someone.

We join the group of widows outside the house of Tabitha-Dorcas-Gazelle; we are caught in an uproar. She is dead. Tabitha is dead. The widows say that one minute Tabitha was sick, the next she is dead. Her body has already been washed and laid upstairs. But another thing is taking place. Peter has been summoned. Peter is in the next town, nine miles away, and two men of the church have gone to bring him to Joppa. This is Peter, beloved disciple of Jesus, yes, Peter, the man of many changes: the one who denied Jesus at the crucifixion, the one who ran to the empty Easter tomb, the one to whom Jesus gave a breakfast of grilled fish and toast, along with the directive, ‘feed my sheep.’ Peter, fully forgiven, fully restored, has lately been about the work of healing the sick and helping the small church communities, and now he is summoned to the house of Tabitha.

The widows are distraught because Tabitha is dead. A widow, in New Testament definition, is one who is struggling to survive. No Social Security. No Medicare. If a widow has a family, it must be that the family is willing to provide for her. Otherwise, she is on her own. Tabitha as a seamstress clothed these widows. Tabitha made sure they had outfits. She did the intimate work of fitting cloth onto each woman, cutting the cloth, sewing by hand. This was not a one-size-fits-all undertaking, not a department store rack. The widows were wearing cloaks and tunics fitted to each. This is why they are distraught and showing the very clothes they are wearing. Tabitha made their clothes and Tabitha loved them.

There is one verse in our reading that describes Tabitha better than anything else. Acts 9:36—“She was given to acts of love and good works.” If someone was making a gravestone for Tabitha, I hope that description was carved on the stone: “Given to acts of love and good works.” Tabitha was an ordinary woman who loved and cared for those around her as an overflow of God’s grace. She was important to those who knew her. And now she is dead.

But here comes Peter into town. Peter, living fluidly these days, is willing to go where and when he is needed. Tired, perhaps, after nine miles of hot, dusty walking from Lydda to Joppa. The two men who went to summon Peter just put in a roundtrip of eighteen miles. But never mind. Peter goes straight to the upper room and listens to the widows weeping and sees them showing their garments beside the body of Tabitha. Peter asks them to leave the room, and he kneels silently in prayer. Then he turns to the body and says, “Tabitha, get up.” She opens her eyes, Peter gives her a hand, and helps her up, and shows her to the widows and the saints—that small church community of those beloved by God. Soon the whole town of Joppa hears about Tabitha rising from death, and because of it, many come to trust God.

Tabitha, in our reading, is called a disciple. A disciple is a student, someone who follows and learns from the teacher. Tabitha followed Jesus and like Jesus she was committed to the wellbeing of others through acts of kindness and giving. She took the tasks and works that she knew how to do and did them for others, following an inner desire to love the Holy Mystery who is God and to follow Jesus.

We could say that Tabitha was woke! She was given the gift of life to live yet another day and she was given the desire to live and to create a more loving world. Tabitha stays woke, as her actions make the difference between life and death in this world.

Here is a present-day example of a friend on this island. She is not a seamstress, rather she is concerned for the wellbeing of bees and pollinators. She has learned how to attract mason bees to her yard. With a mason bee box, carefully kept clean and attended, with water and blooming flowers, she welcomes these native bees and helps them to populate. I’ve heard that if you put half your yard in native plants, the bee populations of our area will revive and flourish, even as they adapt to climate change. My friend is a disciple, following an inner desire to love God and God’s world.

It is Eastertime. We are well into the fifty days between the glory of Easter resurrection and the joy of Pentecost’s spirit giving. We are becoming woke to the knowledge that God the Holy Mystery has raised Jesus from the dead. In our reading today, God has raised Tabitha from the dead. All this is going somewhere. Eternal life for all. God is making it so. But it is not only an end time thing. Eternal life from death is also now. Eternal life begins now, with every good deed done, every kindness put forth, every forgiveness offered and received. All because of a loving God who resurrects deadness.

It is Good Shepherd Sunday. We are sheep, part of the flock, and we ask  God to shepherd us, as the song we sang puts it, beyond our wants, beyond our fears, from death into life.

It is Mother’s Day. In the earliest centuries after the time of Jesus, Mother’s Day was a day when everyone was invited to return to their mother church for a special service. For me, that would be St. Ansgar’s Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Much later, a Mothering Day was brought about by women who worked to bring reconciliation between the soldiers of the Union and Confederate armies after the Civil War.

Now it is our turn to carry the tasks, all of us, of mothering each other and this world that we are given to live in this day.