LIFE GIVING WAYS
Scripture: Psalm 23 Acts 9:36-43
Preached by the Reverend Kathy Peters
April 25, 2010

Many of the tasks of our day can feel like they are determined by necessities beyond our control: working for a salary, shopping for groceries, car-pooling children to activities. When we are able to reflect on these activities, we ask ourselves, “What difference does all this make?” It is the hope of most people, young and old, that even ordinary events and daily routine can lead to life-giving acts. Tabitha, or Dorcus in Greek, cared for the widows in her community through ordinary means: sewing clothes. In her quiet servant way she was a powerful woman whose life made a difference to the people she encountered, the people she loved. She was so revered and beloved in her work as a disciple that her friends just could not let her go and sent for Peter…perhaps he might…just might be able to something …might just might be able to perform some life giving act that would bring Tabitha back to them.
Peter and the other disciples were continuing the work of Jesus. They were out being the church, teaching, healing, caring for those who no one else would care for, showing life giving love to all whom they encountered.

We might ask ourselves, then, the following questions: Is the church continuing the work and love of Jesus today? Would those who hear about us, and those who watch what we do, hear and feel echoes from the story of Christ? Would they recognize us as disciples, filled with the power of the Spirit? Would they see us acting in life giving ways?
Stephen Jones describes the early Christians as ones who “were unafraid to wade into each other's lives in transforming ways. The emphasis of this text he says “is not upon a return from death, but upon a community honing all of its spiritual strength and resources passionately upon life and wholeness" (S.A.M.U.E.L. ucc.org 4/25/10)

Joseph Harvard suggests that the story "challenges our assumption that we are left to our own devices to fix our predicaments – or, more to the point, that our predicaments are not fixable at all." He says that we live in a "Humpty Dumpty" world in which we are convinced that things cannot be put back together again, but the book of Acts tells a different story, about people who "were empowered to 'turn the world upside down'.
The Lord is our Shepherd, our guide, the one who leads us through still waters and dark places, the one who leads us, sometimes kicking and screaming on the right paths yet we also need the community, the Body of Christ to walk with us as we wander through this life. We need to be a community “that hones all of its spiritual strength and resources passionately upon life and wholeness”, life and wholeness for all of God’s people who cross the pathways of our live.
We then are called to witness to Christ’s saving love through our compassionate words and deeds. What might those life giving ways look like in our lives?  How might we in the ordinary of our everyday be witnesses to the love that Jesus lived?
Saint Francis of Assisi is said to have declared: “Preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words”
Yes we are called to tell the good news of God’s love for all God’s people, but we are especially called to live that love so that all may know who we are by the love that we show…..even in the ordinary tasks of our living.

In Hawaii the traditional greeting, Aloha, is so much more than hello or goodbye. It literally means “breath of life”. Aloha is a way of living and treating each other with great love and respect. Its deep meaning I learned starts by teaching ourselves to love our own beings first and afterwards to spread the love to others.
Sounds like something right out of our Bible! So I would urge us to Aloha living.

Do your work from the viewpoint of love and respect even if that love and respect is not always returned.
Make eye contact and smile at the cashier in the grocery store. Let even ordinary and casual contact be a moment of true human connection.
When you are rushing around from task to task, curb that impatient word and listen to the story that your child or your friend or your spouse is telling…even if you have heard it before.
Make refraining from complaining and negative comments and engaging in random acts of kindness more than just a Lenten exercise.
Find an issue that you are passionate about and do something….even if it is just praying about it each day.
Engage in acts of mercy and love, life giving acts, no matter how small so that “the radiance of your faith will speak volumes, and lead others to want to know more about what has truly worked wonders in your life.” (S.A.M.U.E.L. ucc.org 4/25/10)

Again commentator Stephen Jones, who wrestles both with the faith of those widows and with our own, scientifically formed questions as modern Christians  offers this helpful reflection:  "This congregation of resurrection, (these friends of Tabitha’s and these disciples of Christ) had reason to believe in a God who transcends the categories of birth, life, and death. We do not hold the keys that unlock these mysteries. We do not know God's will as it pertains to Dorcas or to our loved ones (or us). The helpful distinction is between praying for a cure (or a specific outcome to a difficult situation) which seems to dictate to God our desired outcome, and praying for healing, which can come in a hundred unexpected ways. God's Spirit will intervene on behalf of our prayers, yet the healing that comes often surprises us and causes us to catch our collective breath."
May we be open to the healing and the surprises.
May we live our lives with Aloha, the breath of life, aware of God’s Spirit and the ability of that spirit to take our breath away, aware of the community that we need to be fully human and aware of the everyday opportunities to show forth the radiance of our faith, so at the end of the day we might recognize our own life giving ways and might truly know what a difference it all makes! Amen