Resurrection: Ask for it. Help bring it about.

Rev. Catherine Wright
St. Andrew’s, Elyria, Ohio
Easter 4, Year C; 4 25 2010

(RCL) Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

It is the fourth week of Easter. My bells are still on, we are ringing bells during the Eucharistic prayers at the 10:30 service, our corporate confession of sins in on hold for a few more weeks. 50 days of Easter, 50 days to emphasis the new reality that the resurrection ushers in. Instead of a first reading from the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, we have a reading from Acts, the story of the early days of the church. But it is not disconnected from the past stories, from the Hebrew scriptures, as our reading today alludes to.

Peter, the son of Jonah, is in Joppa, where the prophet Jonah started his mission to others, to outsiders. You remember Jonah from the Old Testament- Jonah who is told to go to Nineva, the enemy, and convince them to listen to God. Jonah, who heads in the opposite direction and gets thrown overboard and swallowed by the whale or big fish. Jonah who gets spewed out, resurrected, onto dry land and does deliver the message and the people listen, even these people who Jonah doesn’t think should be saved- the enemy, the outsider. They turn and listen to the voice of God and do what is right. They hear the voice of the shepherd, come to lead them beside still waters. Peter, the son of a different Jonah, is staying with Simon, a tanner, one who works with dead animals, an unclean trade, creating an unclean person. Simon is an outsider by the old standards. But the old standards do not apply anymore. There are no more insiders or outsiders. It is Easter, and we are a resurrection people.

We see signs of this resurrection all around us. Some are more concrete signs, like our glorious Resurrection stained glass window above the altar. The kneelers have been resurrected in a way, given new life hanging on the wall in the gathering space once the weekly use of them at the communion rail became too much. Many of us could tell stories of resurrection, of feeling dead or useless and finding new life and meaning.

And each week, our healing ministers stand at the side altar during communion, prepared by prayer and fasting to pray with you and for you. To pray with you for resurrection in some form. They are there, recognizing our need for prayer and healing. But standing there by themselves their power is limited, entombed. We have to overcome our intense privacy and individualism, and recognize that power and strength that comes from admitting our needs and asking for help. We have to approach them, ask them. They don’t need to know all the details, only that you want prayer. They will keep confidences if you want to share more with them. And they will pray, asking God for healing, for resurrection, for new life. Come now, the friends of Dorcas tell Peter. They approach him, tell them what they need from him. The women weeping openly, showing their clothing, clothing that they are wearing, to let Peter know what Tabitha, Dorcas, meant to them, means to them. She is one of us, she took care of us, she clothed us. Do what you can Peter.

Now, I want to make a distinction here between praying for a cure, which seems to tell God what to do, and praying for healing, which can come in many different forms. When we pray there may be a cure, or a slowing of the progression of the disease, or something that the doctors or experts can’t explain or didn’t expect. The woman with only a few months to live may live for years. The cancer that they saw before, they can’t find anymore. The person who is damaged by so much pain and harm in their early years finds a way to love and trust again. This happens. We can’t make it happen. We don’t understand why it happens sometimes and not others.

But healing, healing can take many forms. It can be a quick progression of a disease that is in many ways more merciful than a protracted progression would be. It can be peace with others, or with God, when it is needed most. It can be the touch of another to remind us that we are loved and valued by God. It can be the voice of God, the voice of our shepherd, deep into our souls encouraging us to be God’s voice and hands in the world around us and to the people around us, reminding us that we are loved beyond our wildest imaginations and powerful beyond all hope.

People who spend much time with those who are ill or bereaved begin to know what kind of help brings true comfort. Comfort does not come from assurances that everything will be all right or from platitudes that try to explain why everything that happens is God’s will. Comfort comes from the simple presence of companions who are willing to sit alongside us in our darkest hours, to walk through the darkness with us, to help us make the darkness holy, and to rejoice with us when small glimmers of light finally begin to shine, when the resurrection in whatever form it is going to take, makes itself known.

And we all have stories of Tabithas coming back to life, of those who had given up on doing what they had been about rising and coming back to us. Of those who were far away, literally or spiritually, coming back into our midst. We can all use others praying for us, as we do each week when we pray for all people in this congregation and community and when people choose to utilize the healing ministers and to pray at the side chapel.

We are a resurrection people. We worship Jesus who is not dead but alive. We count on resurrections in our lives, in our communities and in our world. We hear it in our Psalm for today, probably the most well known of all the Psalms. God restores our souls, comforts us, and we are all welcome at God’s table and in God’s house. We hear it in Revelation- we will be sheltered, fed, comfortable. We hear it in the Gospel for today- we will not be snatched from Jesus’ hand- we will have eternal life and not perish.

And at the heart of it, that is what our Christian faith can tell us. It tells us that our Lord and Savior, the great hero who liberates us, is not the God of light alone. Jesus is sovereign over the darkness too, because he too has been enfolded by darkness. Like us, he has grieved over the senseless waste and tragedy of life. Like us, he has agonized over those who suffer. As all of us will eventually, he has entered into the darkness of death. And with all of us, he promises to walk that road so that we do not have to walk it alone. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”

Dorcas will not live on this earth forever. But this is not her day to die. Peter will not return over and over to bring her back from death. Even Peter will not live forever. But today is not her day to die- there is life where others thought it was gone. Even as the funeral arrangements are being made, there is power in the gathered community to restore the missing person.

In what part of your life are you hoping for resurrection? Who could you call on, as the community called on Peter, to help you to bring it about? Who is calling you to come and help them to restore life to another, as Peter did? Where can we encourage resurrection in our own lives and the lives of others around us? The works are there- they testify to Jesus and the power of the resurrection. We must only tune our lives to hear and know the voice of the Good shepherd and follow. Follow to green pastures, and right paths and resurrection.