SCRIPTURE: Acts
TEXT: 42This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. THEME: The resurrection changes the stories we have to tell. INTRODUCTION Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection. That makes all of us second bananas or second fruits of the resurrection. Preaching during this Easter season, we are looking at what difference the resurrection makes with obeying God (when the angel opens Peter’s prison doors and tells him to preach in the streets), using our faith to do what God wants to be done (as Ananias goes to pray for healing for the enemy of Jesus, Paul) and to tell stories of how the resurrection is shaping our lives. SCRIPTURE A good person from the Christian community in Joppa dies. Peter is in a nearby town of Lydda and is called to come. Joppa is ten miles away, roughly a 2-to-3-hour walk. So, two men are sent out to ask Peter to come. It takes about 6 hours before Peter gets there. Funeral preparations were already in process. The room was filled with commotion; people weeping, widows showing the generous clothing Tabitha had given them. Peter asks people to leave the room and prays. God has done amazing things through Jesus and is now doing amazing things through Peter. He calls Tabitha by name and tells her to get up. She opens her eyes; sees Peter and he helps her up. Then Peter calls everyone back into the room to show that Tabitha is alive. Imagine all of the people who have a resurrection story to tell because of Tabitha’s return to life. There were the women who prepared her body for burial, the disciples who heard that Peter was in the nearby town, the two men who went to fetch him, then all of the widows who received clothing and tunics from Tabitha’s generosity, Then Tabitha herself who hears her named called as she opens her eyes and sees Peter. Peter has his story to tell, all of the saints and widows allowed to come back in the room to see Tabitha alive. In addition to this, her rising from the dead became known throughout Joppa. This is not the first time that news about the work of God turned hearts towards God in Nineveh. Jonah had similar results. This part of this town’s spiritual heritage. And at the end Peter stayed a little longer in Joppa at Simon’s house who probably asked, “What brings you to town?” APPLICATION This story is not about having enough faith for God to heal us, God already loves us and has gone through extreme measures to bless our lives with Jesus. Neither is this story about doing good to merit God’s grace towards us. We know that we can never do enough to win God’s favor, although Tabitha does have a generous giving heart. God does all of this simply because God loves us. This story is about God’s power over death and how the resurrection is part of a new story God is writing in our lives. Jesus has opened heaven’s doors by conquering the grave and death with life. How does God’s power over death change our story? How is God telling the story of the resurrection through us? The Resurrection informs our living. Before the resurrection we lived to escape death. But now, with the promise of the resurrection we live in ways that bring life. Stories of the Resurrection are those stories about those who were thought to be dead but have come back to life. This week brought up the debate on abortion to the surface as the decisions on Roe vs Wade are being threatened. I am not attempting to make a decisive statement for or against abortion but stating observations of this complex issue. The first observation is that this is a complicated matter and making black and white determinations does not serve all of the dynamics of a woman’s choice over the future of a pregnancy. We have politicized this into a moral issue where it also includes elements of social, economic, racial, sexist, esteem, power, dysfunction, status, privilege and self-determination. The other observation I made is that this is a matter of compassion. Compassion for the unborn child, compassion for a woman’s right to choose the life that she wants. But the compassion also needs to extend to those who hold different views. And compassion towards each other to listen and be compassionate enough for each other to maintain respect and be on our best behavior. Practicing Love for live does not to regulate other people’s lives but to figure out help in these complicated situations people find themselves in. The harder solution for Antiabortionist might be to use their compassion to create support for the expectant woman to bring the baby to term, to create care and nurturing for the child and to provide family, belonging, education and encouragement for this child to be loved and opportunity for it to reach its full potential. We want safety, health, resource, and wise counsel for all. The third observation I had was that abortion may be the symptom of greater problems; abuse, violence, self-esteem, dysfunction, power, racism, sexism, poverty, narcissism, manipulation…. We want to make judgments of the result of a cacophony of sins but ignore our contributions to this dynamic. The resurrection is the result of God’s love for us. That does not just change our end, but it has the potential of changing how we live all along the way, Making corrections. Changing the way, we do things. Being more concern about others, and how we treat each other, Being stewards of what we have to create security to those who experience scarcity. Living in compassionate ways. CONCLUSION What is the connection between the story of resurrection in our lives and Roe vs Wade? With the promise of the resurrection, we are no longer living to escape death. We are living through God’s love. How we live God’s love now, is the obsession of our lives. Compassion is not as black and white as we think, judging between the limited parameters of moral behavior. But it goes down to the root of systemic hurt and healing, of restoration and wholeness, of setting aside and moving into something new. The abortion issue is a compassionate issue, not a definitive moral absolute. We cannot reserve compassion for some and not others. Our resurrection stories are about life, compassion, recovery, love, acceptance and the mighty work of God that bringing life to what was once thought as dead.
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