Acts 9:32-43
Your works testify to Jesus
Our
theme for this, the 4th Sunday in Easter, is ‘Your works testify to
Jesus’.
St.
Francis of Assisi, the name that the new pope has chosen for himself, becoming
Francis 1st, is credited with saying: ‘Preach the gospel at all times and when
necessary, use words.’
Our
actions, our deeds, will always speak louder than our words. The great Jewish
prophets, the forerunners of Jesus, had a common message which went something
like this: The quality of your faith will be judged by the quality of justice
in the land and the quality of justice in the land will be judged by how
“widows, orphans and strangers” (biblical code for the three most vulnerable
groups in society) fared while you were alive.
In His ministry, Jesus didn't disagree. When He describes the Last Judgment at
the end of Matthew’s gospel, He tells us that this judgment will not be, first
of all, about right doctrine, good theology, church attendance, or even
personal holiness or sexual morality; but about how we treated the poor.
Nobody
gets into Heaven without a letter of reference from the poor. Jesus and the
great Biblical prophets make that clear.
Now,
this challenge to justice doesn't negate other religious and moral obligations,
but it does remain always as a fundamental, non-negotiable principle: We are
going to be judged by how the most vulnerable groups (widows, orphans,
strangers) fared while we were alive and practicing our faith. The challenge is
a strong one.
It
seems to be a challenge which Tabitha, in our reading, grasped with both hands and I want to
suggest this morning, in the context of ‘your works testify to Jesus’ there is
a Tabitha in each of us and the challenge is to let God fire up the Tabitha
within us.
To
fire up within us works, good deeds,
actions, which testify to the Jesus who is in us and working through us, works
which have the result that people don’t say: ‘Wow, what a great guy Cedric is’
but rather “Wow, what a great God Cedric serves.”
‘Your
works testify to Jesus’.
Tabitha’s
works testified to Jesus – the first thing we are told about her is that she
was a disciple of Jesus. What an amazing start to her eulogy at her funeral.
When someone stands up to speak at your or my funeral, will their first words
be: “He/she was a disciple of Jesus.”? (It
occurred to me while preparing that you and I are actually writing our eulogy
up until the day we die.)
Tabitha,
we are told, was a disciple. What is a disciple?
A
disciple is someone who chooses to come under and submit to, the influence and
teaching of another person in order to become
like that person.
Tabitha
was a disciple of Jesus, which means that she was a person who was becoming
like Jesus. Who was Jesus a disciple of?
He
was a disciple of His Father in Heaven which is why He could say on one
occasion ‘If you have seen me, you have seen the Father because I am
in the Father and the Father is in me.’
We
as disciples can say: “I am in Christ, and Christ is in me.” We sing a song:
‘It’s
not longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me.’ But does the world see
the Christ who lives in me, and in particular, do the poor, the widows, orphans
and strangers, see Christ in me, in you?
Our
works testify to Jesus.
Tabitha’s
did. After being told she is a disciple, her eulogy goes on: “She was always
doing good and helping the poor.” She
knew the poor, and the poor knew her.
Her
faith, which saved her, led her to the poor. As she became a disciple of Jesus,
she became like Jesus, and so, like Jesus, she developed a heart for the most
vulnerable in society – the poor, the widow, the orphan, the
stranger/foreigner/alien. Our faith should do the same. It’s one for the
reasons why, as Jesus prophesied, we will always have poor people among us, so
that they can provide God with a reference for each one of us.
Living
here in Alberton, you and I all ‘know’ poor people, vulnerable people, outcasts from society. You can perhaps see them in your mind as I speak.
You
can’t get into or out of the shopping centre next to our campus, or through the intersection on our corner, without seeing the type of people that Jesus had the most time for…
poor, rejected, outcasts,...... sinners, prostitutes and drunkards. These are the
people who Jesus was accused of spending His time with, and the respectable people
of the day hated Jesus for this.
When
Tabitha died, God could go to the poor of Joppa and say ‘Tell me about
Tabitha’........and they no doubt provided Him with a glowing reference.
When
you and I die… never mind you… when I die… if I die tomorrow… God won’t come to
Alberton Methodist Church and say ‘tell me about Cedric’ .....No… He’ll go to the streets around us, to the most
vulnerable in Alberton, and say: ‘Tell me about Cedric, did his faith make him
more like my Son?’
You see, in the world's scheme of things, survival of the
fittest is the rule. In
God’s scheme of things, survival of the weakest is the rule (Alphonse Keuter)
and for survival of the weakest (here in Alberton), He has given birth to His church (here in Alberton), where
hopefully followers of Christ become disciples of Christ whose works testify
to Jesus.
Now, perhaps you're tempted to ask: ‘So
tell me God, must I now reach out to every suffering or vulnerable person in
Alberton?’
It’s
probably not possible to create an Alberton where no people suffer, or
where no one goes hungry or cold,..... but with the power of God it is possible to create an
Alberton in which fewer people suffer, or go hungry or get cold.
Peter
got down on his knees and prayed and then he said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ He took
her by the hand and helped her to her feet.
And
while it’s not recorded for us, we know what Tabitha did with the extra time
she was given until she died again.
We
know, don’t we?
She
lived a life whose works testified to Jesus.
May
we also.
