Sermons

“A Wake-Up Call!”

Psalm 23; Acts 9:36-43 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – April 17, 2016

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words, that your Living Word might truly catch our attention and command our hearts and lives by your love and grace. We pray in the name of our Risen Lord, Amen.

We are gathered here this morning to remember the life and ministry of our dear friend, Tabitha. Our community has been shocked and deeply grieved by her sudden illness and death, and I know that you are reeling, just as I am. We can only pray that God Almighty will show us how it is possible to go on without her. Though we rejoice that she is with our Lord Jesus Christ now, we struggle to imagine what life will be like for those of us left behind.

What can one say about a woman like Tabitha? She was our rock and our stay. I’m guessing there isn’t a person here who isn’t wearing something she made you. And we will go on wearing these garments for years, because Tabitha made quality stuff! Her generosity, her talent, her dedication and determination and devotion to our Lord – there is truly no one who could compare. She was a church lady par excellence. I really don’t know how we will begin to go about filling the void that her death has created.

Oh wait. Oh my. I’ve just been handed a note that says that the Apostle Peter is ministering over in Lydda right now. Do you suppose he could save us from this terrible tragedy? Is there someone we could send to fetch him?

And of course, we know that that is what happened. Two men were dispatched to bring Peter as quickly as possible. They explained the situation – that Tabitha was the foundation and engine of their faith community – and Peter didn’t need much convincing. He could see they wouldn’t survive without her. So he prayed the power of Jesus upon her lifeless body, and then said those death-defying words, “Tabitha, get up!” And she did.

One of the most important tools God has given us for interpreting scripture is our imaginations. So I want us to think creatively about Tabitha and her community today. What was it like for them to lose her? What did it mean to get her back? How would things be different going forward after this miracle? We are kicking off our annual stewardship campaign today, and our theme this year is “A Wake-Up Call!” But the wake-up call that refers to is not the words “Tabitha, get up!” It’s not Tabitha’s re-awakening that is speaking to us here. What concerns us is the wake-up call the rest of the church in Joppa got from losing her. What did her death make them realize about how much they’d been depending on her? How did her death help them recognize that it was time for each of them to step up in supporting the community too? Did they do things differently once they got her back? Or did they slip into the same old habits of letting Tabitha do it all?

This story is many things, but to me, one of its most important roles is as an ode to church ladies. Our culture is not kind to church ladies. They have been ignored and mocked and marginalized. They have been dismissed and rejected as judgmental and old-fashioned busy-bodies. But the truth is – as everyone who’s actually active in a congregation knows – that church ladies hold the church together. They are the ones who get here early, and they are the ones who are the last to leave. They are the ones who make sure there will be enough to eat, and the ones who clean up after everyone else is done having fun. They are the ones who make sure things are in working order, and the ones who make sure we remember those who can’t be with us, for whatever reason. (And let’s be honest here, not all church ladies, in this definition, are women! It’s just that somehow men don’t get derided for their commitment in quite the same way.)

We don’t have any way of knowing how Tabitha’s community saw her before she died. We don’t know if they talked about her behind her back, making fun of her high standards or calling her a “goody-two-shoes” or grumbling because she made the rest of them look bad. What we do know is that once she’d died, they suddenly realized they were lost without her. We know that they were so unable to go on with no Tabitha that they refused to let that happen. They sent for Peter, perhaps having heard about the miracle he’d just performed in Lydda. Who knew if he could help them, but it couldn’t hurt to try, right? And much to their delight and relief, Peter was able to bring Tabitha back. They wouldn’t have to be without her. But had they learned anything? Do you suppose after she came back from the dead, the other widows asked Tabitha to teach them how to make tunics like she did? Do you wonder if the men of the Joppa church got more involved in holding things together than they had been before? Do you think Tabitha herself realized she needed to do more to pass on her legacy of faithfulness, rather than just doing everything herself? And what does all this have to do with an annual stewardship campaign? A story about a tragic death is kind of a strange choice for a stewardship campaign in the middle of the Easter season!

Before we go any further, we need to stop and explain what a stewardship campaign is, for those who are new and unaware and for those who’ve been tuning it out for years. Every spring, this congregation, like many others, makes a budget for the coming ministry year, which starts in July. A major part of that process is asking our members and friends to join together in committing to support the ministry we are doing together. We spend some time thinking about how giving is part of our spiritual growth and one of the important ways that we live out our faith. We are asked to prayerfully consider how much we will be able to give in the coming year, with the tithe – the biblical teaching to give 10% — as a standard of comparison. And then, during our stewardship campaign, on the day we call Consecration Sunday, we turn in our “Estimate of Giving” cards, which indicate – for the sake of those tasked with putting together a realistic budget – how much we’re committing to give. We ask God’s blessing on those commitments, and we plan for them in our own personal budgets.

The complication here is what we mean when we talk about this process and use the word “we”. “We” do this, as a community”, but that “we” doesn’t include every individual or household. We discovered, when we started analyzing our giving a few years ago, that an alarming proportion of this congregation’s financial support comes from people over the age of 75. Whatever you may guess that number to be, I assure you, it’s probably higher. We, like many, many congregations, are a Joppa church, far too dependent on those we could lose at any time. The question is what kind of wake-up call it’s going to take for the rest of us to step up and become church ladies.

Do you think anything changed in the Joppa church after Tabitha was brought back from the dead? Do you think other people started actively trying to be more like Tabitha, so they could help support their community? Was her death the wake-up call they needed, so that the next time they lost someone, they would be confident in their capacity to carry on?

Are we waiting for a wake-up call as dramatic as that? Can you imagine that we could learn from something less unpleasant? Couldn’t it just gradually and comfortably dawn upon us that we need to step up our efforts? Couldn’t we just be inspired by the examples of our stalwart givers, our legacy donors, our church ladies, and start responding with our own imitations of their faithfulness? That is a question only you can answer.

But the truth is that there are a lot of powerful excuses out there. A lot of us are probably trapped by the Joppa problem: denial. If you’re not paying attention too closely, it’s not hard to pretend everything is fine. The bills are getting paid, aren’t they? There’s money in the bank. They’re doing okay without me. My contribution isn’t really necessary. This is the kind of excuse that is just waiting for a rude awakening. But it’s not the only one. Many are even closer to home. Why on earth, for instance, did the pastor schedule the stewardship campaign to kick off the day before Tax Day? Is there anyone here who’s not feeling broke this weekend? Or right, some of you did your taxes in February. Well, you’re not the ones I’m talking to right now. A lot of us find it hard to believe that we can afford to give. Especially right around now. But then again, remember that giving to the church can actually lower your tax burden. If you need motivation, maybe that can help!

Finally, I’m guessing there are those who assume that we let the church budget ride on the backs of our oldest members because they are the ones who can afford it. Nice try, but here’s the thing. The reason our oldest members are our most generous givers is not because they’ve gotten to a place where they can afford to give abundantly. It’s because they started giving early, when they were young like you and couldn’t really afford it anymore than you can. A life-long commitment to supporting a congregation is part of their faith identity. Also, it’s kind of a myth that older folks can more easily afford to give, at least for a lot of them. Ever heard the phrase “fixed income”? It means exactly what it sounds like, and yet there are retired folks who consistently and generously give to support the ministries of our congregation, because they know that it both reflects and shapes their relationship with their Creator.

All of these excuses lead us to the point where a rude awakening is highly likely. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could just have a wake-up call instead? What does it take for God to get our attention? What needs to happen to convince each of us that our contribution does make a difference? That it would strengthen our community of faith in important ways, and prepare for the future better? Can we imagine that things changed in Joppa after Tabitha was brought back to life? Can we imagine that things could change at Vista La Mesa, without anyone having to die to get our attention? We don’t all have to learn to make tunics, or bake seven-layer bars, or fix the plumbing. But each of us has a gift we can give, and the community isn’t as strong as it can be until all of us are making that contribution. May we prayerfully consider, this week, how we will respond to God’s call, and come next Sunday, prepared to answer faithfully. Alleluia and Amen.

Bonus Question: Do you know what story of Jesus the phrase “Tabitha, get up!” is reminiscent of?