Prayer:

As we hear your word come alive, God, we pray it connects us to one another and to your Holy Spirit.

Last week, I outlined our sabbatical foundation that will help set our agenda for the next three months while Jeff is on his own sabbatical. We set this foundation so we aren’Äôt passively waiting for Jeff to return but so we can create our own memories and name this time period as one of internal reflection and discovery.

Our foundation has several components: our themes of connection and clarity, our visual image, stories of connection and clarity and worship that let us experience each other in new and transformative ways. 

For the next few months, we will reveal through our own Pilgrims stories how we are connected together, how we are connected to the city and to God’Äôs global village. In hearing our own stories, we will be doing some truth-telling, or clarity building, re-discovering what expressions of faith are most authentic to us and the values that bind us together as a community.

I also mentioned last week that that is no coincidence that the primary lectionary texts for this period come from the Books of Acts. William Willimon, former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, has suggested that this book known as Acts of the Apostles might more accurately be called, ’ÄúThe Acts of the Holy Spirit.’Äù As I mentioned, this sounds more appropriate, Willimon suggests, because the work of the Spirit forms a constant thread, or connection, throughout the entire book. Calling it ’ÄúActs of the Holy Spirit’Äù places the apostles, or Jesus’Äô early disciples, in the midst of an unfolding narrative of God’Äôs activity working through the Spirit and human agents to renew and expand community.

Acts of the Holy Spirit goes beyond just telling stories of the early church and its struggle to keep the movement of Jesus alive. Acts of the Holy Spirit reveals the history of God’Äôs Spirit and its power to connect a community, open its doors, and welcome all into the fold of God.

As the formation of the early church in Acts was taking place, the community was starting to realize the rhythm of its life together: study of scripture, receiving the eucharist, baptism, worshipping in homes, singing of hymns, sharing meals, sharing all they had. These actions or rituals gave the early church its shape and formation. The church, in its infancy stage, was creating ways of identifying its purpose and nature of vocation/call.

But even in ancient times, the church had to be challenged by the Spirit to expand its boundaries of welcome and witness. The Spirit was showing the early church to expect the unexpected; expect to hear the Good News in ways you never imagined; be surprised in how and where the Spirit reveals itself; be prepared for a community to be constantly changing shape and to consistently extend God’Äôs holy welcome to everyone.  In this new community of faith, no one stays in his or her place as defined by social standards. As God’Äôs welcome was extended to the poor and the privileged, followers of the way found themselves standing in new roles and responsibilities. Throughout Acts, common fishermen like Peter are preaching. In an earlier chapter in Acts, a Eunuch, an outcast, was baptized. Right before our story today, an elderly man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed for 8 years and bedridden, was able to walk after a declaration of faith by Peter. Lives are changing in this Acts of the Holy Spirit. These are stories of transformation and those living on the margins of society are welcomed into the household of God.

Stories of transformation continue with our story of Tabitha, a woman who was in charge of a welfare program for the poor in Joppa. Tabitha’Äôs work was holy. She was devoted to good work and acts of charity. She cared for widows’Äîthose left economically vulnerable by the death of their spouse. We know that Tabitha’Äôs work impacted the lives of the widow community. When Tabitha died, her life-giving work appeared to have died with her, quickly leaving her companions in crisis, wondering how they will survive in the present and live into the future. But Peter reveals that there is a power loose in the community. He comes. Sits next to Tabitha and declares that she gets up. She does just that and she was shown, alive again, to the community.

From witnessing this movement from death to life, the community experienced a deeper sense of belief in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Can someone come back to life? Was Tabitha really dead? Did Peter perform what sounds like a magic act to bring Tabitha back to life? These are likely questions that arise from the story. But my approach in a story like this isn’Äôt to focus on the how, when, and the why.  When I read this story, my wrestling with it didn’Äôt focus on the question if Tabitha physically came alive again. What I took from that moment of moving from death to life is this:  what appears dead can be resurrected. That what appears to be dying can be brought back to life. 

We don’Äôt know if Tabitha rose from the dead. But what I do believe from this story is that Tabitha’Äôs work, her acts of charity and good works with widows, could not die. Tabitha’Äôs vision had to be kept alive. There was still good work to be done. Tabitha’Äôs work was too important and vital to the well being of marginal women to die. Peter could not let that purpose or that commitment disappear.

So Peter showed Tabitha to be alive again; he welcomed her spirit and vision back into the community. We don’Äôt know how he did this. But something happened, something so powerful that others witnessed this resurrection and believed even more deeply in God.

For me, this story illustrates an experience of ’Äúcoming alive again’Äù and being accepted into community as one whose spirit is powerful and vital to the well being of others. Coming alive again---being welcomed back; being called back by God when it looks like you have nothing left to offer.

Tabitha’Äôs work, her life, were so important that the Holy Spirit could not let it die. Her holy work came alive again, maybe not in her own physical body, but in the lives of those around her. Her charity and good works were for those among her to share and live out.

Coming alive again. This congregation knows what it is like to come alive again. Pilgrims knows the experience of being welcomed back to life. The 1990’Äôs was not an easy time for Pilgrims. A crumbling building. Financial woes. Broken relationship with a pastor. Members drained of energy and commitment. Wondering the purpose and call of this church. This place probably felt a little dead; as if we were flat on our backs, lying there, waiting to see what would bring us back to life. At some point, there was a get up, rise up moment. And this congregation did. And the stories of transformation continue to pour out of this place.

Coming alive again. We’Äôve have these moments in our own life. Times when we are living in the pits, wondering why we feel so flat, so lackluster. Our relationships can feel non-existent, broken. Our work, if we have a job, can feel deadly. We question our purpose in life; wondering what we have to offer. We have these moments, these times in our lives, wondering what, if anything, will bring us back. For many of us, living in the pits was what brought us back to church. Many of us walked through these doors because our life felt life-less. People walk through these doors for the first time for many reasons. Some come to church because of a crisis that is weighing on their life.  Some come because they are lonely and need community. Some come because they feel called to wrestle with a life purpose. Some come because they feel like they are dying inside and need new life, they need some hope.

Peter welcomed Tabitha back to life. His words, Get Up! Rise Up!, were words of holy welcome, welcoming her work, her purpose back into the community of faith. Get up! Rise Up! Your life is still worth living! Don’Äôt leave us. Be with us!

How do we welcome people into church so they feel like they are alive again? This is our job, our vocation, as Christians---to live in this spirit of the resurrection and make the world come alive again. How is the spirit of the resurrection part of God’Äôs welcome here at Pilgrims? After reading this story, I have a new hope for interpreting our holy welcome. I hope that when someone walks through the doors, that person is met by ’Äúa Peter.’Äù Someone who’Äôs ’Äúwelcome’Äù and connection lets the person coming through the door feel more alive, feel connected, feel like their presence here has meaning and purpose. When we make room for people and connect them into the fold of God, we become like Peter.

With a welcome, we are telling someone ’ÄúGet up! Rise up! God still wants and needs you.’Äù

Those of us who are here have had the experience at Pilgrims of walking through the doors for the first time’Äîthe first time we walked through the doors and wondered if we’Äôd fit in; wondered if people would like us; wondered if we’Äôd connect with the values and expressions of faith.

For many of us, there was one person who made a difference. There was one person who connected with us and made us feel welcome and of value. There was one person who made us feel like we could come alive again; that God still wanted and needed us.

Who connected you to Pilgrims? Whose welcome gave you a sense of clarity, that a-ha moment when you realized that this is a place you could worship and grow as a disciple?

Who gave you a Peter experience---the experience of being welcomed; someone who made you feel alive, wanted, needed. Who let you connect and feel the pull to come back? Whose words made you feel alive again? Whose words and holy welcome made a difference to you and let you connect with this congregation? Peter welcomed Tabitha back to life. He made room for her. He made room for her work, her companions, her spirit, her vision. Who was your Peter?

We all have a story of connection and clarity when it comes to being welcomed here at Pilgrims.

We need to share those stories. We need to let each other know how we made a difference in connecting with our faith. These are the stories that give witness to how we are woven together; bound by a common thread of the Spirit just like in the sabbatical image up on the screen.

Today, you are invited to share your story of welcome. You are invited to come to the communion table and with the microphone, and share the moment when you walked through these doors for the first time; tell us who made you feel alive again, whose welcome made a difference. After a story is completed, together, we are invited to respond, ’ÄúThanks be to God;’Äù reminding us that we are thankful to God for giving us a connection, thankful for the person who made a difference; thankful for the clarity to see that this particular congregation was a place to come alive.

Closing Prayer: Thank you, Holy One, for the ways you have used each one of us to welcome one another. Thank you for guiding us to this sanctuary, for feeling a connection and for the clarity to realize we found a place to come alive again. Thank you for these stories of welcome. Thank you for letting us hear that in the midst of our rhythm and routine here at church, there is so much more going on. People’Äôs lives are being transformed around us. We are thankful for that change. Call us to live out that change in acts of good work and justice.     ✞

Seasons of the Spirit CongregationalLife Lent, Easter:  90.

© 2007 Ashley Goff