This week I am at St Mary’s Church, Collingbourne Kingston for Holy Communion. You are welcome to join us at 11am.

I wonder if you have a Dorcas in your life?

My Dorcas, or Tabitha depending on whether you are using her Greek or Aramaic name (which means Gazelle), was my Aunty Iris. Aunty Iris and I had a special bond in that we almost shared a birthday. She was also a gifted dress maker and made several dresses for, and with me determined I should learn. Including my wedding dress.

When Iris, which means rainbow in Greek, died I was sad. I attended her funeral, I mourned her, I even took one of the dresses to share with friends and family. I did not however call her vicar to wake her from death. Nor did I, as a priest, take her hand, as Peter did, and tell her to get up.

My Aunt was 90, she had dementia, her body and mind had worn out. ‘It was her time.’ We do not know how old Dorcas was when she died, only that she was a maker of tunics and clothing for widows, and that she was ‘devoted to good works and acts of charity’. And, it seems, that the saints and widows couldn’t spare her just yet.

Whenever there is a resurrection miracle we need to look for what else is happening. This is one of the early stories of Acts, Peter is still the lead ‘actor’ rather than Paul. The news of Jesus’ resurrection is still spreading, the church is only just beginning to grow. Here we are on the brink of Gentile territory, but it is a place of faith. Luke, who wrote his account of the Gospel and its sequel ‘Acts of the Apostles’ refers to the mourners as saints and widows. Peter is sought out because they believe in resurrection hope, quite literally in Dorcas’ case.

You can read the story here.

Our other reading for today is from the Gospel of John, here we see Jesus being hounded by Jews who want him to prove that he is the Messiah. They are impatient and want the promised Messiah to bring freedom from the oppression by Rome. They want to be free, with their own ruler. Their grasp of ‘Messiah’ is a long held one, but it is not true to the Kingdom of Heaven. They see but cannot believe that Jesus is the Messiah, is God’s Son. They are not his sheep.

Dorcas, however, is. Dorcas is a woman of faith, a faith which is seen through her loving caring actions which have supported the widows, and others. She has encouraged and provided; because of her faith she is able to recognise not Peter’s voice as he commands her to wake up, but the Shepherd’s. Peter is able to raise Dorcas to life because she recognises Jesus in him.

And perhaps her friends, the saints and widows, summoned Peter, because they had recognised Jesus in her, because Dorcas had not only made tunics and other items of clothing for those in need, but been such an encouragement in faith too; Dorcas is the only woman actively named as a disciple. She is more than a ‘follower of the way’ as the first Christians called themselves.

Disciples are those who are not content to watch from the sidelines.

http://www.thechurchnews.com

In the gospel reading we see people who, as much as they long for change, aren’t willing to do anything about it. They aren’t even able to place their faith in Jesus, instead they jeer from the sidelines. We might call them armchair critics, or keyboard warriors, or even trolls. Dorcas lived a life of faith and serving Jesus by supporting others. She had such an impact that her community couldn’t bear to say goodbye to her just yet, and in her faithfulness she is returned to them, and alongside it a personal experience of Jesus’ resurrection.

So why didn’t I pray for my beloved aunt to be returned to life? Perhaps I did. Perhaps I prayed that she would find eternal life with Jesus, perhaps I prayed for her tired and broken body to be replaced with a new resurrection body. Isn’t that what we all do at funerals? We commend our loved ones to God, we place our hope in the ‘sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our frail bodies that they may be conformed to his glorious body, who died, was buried, and rose again for us’.

It isn’t that resurrection no longer happens. It does, with every faithful death a resurrection follows, as our loved ones follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We often talk about how a loved one lives on in the memories, in the grandchildren, in the gifts and skills they have taught us, and the way in which they have helped shape our lives. All of which is true, to a certain degree, but more than that, we all live on in faith filled lives as we pass through death and into eternal, resurrection life, gifted to us by Jesus.