Sunday Service 11th May

The Story of Peter and Tabitha

11/5/25

Call to worship

Hymn 130: Ye servants of God

Time for all

Hymn 185: Come children join and sing

Reading:  Acts 9: 36-43 Amanda

Prayer

Hymn 717: O Christ, the healer, we have come

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 519: love Divine, all loves excelling

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 11th May.

Today we study the raising of Tabitha, a female believer from Joppa.

And like everything in the Bible, there is a reason for it being in the Bible, an example for us to follow...but maybe not the one we expect.

We will reflect on this after Amanda leads us in our prayer and reading for today.

Sermon

We are coming up to the time of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Each year the Assembly comes and each year we seem to be in a bigger crisis than the year before.

There is no doubt that we are in a transition point in the church, but what way to move forward?

Each side feels they are fighting for the future of the church.

Should we become more radical, leave the past behind, because sticking to what we are doing seems to be killing the church slowly?

Should we get marketing managers in to control our narrative with the outside world?

Should we change the church; get rid of organs and have bands in?

Or get rid of the pews and have an open space in the church?

Or leave the church buildings completely and move into community halls or school halls?

Maybe we should move into the pubs and have the church there?

It is a scary time for the church, and thus it becomes a scary time for church members, unsure how we should move forward.

And our reading today has both a temptation...and a truth that we need to follow.

The temptation is being succoured by the spectacular.

I am sure that one of the main reasons this story is even in the Bible is that it examines Peter and shows him to be a worthy disciple, a true leader of the early church.

There is a problem, and like the prophets of old, or the judges of the Old Testament, God has created a leader to solve the problem.

And in spectacular fashion Peter raises Tabitha from death.

And we could see that as the model we should follow.

If the church has a problem then God will raise up a leader; like Moses, or Elijah or David.

Like Mother Teresa or Billy Graham.

And these leaders will show the way and we only need to follow them.

God will lead them and they will do spectacular things to make a difference.

Like Peter they will do things that seem like miracles;

helping thousands upon thousands of the poor,

preaching to millions upon millions of people.

and with their aid the church will become great again.

all we need to do is find that silver bullet, that easy answer.

Like in Sister Act.

In Sister Act we have a Roman Catholic chapel in America which is doing really badly. But in comes a new person with unusual ideas. She gets the choir to sing in a different way. And as the choir sing the people, curious as to the noise coming from the chapel, come wandering through the open doors and suddenly the chapel is full.

All we need is the magic formula.

As it turns out my previous ministry in Castlemilk West decided to follow that formula.

They had never had a choir and after watching Sister Act they decided to start a choir.

So they started a choir, and we left the doors open...but no one new came through the door.

Now I suspect it was because they didn’t follow through the formula completely.

In Sister Act the choir were singing Avi Maria.

In Castlemilk West they freaked out the first time I lit a candle in church and they accused me of trying sneak catholic things into the church, there was no way they were going to sing Avi Maria and risk half the congregation having a heart attack.

Over a decade ago all the Churches Clackmannanshire got together and at great expense brought in Impact World Tour; we had skateboard champions, Christian surfers from Hawaii, young Christians giving their testimony from all round Europe and the Americas.

It was big and spectacular and hundreds of teenagers came along to watch all these great things.

This was going to be the answer to regenerate the churches in the Hillfoots.

Thousands of pounds, thousands of volunteer hours; and while they were here everyone felt exhilarated, all those teenagers and their parents coming to Christian events.

And then the group went away to another outreach event somewhere in Europe...and not much happened after that.

A couple of churches had a couple of folk that came for a couple of weeks...and that was that.

And yet year after year we still try to find that silver bullet, that big event, that one thing that will bring people closer to God.

We are looking for Peter; we are looking for the leader, we are looking for the miracle, because isn’t that how God works?

And I am sure that over the time of the General Assembly we will hear all those calls;

where is the leadership? what is the one thing we need to get right?, where is the silver bullet?  the miracle answer?

That’s the temptation.

And then there is the truth.

Ask yourself this; how many people did Peter personally bring closer to God in Joppa?

We don’t hear of any.

You could argue that after the news of the miracle got out,

that that led people closer to God,

and as it was Peter that  performed the miracle

then it was Peter’s work that lead people to God.

But the truth is that it was the news of what had happened to Tabitha that led people to God. It was Tabitha that was the catalyst in all this.

Tabitha was the one that everyone knew.

Tabitha was the one that everyone cared for.

Tabitha was the one that was the guiding light.

I am sure when the news went round of what had happened in Joppa people were NOT saying, ‘Did you hear what Peter did?’

I am sure what they were saying was, ‘Did you hear what happened to Tabitha?’

And that was not because she was raised from death, people cared about Tabitha long before she died.

People cared about Tabitha because she spent all her time doing good and helping the poor.

When she died it was the widows that were struggling to cope in life,

the ones who had no one to care for them,

that were there telling people of the help she had given them, of the clothes she had made for them.

Shirts to give them respect; coats to keep them warm.

Practical signs of care.

Tabitha cared enough to know their needs, and cared enough to use what she had, money and skills, to help them out as best she could.

The people of Joppa knew of God’s love, not because some amazing celebrity came out of nowhere and performed a spectacular miracle.

The people of Joppa knew of God’s love because of a woman called Tabatha that showed them God’s love by her love and care.

So here is my advice, for what it is worth.

We shouldn’t worry about the future of the church.

There are plenty of people dong that already, and to be honest...all their worry hasn’t really improved the situation much.

I don’t know how many initiatives I have lived through that came from the hallowed meetings of the General Assembly;

The radical action plan.

Church without walls,

The programs come and they go, and to be honest most of them end up being counterproductive.

And not just in our denomination.

The Church of England decided to have a ‘Decade of Evangelism,’ the whole church of England was going to dedicate expertise and money into inspiring all churches to be evangelistic and bringing more and more people into the church.

Who could disagree to that objective?

Who could question the churches motives?

What could go wrong?

Well in that decade of outreach the Church of England lost more members than at any other time in their history.

If we want to worry about anything, we should worry about those around us, and the struggles that they are going through.

Our neighbours, our friends, our families.

Like Tabitha we can show them God’s love through our love and care for them.

It may not get into the papers, it may not be spectacular, but people notice that, people remember that.

People are changed by that.

Jesus had a radical plan, but it was not a difficult plan to understand, he modelled it,

in fact you could argue that the whole of his ministry was modelling it so that we could see it and follow it.

It is as simple as this; be thankful for the care that God has shown you, and show that care to those around you.

Somebody recently said something very clever to me.

They had found this survey when they had asked ordinary people some questions and realised their lives reflected their answers.

So the question was this?

Is life black and white?

And those that thought that life was black and white were very determined people, and very scary people with no give or mercy in them.

And then they said to those that didn’t think life was black and white, ‘So what is the opposite of a Black and White life?’

And nine out of ten folk said, ‘Shades of grey.’

Nine out of ten folk were wrong, but more importantly, when they were shown they were wrong actually smiled.

The opposite of a black and white life, is a life full of colour.

God hasn’t given us a black and white life, God has given us a life of colour, with all kinds of ups and downs and struggles and successes.

It is a life we should be thankful for, for God is in it and sharing it and helping in it.

In simple acts of kindness and care we can show that love, that colour to others around us.

That’s what God wants us to do.

It doesn’t seem all that radical a plan, until we try to live it.

The thing is, it may not grow the church in the way we want, but I don’t think God would mind.

Let us pray

We thank you, God,

for trusting us to share in the mission of your Church.

Not is being spectacular, but by being human.

Guide us, so that we might do our work well.

Loving God, inspire us and empower us.

We thank you for the skills and experience found in our churches.

Remembering how you have guided us in our times of struggle, strengthened us in our time s of weakness. And how that experience has helped us grow and mature.

Continue to grant us vision and strength as we work together to bring healing to your world, as you have brought healing to us...as you are continuing to bring healing to us

Loving God, inspire us and empower us.

We thank you for the work of charities,

paid staff and volunteers, who commit to helping others, despite the cost to self.

Loving God, inspire us and empower us.

We thank you for everything we receive and learn, from the people we care for.

It is so easy to only think of what we bring to others, without recognising what they bring to our lives. That we learn to trust more as we see you work in their lives.

Loving God, inspire us and empower us.

We make this prayer in the name of the one,

who came and showed us how to love and give new life.

The one who, as the friend of the poor,

the little voice in the conscience of the rich,

and the thorn in the side of those resistant to give their power away,

calls us now to follow him.

To live by his example and to live a life of thankful giving and sharing.

Amen