WITH GOD & EACH
OTHER … FOREVER
“Then calling the
saints & widows, he(Peter) showed her to be alive.” ---
Acts 9:41
I want you to
ponder for a minute the person or persons here in our church family who do the
most for others. (Not the ones who just
do the most, but do it for others.)I won’t ask you to name them aloud, but to
think about the individuals who extend themselves for persons in need, who
represent a healthy brand of self-sacrifice, & whose contributions
genuinely make a positive difference in others’ lives.
Who is that
go-to person with a passion to help others?
Who is quick to stop by with a meal, cut the grass, shovel the snow,
& befriend the shut-in who lacks a caring family? Is there a Sunday School teacher who is
always there for his/her students? Is
there a teacher or nurse who goes above & beyond for the persons in his/her
charge? Which of our many researchers
& scientists spends extra time & energy developing a cure or product
that will alter life for a suffering humanity?
Who leads us, by example, to get involved in situations of need?
As we think who
these church family members are, we can relate to the Christians in Joppa, who
could not afford to lose their sister in Christ, Tabitha. Luke, the author of the gospel bearing his name,
as well as today’s lesson from the Book of Acts, reports that, “She was devoted
to good works & acts of charity.”
Most
impressively, the women who were at the house mourning when Peter arrived,
informed him about the good Tabitha accomplished. She was quite the seamstress. This sister in Christ single-handedly clothed
a host of needy persons, with the women surrounding her corpse comprising a
fashion show of sorts for their beloved designer. Those female mourners were so devoted to her
because their very attire was testimony to her loving handiwork.[1]
So many souls were won to Christ
because of this one, Christ-like woman. The
church in Joppa could not imagine losing Tabitha.
Both our church
& community would be hard-pressed if we lost some of the self-giving saints
in our midst. It was the same for the
Chris-tians in our lesson. It is the
same for each of us, personally, as we cannot bear the thought of eternally
losing a member of our individual families.
All doctrine
aside for a minute, what drives so many of us to seek Christ & baptism, for
ourselves & beloved family members, is that we do not want to be eternally
separated from one another. We love one
another so much. We want to do whatever
in our power we can to be assured that what goodness God brought to us here on
this earth through family will continue forever. This is not exclusively a desire of
Christians.
Indeed,
families representing cultures across time & from around the world want to
believe that their loved ones will be reunited, “on the other side.” Even individuals with no specific spiritual
affiliation have gotten into the act, reports USA Today. Thanks to the
internet website, Ceremonyway.com, “there are now baptism-style ceremonies
where God is never mentioned by parents seeking to initiate their children into
a world of faiths.”[2]
Says one couple
hailing from
As problematic
as that may seem to us (in that our faith is not just wishes & fantasy
personages), the point is that there is a deeply-seated, primal, some would
say, genetic, predisposition to this concept of not only wanting to live
forever, but being reunited forever.
It’s a desire, clearly, but it’s not always worked out or well-thought
out. The
Christians have
something helpful & true to offer in this regard. We base our faith & hopes on the reality
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He
says to the believer, “My sheep hear my voice.
I know them, & they follow me.
I give them eternal life, & they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” I don’t want to be condescending, but I don’t
think fairies & leprechauns have made this sort of relationship claim!
Paul similarly writes,
that since Christ has been raised, we, too, shall be raised with him (Rom. 6:3ff, 1st Cor. 15:12ff, 2nd
Cor. 4:14, Col. 2:12). Even God’s holy angels & St. Nicholas
can’t make that promise that Jesus uniquely does.
We affirm these
beliefs in the Apostles’ Creed, when we recite, “On the third day he rose
again” & “I believe in … the
resurrection of the body & the life everlasting.”
Notice how we fully
credit the action to God through Christ.
God is the one who raises us, His children, to a new life. That’s important.
Our baptism,
while not required for salvation, is a powerful statement & symbol of God’s
action in life. Even when we are unable
to proclaim our belief, because of age or mental deficiency, God can work in
our lives. An infant is a perfect
example of God’s prevenient grace acting to accomplish His will before we are
ever able to understand how God works. “The
actor here is God, claiming (the) child for his own. It doesn’t matter if the child (even)
remembers it. God does.”[4] Under-standing or intellectual capacity (memory)
is not a requirement for God to work in our lives, as some persons
contend. Goodness, even individuals with
the highest theological IQ do not fully comprehend the mysteries of God.
On Easter, we
celebrated Christ’s resurrection. The
following Sunday, we learned how faith is resurrected when our questions &
doubts are properly addressed. Last
week, we saw how resurrection renews us when we respond to God’s calling in our
work lives. This week, Peter reviving Tabitha shows how
resurrection is extended to human lives.
And baptism is our way of claiming that resurrection experience, of
acknowledging that the new life Christ avails is ours.
In today’s
baptism, the pledge of the new life of resurrection is extended to us,
particularly to the one being baptized.
While God does this, we reciprocate with our own human pledges, now in
the sacrament & in the rite of confirmation to follow. We are so grateful that God offers to bring
us & our loved ones with Jesus into heaven for eternity. Our gratitude is not merely with a spoken,
“Thank you, Jesus,” but with promises to lead the kind of life he modeled.
Eternity for
the believer isn’t reserved for death.
The best life with our loved ones & Christ begins in the kingdom
even now.
In the Name…. Copyright 2010 by G.D.Knerr at