May 8, 2022 Mother’s Day
First Lesson: Acts 9:36-43
36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.
Second Lesson: John 10:22-30
22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
Two things to know before I read the scripture. The festival of Dedication is the celebration of God’s most recent deliverance of the Jews with the rededication of the Temple. God’s provision is honored by lighting menorah candles. This Festival of Lights, today we call Hanukkah. The portico of Solomon is where kings would pass judgment on people. It is also here that the Jews press Jesus on his identity because they do not judge him to be God’s Messiah. So this story of sheep is really in response to Jesus’ identity and our willingness to follow. Read John 10:22-30
Happy Mother’s Day, to all our mothers! Today we honor those who have nurtured, supported, fed, clothed, taught and birthed us. The brilliant women who sacrifice to care for their children. Love is at the root of all this caring, and we honor the late-night calls answered, the way mom can look at you and know something is wrong, the unending comfort and strength mom provides so her child can fly and spread her wings. This week the very act of becoming a mother might soon be altered. The leaked brief from the Supreme Court has the potential to radically change a woman’s decision about her own health and her desire and capacity to become a mother. Motherhood is one of the most rewarding and the most challenging roles, it is not to be entered into lightly or mandated. Yet here we are on Mother’s Day highly aware of this potentially imminent change and what it will mean for women across our nation.
Luke talks about a faithful woman named Tabitha. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. It is believed she ministered to the widows in her community creating clothing and tunics for them, because without husbands, these women would be at risk, without the protection of a male relative. Luke also tells us Tabitha’s name in Greek, is Dorcas, which leads me to believe her efforts were known within the wider community, the Gentile community. Another thing to note is that Tabitha has a wonderful Biblical distinction. She is the only woman referred to as a disciple. One commentor wrote, “Tabitha was a disciple devoted to good works. The Greek word for “disciple” that Luke uses here is the first and only use of the word in the feminine form. (Remember this the next time you hear someone say it isn’t “biblical” for women to be leaders in the church.) (Yet) when Tabitha dies, it is the community’s widows who are most distressed, gathering around Peter to show him their clothes, made by this female disciple. Without the support of their faith community, these widows would perish. Tabitha’s ministry to these vulnerable women was essential to their survival in a world that devalued and marginalized women, especially those without husbands” (Presbyterian Outlook, Teri McDowell Ott). Sound familiar?
Peter, the leader of Jesus’ church, was called when Tabitha dies, and we see the power of God as he prays for her healing and then commands her to get up! If this feels familiar, it parallels Mark’s telling of Jesus raising Jairus’s daughter- “Talitha cum” and “Tabitha, cumi” (Mk. 5:41). God’s power over death remains active, even as Jesus now reigns with God. There is strength in this story, hope in God’s power and a validation of women. Tabitha is granted new life, and I can only pray that women in our country will have agency over their own lives.
My parents could not have children and so they adopted me at 6 weeks old. I am the youngest of four adopted children. Before her death, my mother made a cassette of her reading one of my favorite stories, Over and Over. I found comfort as a child in this tale of a little girl going through the holidays and seasons of a year, over and over again. But now more than the pages of the book, it is sound of my mother’s voice reading this tale that powerfully comforts. My mother’s voice, with its smooth cadence and caring tone, a sound I would recognize anywhere.
Our gospel lesson speaks of the sound of Jesus’s voice. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. In John he tells several stories of shepherds and sheep following the sound of the shepherd’s voice (10:1-18).
Walter Damrosch, a composer and conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, was instrumental in the creation of Carnegie Hall. His passion for music led him to another distinction. From 1928 through 1942, children in schools in America learned to know the voice of Walter Damrosch, the host of ‘Music Appreciation Hour’ a radio broadcast from NBC. Damrosch taught thousands of boys and girls to know and love music. Classes stopped at a certain hour, the school radio was switched on, and then his familiar voice was heard: “Good morning, my dear children.” They then enjoyed a half-hour of beautiful music, and he would tell them the meaning and the message within the music. (Sort of like how Don gives and introduction to local symphonic productions).
One day Mr. Damrosch was asked by the headmaster of a school to come and talk to the boys and girls. He sat on the platform and the children fidgeted, for he was an old man, and they knew that old men very often make long speeches. The headmaster let him introduce himself. Mr. Damrosch stood up and smiled, but no one knew him. Then he said, “Good morning, my dear children,” and immediately the whole room was in an uproar. The children clapped and cheered. Mr. Damrosch said, “And why do you cheer? You do not know me.” “Yes we do, we know your voice.” If we are sheep, do we know our Shepherd’s voice? Do we know with whom we belong? (Sermons.com, David Beckett)
I must admit I skipped over the most important part; we hear Jesus voice and we follow him. Yes! But did you notice it says, Jesus “knows them,” knows us, Jesus knows you! You are loved, claimed and known! The voice of the Good Shepherd is a voice that says, “You belong to me. No one can snatch you out of my hand.” Secure in this belonging, we are free to live the abundant life of which Jesus spoke earlier in the chapter: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (10:10) (Working Preacher, Elizabeth Johnson). We have comfort and strength in this knowing, in being known by our Lord, by our shepherd. Karoline Lewis writes, “In Jesus as the shepherd we recognize that we are deeply known and yet, at the same time, we trust that so many others so desperately need to be known. It’s the kind of knowing when you can pick out your kid, covered in gear, at a hockey or football game. It’s the kind of knowing when you get a text from your daughter and know something is not quite right. And you call her right away. It’s the kind of knowing when the one you love says your name. And they say it in a way that no one else does.
It’s the kind of knowing when you know you will never be let go. …It’s the kind of knowing that wants to share that knowing with others.
This is Jesus as the Good Shepherd — who tends his sheep but is always going out to find the abandoned. Those thrown out, cast out, tossed out — and expects us to do the same.
This is Jesus as the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep, who calls them by name, but is constantly going out to find the one who finds herself alone at the well, who finds himself passed over and passed by day after day, who lies dead in the tomb, the tombs that determine some are better than others, more worthy than others, more loved than others. Those tombs from which we try to escape, from which we so desperately try to come out, but only the Shepherd’s voice, knowing our name, can free us. Can save us” (Working Preacher).
You are known, loved and called. May we now follow confident we are following the Good Shepherd’s voice! Amen.
