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April 29, 2007
Scripture: Acts 9: 36-43
Title: “To Be Alive”

A few Sundays ago, I did something that I rarely do on a Sunday evening. I turned on the TV and watched 60 minutes. Usually my Sundays are filled with meetings or picking up the house, or preparing for the upcoming week. I rarely turn on the TV. I don’t why I turned on the TV that night but I did.

So as I am watching the “preview’ of what is coming up on the show, they mentioned a segment on a private liberal arts college providing a college education for prisoners and this little sound bite intrigued me. So I decided to watch.

The idea for this program all started with a college student who “had been volunteering in prisons and knew the inmates were hungry for an education, but few opportunities were available to them.” So he came up with the idea to work with the college where he attended to create opportunities of education for prisoners. And these prisoners are not prisoners who are in minimum security. These prisoners “have committed violent crimes like assault and murder with sentences ranging from seven years to life. [This prison] is not the type of place you’d expect to walk into and find the inmates studying 18th Century European history.”

The interviewer continued this news story by talking to professors who have taught in this program, by talking to inmates who are so thankful to experience new life again through education, by talking to the college’s President.

The President of the college said that this program “is just a psychological lifesaver. A string of hope even if their release is 10, 15, 20 years out.

When the professor was asked about her experience, about how she felt about being a room with prisoners and no guard? She said, “As soon as we shut the door and we began working, it was the most amazing experience. We had an immediate rapport. And they took themselves and the work so seriously that I didn’t have a moment to consider the absence of a guard.

What stood out to me the most was the closing comment by one of the inmates who was going through graduation. This particular inmate had dropped out of school at the age of 14 and when he was 17, he was arrested with two friends for robbing and killing a taxi driver. And he never dreamed of getting a college education. When asked what it felt like to be accepted into this program, he said that he was elated. “I felt like it was a new chapter in my life that it gave me a chance to start over.”

And now we as viewers of this program watched this young man graduate from college saying “Today we stand before you strong with hope, we stand before you strong with education, and we stand before you strong with a new life sense of life…”

A new sense of life. To be alive. To experience hope in a world where there is none to be found. To be alive.

That is what our Scripture is about today. To be alive. To experience that sense of life-giving hope from the community of faith. To experience a new sense of life through the resurrected Christ.

Peter has been serving in the area of Lyddda, healing and building up the church. And he gets an urgent message to come to Joppa. He doesn’t know why he is going there. He just knows that he is needed.

So he arrives in Joppa and is greeted by mourning.

A disciple named Tabitha is dead.

Tabitha is a disciple who was well known for her good works and acts of charity. Tabitha was an agent of change for this community. Tabitha gave new life to this community. Tabitha gave hope to this community. And now she is dead.

The widows of this community show Peter the clothing that Tabitha made for them. The widows of this community show Peter that Tabitha had not forgotten about the least of these. The widows of this community show Peter that Tabitha gave them new life.

For you see, widows at this period of time were among the poorest of the poor. They relied on relatives for their support. They relied on the charity of others for their livelihood. They were pushed to the margins of society and told to remain there, with no hope of ever leaving this world of helplessness and hopelessness. They were in a sense “dead” to the world.

But through Tabitha, they had been given a sense of new life. They had been given hope. They had begun to experience once again what it means to be alive!

And now that is gone.

Peter sends everyone out of the room and prays. He turns to the body and says, “Tabitha, get up!” And then she opens her eyes and sits up.

Peter calls the widows in. Peter calls the saints in. And he shows them what it means to be alive.
He shows them what it means to have faith in the resurrected Christ. He shows them a new sense of life and gives them hope once again.

We cannot let the world turn those over who are hopeless to sense of death in the world. We cannot let the world push people to the margins to die. We cannot let the world snuff out the life of hope in those who are forgotten, who are abandoned, who are forsaken.

We have been given the call as the church to rise up! We have been given the call as the church to get up! We have been given the call as the church to be an agent of change.
And in turn as we rise, we make it possible for others to be agents of change rather than an object of ministry.

We are called to share and to show a new sense of life. We are called to show what it means to be alive in the risen Christ. We are called to show hope in a world where there is none to be found.

We must understand that our reality as Christians is bound to God’s promise that God will make all things new. We must understand that our reality as Christians is bound to the promise of new life through word and deed. We must understand that our reality as Christians is bound to God’s promises of new life through our faith.

Faith calls us to demonstrate the intervening presence of God to act among us. Faith calls us to demonstrate the power of the resurrection. Faith calls us to be agents of change.

Faith calls us to Rise up, To Get up, to show the world what it means to be alive through the Risen Lord.

As I close, I leave you with the words of Mother Teresa:

“The poor are hungry not only for food, they are hungry to be recognized as human beings. They are hungry for dignity and to be treated as we are treated. They are hungry for our love.”

So Midway Christian Church: Get up and show the promise of new life. Midway Christian Church: Rise up and show what it means to be alive in the promises of the resurrection. Midway Christian Church, Get up and show the world what it means to be alive!

May we answer to call to Get up and to be agents of change for the world, not an object of ministry. Amen.

Rev. Heather McColl
Midway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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