The Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 25, 2010

Main
  Who We Are
  Anglican Identity
  Upcoming Events
  Links

Our Worship
  Divine Office
  Services
  WOW
  Homilies

Our Ministries
  Prayer List
  Lay Ministry Rota
  The Servant

San Esteban
  San Esteban

Search:

Acts 9:36-43, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT

We see St. Peter in various stories in the Gospels. Generally we see him as the strong, sometimes stumbling fisherman; so eager in his exuberance for Jesus and so slow to grasp the meaning of the words and deeds around him. More times than not he becomes a foil for us and our own foibles; wanting to walk on water and sinking down, denying Jesus after his arrest, or in the upper room arguing against having his feet washed but then wanting his whole body washed by Jesus. Today we see a side of St. Peter we rarely see: pastor and caregiver.

He is summoned to the home of Tabitha or Dorcas in the Greek. Tabitha is clearly a beloved member of the community, a woman who has cared for widows and the unfortunate, has made clothing for them, and has ministered to and with them. She has been ill and has now died. St. Peter arrives too late to pray for her healing. Key here for me is he comes to her, he walks to her home in another town. He sees his relationship with her even though they have never met because of her relationship with the community through Christ. He knows he is connected to this woman he has never met.

As in the story of the daughter of Jarius, he as Jesus arrives after the person has died. In this story we see echoes of the other: he sends people out, he prays over her, she is resuscitated and he helps her get up. This is Peter the pastor and care giver, not the stumbling fisherman.

The story is built on the foundation of the expanding relationship of the saints in Christ. They may not know each other, have not seen each other, nor broken bread with each other, yet they know they are connected through Christ. There is a care and concern among them. In a small way we see that here Sunday by Sunday. How many of you know all the people we will name in prayer in a few moments. You know some, but not all. I do not know all of them. Yet we know we are connected and we offer prayers for them.

This connection comes through our faith, our life in Christ. We are bound together in a great fellowship of saints, saints on earth and saints in light; the church militant and the church triumphant using the traditional language. We see this in a very particular way in our Gospel from St. John.

Jesus is walking in the temple grounds; it is winter, the Feast of the Dedication. We know this feast by a different name today, Hanukkah. It celebrates the rededication of the temple after the Maccabean revolt against the Syrians over 160 years before the birth of Christ. The Jews revolted and defeated their Syrian oppressors. They then cleansed the temple of the sacrileges by the Syrians and rededicated it.

Jesus is asked yet again, are you the Messiah? Don't keep us guessing. Are you the one? But in asking this they are looking for the Messiah to restore the throne of David, restore the glory of Israel and cast off the Roman oppressors as had been done to the Syrians over a century and a half earlier. They are looking for the political Messiah, the king Messiah, the new David Messiah, the liberator Messiah.

For once Jesus is not that enigmatic in his answer: "I have told you and you do not believe." He then rehearses for them that the works he does testifies he is from God. Those in relationship with him know that. Those in relationship with him see him as the Messiah, but not the king Messiah as rather a shepherd Messiah, one who cares for those who love him and whom he loves. He knows them. They know him. They know his voice and he gives them life. They are all bound together in God.

For St. Peter as for Jesus in the temple that winter, everything is built on relationship. Peter walks to another town because of the relationship with a woman he does not know. Jesus reminds those around him that he calls each of his followers by name and they know him.

We were each baptized by name, sealed by the Holy Spirit, signed with the cross and "marked as Christ's own forever." Jesus knows us and all that that means. Through the waters of baptism we are bound to each other in relationship through Christ. We cannot escape that. As St. Peter walked to the home of a woman he never met because of his relationship to her in Christ, in a real way we belong to one another in the community of faith, the community of Christ.

May we each seek to know and love Christ as he loves us and gave himself for us. May we each seek to know and love Christ as we love, serve and forgive each other in his name.