We are still in the Easter season, and so it is appropriate for us to hear one more resurrection story, and as we hear it, to think again about what in our own lives needs to be restored to renewed life. We need that renewal because this has been a difficult week for us. We have lived in the continuing aftermath of the tragedy at Virginia Tech; war rages in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the world. People continue to suffer the effects of genocide in Darfur, lives are lost needlessly every day.

In our congregation we have had two funerals in three days for beloved members of this community. It is certainly all heartbreaking, it can feel overwhelming, until we remember that in this season of resurrection, God calls us to great faith in the risen Christ, and to remember that we are as people of faith called to find and to proclaim new life.

So we are sad at the losses we have experienced over the last nine days? Yes we are. But the good news is that the Great Shepherd of the sheep, Jesus himself risen, conqueror of death, is with us and we need not be utterly overwhelmed by death or fear. We are resurrection people.

How do we get from grief to alleluia? We don’t, it is in the midst of the pain and loss that we who believe in Jesus are led, in every circumstance, to offer the highest form of praise we know. Alleluia. Thanks be to God.

Yesterday, I attended the consecration service for the new Episcopal bishop of southern Ohio. The closing hymn was "All Creatures of Our God and King". One verse that we sang, a verse that is not included in the Chalice Hymnal version of the hymn summarized what I, and I suspect others of you feel this morning. The verse says:

"And even you most gentle death, waiting to hush our final breath,
O praise him, Alleluia! You lead back home the child of God,
For Christ our Lord that way has trod;
O praise him, O praise him, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia."

Tabitha was not just known among her friends, she was one of those women well known in both the Jewish and Gentile communities. We know this because she was called by two names. Her two names were not like Saul’s who adopted the Latin version of his name and became Paul. Today Luke tells the restoration story of a woman so well known that she was called by two names. The Gentiles called her Dorcas. The Jews called her Tabitha. In both languages her name means Gazelle, and I imagine like the animal of the same name, she was swift and graceful as she made her rounds tending to the people who needed her ministry, especially the widows in town.

They are the ones who sat vigil at the bedside of Tabitha, and they understood their circumstance. Their friend and leader is not just sick, she has died, and they feel her loss deeply. They grieve because they know her as a follower of Jesus Christ and while there were certainly others, Tabitha is one of the few women identified in the New Testament as a disciple of Jesus. In fact, the word used to describe her is "diakonos", "deacon", "servant", and Tabitha is the only woman in the New Testament called by that title. That she is so called shows how much Jesus turned people’s lives around and how much they turned the word around.

First, they teach us to know where our help is. They know Peter is in Joppa and empowered by all that Tabitha has taught them, they act boldly and send a message that they need him to come to Tabitha’s house. Never mind that Peter is an apostle who is no doubt busy, never mind that they are widows with little economic or legal standing. They understand that they and he share a deep faith in Jesus and they believe that followers of Jesus mourn and rejoice together. Peter is a resource for them.

We have resources available to us here. We have the ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) available to us in Indianapolis, Saint Louis, and Nashville. We have resources available to us here. We have resources available through the Christian Church in Ohio. We have resources in the community and we will hear about some of them this afternoon at lunch. We all share in a desire for restoration here. Let’s know where our help is and let’s send for it.

The second lesson is that we can state our need. The women showed Peter their beloved sister and leader sleeping in death. Their need was for him to do something, say something to help them cope. What is our greatest need here? Growth? More secure finances? A full choir restored? A greater active sense of mission beyond our walls and a stronger community inside? Whatever it is, we can state the need and do all that we can to make sure the need is met in a way that renews our life in this place.

They have been showing him the clothes Tabitha made for them so they would be presentable. What do we show people who can help us? Will we let them see the places where we need help or will we show them a façade that pretends that everything is as we wish it to be? Will we be open to new things or will we maintain the status quo? These women have found new life, renewed purpose, self-respect, because a woman of God loved them. They wanted to find their own mission and ministry but they don’t quite know how. So they have sent for Peter and Peter responds to their request.

Is there a person in your life like Peter? Is there someone who, when events in life threaten to become overpowering, you pick up the phone, make a visit, send an email and know that help is on the way? Do you know who to turn to when you need a shoulder to lean on, a hand to hold yours, someone to remind you that if you can hold on it won’t always be like this? I pray you do, those folks make the difference sometimes between deep despair and restoration of what is dying in us and yet wants to live.

The third thing we need to do is clear the room. Now while Peter asked the women to leave, we need everyone to stay put; I mean to suggest that we do a symbolic cleaning. I want us to clear the room in our spirit and our literal rooms of doubt, of fear, and of worry. Having called on someone to help us, we can ask questions, but not second guess; let’s listen to their counsel, and use their helpful suggestions. Let them do their work.

Four, we can pray and speak. That is what Peter did. We don’t know what his conversation with God was, but we do know that they had one. Pray, have a long talk with God. Listen with a discerning spirit; seek strength from God; claim power from God, care for others in the name of God, pray expecting an answer. It may be the answer you seek, it may not be, but pray anyway.

Peter prays. Then he speaks directly to Tabitha. He tells her to get up and she does. He helps her up, calls the women back into the room and they see that God has been at work. Tabitha lives! They tell the story and many others come to believe in the good news of Jesus because Tabitha has been restored to life.

What does this mean? The meaning is in the fifth lesson, and that is that we celebrate the work of God to bring us to new life.

It is in his name that what looks dead is really alive. Like many of yours, bushes and plants and trees in my yard that began to bloom in late March seemed to die in the cold of early April. But I have noticed this week that they are budding green again. They were not dead after all, they were in the mystery of God, being restored.

God wills the same kind of restoration for us too. The places that seem dead can find restoration and new life. What needs to be restored in your life? Is it peace and faith and health for yourself or a loved one? Is it peace and faith and health for our world and its leaders as we pray that all of them will be filled with wisdom to do right by the people and for all of us to do right by our world? As we find and celebrate peace and faith and health in our lives, we just may lead others to find the same things in their lives.

We can in resurrection power find the renewal we need because the greatest restoration we need is the kind that comes when we put our greatest faith and trust in Jesus Christ in whose name Peter and Tabitha believed, in whose name Peter called her back to life, by whose grace we find our lives.

It is Jesus himself, raised from a cold, dark tomb to the right hand of the throne of God who prays that we might have real Shalom; true restorative well-being for our souls, justice for our world, and hope for our lives. He is the source of all that gives us life now and into eternity and it is in his name that we find restoration and life.

Praise be to God. Amen.