Difference Maker

Scripture:  Acts 9:36-43
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Ida Florence Litherland lived down where the Ohio River flows between Indiana and Kentucky.  In her younger days, the early part of the 20th century, this is still when river towns dotted the river’s coast and their primary connection to the rest of the world was the river.  Ida was best known for her short stature and her devout faith.  She was less than five feet tall, and she walked miles every week in all kinds of weather to attend church.   These two facts are probably what made her actions on one particular night so surprising.  While he eventually turned it around and committed to the straight and narrow, early on her husband drank a lot and gambled a lot.  This was a source of friction in their relationship.   One night Ida had hit her breaking point, and she had had enough of her husband being gone all hours of the night drinking and gambling.  So, she grabbed a shotgun, went down to whatever backroom a group of men were gathered in and she cleared the place out.  She shut down all the drinking and gambling on that particular evening.  It must have been quite the sight to see this little woman, wielding a firearm almost half her size, convincing a group of men that the best course of action was to call it a night.  I know this story because Ida Florence Litherland is my great grandmother. 

It is also the only story I really know about my great grandmother.  We all leave a legacy, the influence and stories that live on beyond our earthly lives.  In more subtle ways, the legacy of Ida Florence Litherland continues.  Her deep faith conviction and apparent strong will have most certainly rippled down through generations, but the only story that has been passed down more than a century so that her great, great grandchildren have heard it is the one with the shotgun.  Apparently, we do not always get to control what people remember us by.  

The incident with the shotgun was a little out of character for Ida, but it is the action that created a story that stood the test of time.  This morning’s scripture shows that our actions go a long way to influencing how we are remembered and what kind of legacy we live.  People may not remember what we said, but the will remember what we did.   Tabitha, or Dorcus if you prefer the Greek, left a legacy of so many good deeds and positive actions, that the people she touched were not ready to let her go.   She made a real difference.  If we want to be a difference maker, if we as individuals and as a church, want to be known and remembered as someone who transformed this world into a better place, then Tabitha shows us how to do it.

From a literary standpoint, the focus of this morning’s scripture is supposed to be on Peter.  It comes from the beginning of a section that focuses on Peter’s exploits.  The intention is to show that Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, can do the same miraculous things that Jesus did.  Just before this morning’s scripture reading, Peter tells a paralyzed man to pick up his mat and walk just like Jesus did.  In this morning’s scripture, Peter tells Tabitha to get up, much like how Jesus told Lazarus to come out.  Within the greater framework of the book of Acts, that is the main point that is to be taken away.  The apostles are doing the same miraculous work of Jesus as the continue to spread the good news.  However, within the context of the story being told in this morning’s scripture, Tabitha stands out.  She does not show back up again in the scripture; we do not hear anymore about her.  However, just in this small story we get a lot of detail.  She is more than just a background character, a prop to be healed before Peter moves on.  The author of Acts intentionally slows down and gives us a lot of extra details about Tabatha.  Even though she is not the primary focus of this scripture, the author intentionally seems to lift her up as a person to emulate.  

By focusing on what is written about Tabitha we can get a sense of the kind of difference that she made.  Verse 36 tells us that she was always doing good and helping the poor.   While it is not explicitly stated, we get an idea of the kind of good work that she did.   Verse 39 tells us that all the widows were mourning her death, and they showed Peter the clothing that she had made.   In the first century, society, widows were some of the most destitute and impoverished people in society.   If their husband died, then the widow had to rely on their son, but if the widow did not have a son or the son did not fulfill his obligations, then the widow was in very dire straits.   Tabitha cared for and provided for the widows.  Part of her work was clearly making clothes for them.   Yet that must have only been part of it, because the bible does not state that she “did a lot of caring for the widows.”   It states she was “always doing good works and helping the poor.”   The work she did for others and the care she showed the poor was what defined by.  It is these actions that she was known for, and we get the impression that is what she was loved for. She was so loved that the people she made a difference for, fought to make sure death did not get her.

     It was Jewish burial practice in the first century to bury very quickly.  It was common to bury a body the same day that the person died.   Given that, it is amazing how fast they got Peter there.   Lydda was about 12 miles from Joppa.   Even at a marathon running pace, it would have taken nearly two hours to get there and another two hours to get back.    They really wanted Peter to be present, not so that he could attend the funeral but so that he could prevent it.    Tabitha made such an impact on her community that they did not settle for mourning her.   They were willing to go to any lengths to get her back.   When people gathered after her passing, they did not start sharing condolences, their first thought was how can we fix this.   The impact that Tabitha made was so great that they could not fathom being without her, at least not yet.    She was missed so greatly that God raised the dead.  

The bible records that Tabitha was a believer in Jesus, and it was this faith that motivated her to do good and help the poor.   Tabitha is an example that is worth following.  Tabitha was not an apostle.  There is no record of her doing amazing, supernatural miracles.  There is no record of her going on globe hopping missionary trips or preaching to auditoriums fully of people.   No, what the bible testifies about her faith is that she was always doing good and helping the poor.     Her faith motivated her to actions, which defined her and made a real and lasting impact on those around her.  The people that Tabitha made a difference for knew she was a a Christian by her love.  This morning’s scripture, challenges us by asking, can people same the same about us?

            Bishop Mike Coyner, who was the resident United Methodist Bishop in Indiana from 2004 to 2016, would ask a couple of different questions regularly to get to the same point.  He would ask, “If someone stopped at the closest gas station to your church, and asked for the directions to the church, would the attendant know where the church is?”  The idea behind the question is to ask if the local church is such a fixture in the community that most people in the community know about the church and where to find it.  

            The other questions that he would ask is, “If your church up and closed tomorrow, would the community notice?”  This is convicting question, really gets at the heart of this morning’s scripture.  Tabitha died, and her community noticed.  Her community took drastic actions to change it.   This is because Tabitha was known for her actions, she was known for how she made a difference, she was known by her love.  The church, Trinity UMC, it is not this building.  It is the people, it is us.   So, if we were to disappear tomorrow the reason why the community would miss the church, is because they miss us.  They will miss how we are doing good, how we are helping the poor, and how our actions are making God’s love known.  If we want to be the kind of church that our community would miss, if we want to be the kind of church that is so essential to the life of the community that even a random gas station employee knows where we are, then we have to follow the example of Tabitha and be a difference maker.   

Tabitha made a difference in her community by seeing a need and meeting the need.   She provided clothes for the poor widows.  The reason why Tabitha made such a huge difference is because her actions put her in direct contact with the people she was helping.  In his book Shift 2.0 ministry coach Phil Maynard, points out that churches in general tend to be really good at what he calls missional gestures.  These are doing things like donating to food pantries and doing school supply drives.  These are good actions that do make a difference, but they do not engage with the community around us.  Maynard puts forth that churches need to be more intentional to undertake what he calls ministries of engagement, where the congregation interacts directly with those who are receiving the services.  

This is what Tabitha did.  When she died, people were not going to miss her clothes, they were going to miss her.   The people she served knew she was a Christian by her love, because they knew that she loved them by name.  This is something that all of us can do.  Tabitha found a specific need that she had the skills and passion to meet. We live in a fallen world where there is no shortage of needs, so here is a challenge for you.   When you go home this afternoon make a list of the needs that you are most passionate about or that you feel the most able to meet.   Then, pick one: see that need and meet that need.  It is that simple.  Just do it.  Or better yet, bring it back to your church family so that we can join you and we can all work together at it.   

Identifying and meeting specific needs in our community, country, or world is a good way that we can follow the example of Tabitha.  It is a good way to be a difference maker and be known by our actions.  However, it is not the only way, and it is not even the simplest way.   There is no reason to overthink this.  The easiest way that we can let people know we are Christians by our love, the easiest way that our faith can make a real and lasting difference is just to be kind.  Nashville based pastor Todd Stevens does a great job at defining kindness.   He wrote, “when I take action to help someone deal with a struggle or hurt, I am meeting a need.   Kindness is different because it helps someone who may not be dealing with any sort of crisis.  Kindness is simply doing something that benefits someone else.”  

Kindness is showing the love of God to another person without an agenda.   A life that is defined by kindness is synonymous with a life defined by God’s love.   Even better, kindness, even small acts of kindness, has a lasting impact.  People who are hurting, people who are lonely, people who need to know there is somewhat out there who cares about them: Our beliefs do not matter much to them right now and our words will not make a lasting impact.  What will make a lasting difference our actions done in Christian love.   This  is how we change the world. 

For better or worse, what we are remembered for, what we are known for our the actions we take.  So may we be known in this community, by our loving actions.  May they know we are Christian by our love.   May this town know that Jesus loves them, because we love them.   May we see the needs and may we meet the needs.  Like Peter and the other apostles in Acts, we have been entrusted with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Like Tabitha, we can make this good news known through our actions.  So may we just do it.  May we take this love of God, and may we pass it on.