The Dorcas Guild

Acts 9:36-42

May 2, 2004

 

36Now 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. 37At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38Since 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.” 39So 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. 40Peter 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. 41He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.


Have you ever heard of a Dorcas Guild or a Dorcas Fund?

I have, and I’ve known what they were too.  They are philanthropic institutions that have taken up a mission of feeding the hungry, healing the sick and assisting the poor and destitute.

Until this week, however, I never knew why.

I never made a connection between those organizations or endowment funds or other institutions with the name Dorcas attached to them, and the woman that the Apostle Paul raises from the dead in the city of Joppa, the woman “devoted to good works and acts of charity.”  Athough the word Dorcas, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Tabitha, means gazelle or antelope in those languages, the name has taken on entirely different meaning over the centuries.  Perhaps you’ve heard of Dorcas Aid International?…

Dorcas Aid International is a Christian relief and  development organization, committed to fulfill the command of Jesus  Christ to us, the Body of Believers, to take care of the poor and  oppressed (Matt. 25:31-46).

Dorcas began in 1980 as a small group of people in  the Netherlands mainly focused on assisting those imprisoned for  their faith under the communist regime. Now, over twenty years later,  Dorcas Aid International is operating world-wide providing social,  development and relief aid through over 100 projects in more than 20  countries.  Dorcas Aid International has projects in Armenia for building projects, for school support, for child sponsorship and for supporting the local economy by creating a carpet making factory.

And how did this all come about?  How did it come to be called Dorcas Aid international?  All because of one simple line in the bible describing a woman who was “devoted to good works and acts of charity” and whose name happened to be Dorcas.  One little line in scripture, one simple woman.

 

Its amazing where inspiration comes from… sometimes it comes from one little line in scripture, from one simple woman described there. 

Sometimes inspiration comes from one local hero

At a recent Marblehead, Massachusetts school committee meeting, the life and sacrifice of one young man inspired the town to change the name of their newly renovated school.

The town Veteran’s agent, David Rodgers read a presidential citation before the school committee meeting.  The citation awarded the Navy Cross to Duncan Sleigh, president of the 1963 Marblehead High School senior class who was from a wealthy family and chose to join the Marines after graduation even though he could have avoided serving by going to college.

Sleigh, the citation said, died in Vietnam during a firefight with the enemy while evacuating wounded buddies from a battlefield, shielding them with his body. The Navy Cross is awarded for extraordinary heroism during combat.

"I'm appealing to the committee tonight, not only for Duncan, but for all his comrades, all the veterans of Marblehead -- past, present and future -- that you possibly consider naming the school in their honor," Rodgers said.

The school had been officially named Marblehead Academy in March, The name-change vote was unanimous and the name of the school was changed to the Marblehead Veterans Middle School.

Friday, April 30, 2004 “A salute to soldiers” By Michael Puffer Staff Writer

 

God speaks through one little line in scripture, one simple woman described there, one local hero, or one simple beggar.

 

Reg had been overseas on official business and was being driven to the airport by a government officer. The car was forced to stop briefly at an intersection where a beggar began to tap insistently on the window.

Each of those in the car had been in that same situation many times. And each of them had done what Reg did — they also had averted their eyes and turned awkwardly away.

But on this occasion, as the car moved away from the neglected beggar, Reg was strangely moved. All of a sudden it was as though he could actually hear Jesus saying to him, “You have just turned your back on me. That was me knocking on the window of your car. Why didn’t you help me?”

Reg struggled through the airport procedures in a fog, the persistent image of the beggar refusing to retreat. Finally, as he sat with the government officer in the departure lounge he could bear it no longer, and the tears began to flow.

When a somewhat worried and confused official asked for an explanation, all Reg could manage was to say, “I have just seen my Lord in need, and I ignored him.”

—Steve Bradbury, “Who Are the Poor,” TEAR Web Site, Tear.org.au/resources. Retrieved December 6, 2003.

God speaks through one little line in scripture, one simple woman described there, one local hero, one simple beggar and perhaps also through one simple tool.

Martin Luther spoke about an ordinary saw. A saw is unable to do any work on its own. It just sits there. But in the hands of an able carpenter this saw can do work. When the carpenter moves the saw back and forth the teeth bite into the wood, and with each draw back and forth the wood is cut. The saw does not move itself back and forth in order to cut the wood, but in the hands of the carpenter who uses the tool the work is completed. It may appear that the saw is doing the work, but it is only a simple tool.  The carpenter in the end is the one who is the source of the work.

—Tim Seban, “Doing It His Way,” July 20, 2003, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Web Site, Stpaulsdesperes.org.

http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustrations_for_installment.asp?installment_id=3242

And one little church on the border also can be used as such a tool in the hand of the Great Carpenter.

The border.  How far are we from the border from here?

Those two words may not seem ominous to most of us especially for those many of us live very close to the border between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, Methuen and Salem.  From where we sit and stand this moment, that border is only a few moment’s walk away.  But for some people in the desert Southwest, the two little words “the border” evoke suffering and death.

For them, the border isn’t an imaginary line on a paved road, or running through some person’s apple orchard, nor does it mean the fortified stations where cars are stopped and sometimes searched on the way to Toronto, Canada or Tijuana, Mexico.  For those who live in many parts of southern Texas and southern Arizona, the words refer to the vast, unmarked desert lying between the settled communities of Mexico and the United States. This is the border that many undocumented Mexicans must cross on foot to avoid being stopped and sent back. This border is not a fence or even a line; it is an unfriendly desert where, in summer, the temperature can reach more than 120 degrees in the daytime. Only God knows how many men, women, and children have perished from thirst in that cauldron as they tried to make their way northward.

Latino migrants are not the only people who dread the border. Touched in their hearts and consciences by the mounting death toll in the arid, burning desert, four years ago church people and other volunteers in Southern Arizona formed an organization called Humane Borders, a ministry of compassion to the unnamed migrants who venture to cross the border. It was not an easy decision. Many Americans believe that any assistance to undocumented aliens only encourages them. But the people of faith who joined Humane Borders were convinced that Holy Scripture leaves them no alternative.

If Jesus commanded his disciples to offer a cup of cold water, can today’s followers do any less? Since water is a matter of life and death in the desert, the primary mission of Humane Borders is to build and maintain water stations along the trails and pathways the migrants traverse.

Members of the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita, Arizona, are responsible for the resupply of one of Humane Borders’ more than 30 water stations . That means hauling as many as twelve 5-gallon jugs of water to a desert site some 25 miles from the church. During the hottest months, the water supply must be replenished as often as twice a week. Humane Borders’ volunteers rarely encounter the people they help: for their own protection, migrants have to stay out of sight. But the word “Gracias,” “Thank You.” scrawled on the tank testifies to the importance of this ministry.

Supplying life-reviving water to migrants is not all that Humane Borders does. The coalition also seeks to educate the public on immigration problems and issues, and advocates reform of border policies and practices.

GOOD SHEPHERDS http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/s050204.htm

God’s grace comes alive through one line in scripture, by one simple woman with a strange name, through one local hero, one simple beggar, a simple tool and a simple little border church.

What about us?  I’m just one simple person.  We’re just one little country church in Salem, NH not far from the state line, the border ourselves.  But are we “devoted to good works and acts of charity” as was that one simple woman with a strange name in the Book of Acts? 

Dorcas inspired Dorcas Aid International and countless other little Dorcas guilds through the ages.

Dorcas also inspired the widows who cried and wept showing the simple things she had made, the tunics and other clothing mentioned in the book of Acts.  She then inspired all those gathered for her funeral with the miracle of her resurrection.  Given up for dead, at the hands of god, she showed new life.  With one simple phrase spoken by the Apostle Paul, “Tabitha, get up…Dorcas, get up.”

 

How can we, one little church in the country, be used by God to inspire?  With one phrase God can say to us, “Ararat Church get up,” and what would we  e capable of doing?  What would we  e capable of becoming?  What would be possible for us that, one local hero, one simple little church in the Arizona desert, one simple tool, one simple beggar on the streets could not accomplish, but only we can accomplish here in our own neighborhood, here in this building, with our gifts and abilities and hopes and dreams?

 

Could we be for each other a true and loving community of nurture and care, supporting each other through good times and difficult times?  Could we be a community who trains and lifts up its youth to be musical pioneers, who would then lead us in our worship in new styles in the years to come?  Could we be a church that feeds the hungry and homeless in our community?  What can we do…one little congregation?

Let us find out.  Le us too be bold, let us too open up our ears and listen for the words spoken though God’s evangelist Paul, through the quiet whispering of our Lord to hearts and minds throughout these our pews, “Ararat Church, get up,” and let us be participants in the miracles of God’s power.

Amen