Open-ended,
Life-centred,
Gospel-Focused Explorations of Australian P.
B.
Eucharistic Readings
Acts, not Hebrew
Bible, in Easter, hence ACTS 9: 36-43...
4th S. of Easter C. .. (For
JN 10:22-30 scroll.)
NOTES: 1] Up to v.31, the focus
of Ch.9 has been on Saul / Paul, but now it switches to Peter. 2] Joppa was on the coast, about 55k
from Jerusalem, & its nearest port. Lydda was nearby. 3] Tabitha was
the woman's name in Aramaic, meaning 'gazelle', & Dorcas its Greek
translation. Greek was the common language of the Mediterranean world
at that time, hence the N.T. written in Greek.
WARMING UP: How do we feel about the standard of care for
the sick & dying where we live?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
36-37 Do we see ourselves first
& foremost as 'church members', or 'disciples of Jesus'? Do we ever
find tension between being a church member & being a disciple of
Jesus? As
disciple means 'learner', how conscious are we that we are 'learners of
/ from / about Jesus'? Or do we know it all by now? What role does
learning of / from / about Jesus play in our church membership? How
much is any learning our church community provides simply 'head'
learning, as distinct from 'heart' learning? Does doing 'good works'
& giving money to those in need figure largely or at all in our
personal discipleship, or is that the government's / the church's job?
Is it reasonable to argue that 'the government' governs on our behalf
with our money, so should be totally responsible for our care of every
kind? If governments can't do it all, are our own efforts at 'good
works' a necessary stop-gap, band-aid, for those who fall through
various government 'nets'? Where does compassion enter into all this?
Or is there something
at the heart of being
a disciple of Jesus that gives us an opportunity & responsibility
quite distinct from what governments do for us? Is the fact that
churches have handed over much of their 'social welfare' arms (alms,
too?) to organisations set up for this purpose a necessary evil in
these days of government driven / funded 'caring'? Whether it is or
not, have we, in handing care over to 'experts' deprived ourselves in
the process of personal serving, an essential ingredient of
discipleship? Have we detached ourselves too far from actual 'on
the ground' caring in Jesus' name?
38-43
Does an incident like God's raising of Tabitha through Peter raise
false expectations of how God 'normally' works? Or should we
still have that kind of expectation the Joppa disciples have that 'God
can fix anything'? Is there a happy medium, or would such a happy
medium simply be an escape clause for those who may not have
too much confidence of any kind in God? Should we have Lydda-type
confidence, or does ours
need to be confidence of a different kind for a different age? If so,
does that mean God / God's ability to act, has changed, or just our
capacity for faith?
If 'clearing the
room, kneeling down, praying, turning to the body' all sound very much
like the way Jesus acted on similar occasions, is what Peter does here
in Jesus' name a pattern we'd do well to follow still? How far? Is
there any real substitute for taking someone by the hand as a mark of
our personal care for them? Or do we find personal touch a bit
threatening?
Is the lack of
'miracles' in Jesus' name today one reason people aren't widely
attracted to Jesus any more? What about 'suspicious' miracles we've
read or heard about, if not personally seen? Are the latter even more
off-putting than the lack of genuine ones for people at large?
