A Woman's Work (is never done?)

 Scripture   Acts 9:36-43   NRSV  

36 Now 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. 37 At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38 Since 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.” 39 So 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. 40 Peter 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. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

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Poor Dorcas.  Couldn’t even die in peace.  They just had to bring her back so she could keep doing the good work that she was so well known and loved for. Right? Seriously, the power of women and women’s work to change the world is unparalleled and undeniable.  Peter recognized that, because in her own small way Dorcas was changing the world around her.  She cared for widows who had no one else  - no husband, no son, no community or church safety net to help them.  All these women had was Dorcas.  God also recognizes that, for God gave Peter the power to bring her back to continue her good work and to teach others what it means to be a Christian woman.

I was really tempted to use a picture of women working in a sweat shop to go with my title, but you know, that’s not really what this is about.  This isn’t about labor, or equal pay for equal work, or husbands doing their share of caring for home and children, or human trafficking or any of those other modern issues that concern us.  This is about doing for others out of love.  This is about a servant of the Lord being so greatly loved that they could not bear to lose her.  This is about the power of prayer, so that God’s work in the world may go forward unimpeded.

In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) many important movements have been started by women in prayer.  The National Benevolent Association began when Sarah Matilda Hart Younkin gathered a group of six women to pray for the plight of the homeless and helpless. Congregations had their Widow’s Mite collection and Dorcas Society to help the needy in their own city, but these six women recognized that a national denominational organization was needed.  There was no such thing anywhere in the US at that time, but they were nothing if not determined.  They collected $86.76 to begin their work building such an organization.  They started small, helping one needy person at at time, then founding an orphans home, and building from there.  It would be 12 years before the National Convention of the Christian Church would recognize the organization as an official agency of the Church.  Today the NBA is “an expansive network of direct-service providers and residential facilities.” If you want to know more, I have a book.   (Inasmuch: The Saga of the NBA.  Hiram and Marjorie Lester)  And there is a website (https://www.nbacares.org/history)  

Global Ministries is a combined effort of the Disciples of Christ and the United Church of Christ to do overseas mission work.  It also began with one woman’s prayer.  During her prayer time in April of 1874 Caroline Neville Pearre was convicted of a call to initiate a women’s organization.  So she gathered a group of women to address the mission and ministry that was then lacking in the church, forming the Christian Women’s Board of Mission to serve both home and foreign mission.  In the first few years they sent missionaries to Jamaica, France, and India as well as a mission for former slaves in Mississippi.  The CWBM quickly outpaced the floundering men’s missionary societies and grew until it replaced the men’s mission organizations altogether and became an official agency of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  If you want to know more, I have a book.  And they have a website ( https://www.globalministries.org/.)

The Christian Women’s Fellowship grew directly out of the Mission Board and thus celebrates its 145th birthday this year!  Every congregation had some ladies’ society or other, but there was no national organization, nothing to tie all those separate groups together.   In 1947 a plan to do that was forming and in 1949 an organizational meeting of the Christian Women’s Fellowship was held to “work toward a more effective organization of women, with three emphases:  worship, study and service.  All women of the church were to be considered members of the organization. “ (Tucker and McAllister, Journey in Faith, pg 417).   Although the name has changed from Christian Women’s Fellowship to Disciples Women, the focus has never changed.  Gatherings of Disciples women focus on worship and study and service, both in the local congregation as well as regional and larger gatherings.  And, you guessed it, if you want to know more, I have a book!  Plus - they have a website (https://www.discipleshomemissions.org/congregations/disciples-women/)  

And for anyone who likes history as much as I do and may wonder about the role of women in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) I have a book!  Written and edited by women.  (In the Fullness of Time: A history of women in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)  Craddock, Faw, Heimer.  1999)

Dorcas was devoted to good works and acts of charity.  So it should come as no surprise that prior to the founding of the NBA so many congregations had something called a Dorcas Society to help the needy.  Through all the years when so many churches did not allow women to hold positions of leadership or authority, women were nonetheless leading the Church’s efforts to care for the hungry and homeless, widows and orphans, the elderly, and those who needed to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, following where Dorcas led.  It is no wonder that Peter was led to revive her, to bring her back so that her work could continue.  

Make no mistake, women’s work is never done!  And I don’t mean that in the ‘work all day and come home to cook and clean’ sense.  I mean the work of compassion.  The work of caring.  The work of teaching gentleness and love to the next generation.  Yes, men can teach those things.  But in our present society, and speaking very generally women are typically the ones who teach children in their earliest years about playing well with others, sharing toys with their siblings, saying please and thank you.  Sadly, we are seeing a decline in those teachings.  At last year’s block parties, when children were given a bag of popcorn or a brightly colored cross, they rarely said thank you. Even when asked, “What do you say?” more often than not we got a blank stare.   If children are not taught the basics of getting along well with others in their early childhood, they will probably grow to adulthood not knowing.  They need to learn these things - if not at home, then at school, or even here, in church.  Because all of these things stem from the love commandment.  All of those things fall under te heading of treating others as you wish to be treated.

In his monthly article in the First United Methodist Church newsletter, Ken Robison talked about angry arguments over public safety at a recent city council meeting.  At the end of that meeting, he said, some pastors got up and spoke for peace.  He noted that “those of us who believe in the Christian message of love, grace, and forgiveness understand that peace in a community cannot come solely from more policing. . . . Let us ponder how safe our city would be if children learned from their Mothers the value of God’s love, peace and grace.  If they listened to their Mothers about showing love and respect for their fellow man.  Remember the words of Jesus . . .”Love the Lord your God with all your heart an all  your soul and all your mind and all your strength . .  Love your neighbor as yourself.” . . . How great would Mother’s Day be if all their children heeded this message.”    

This passage tells us that many came to believe after Peter revived Dorcas, and perhaps that was because of this miracle that God made possible.  But I like to think that it was Dorcas’ example that prompted interest in the Gospel.  Because  Dorcas lived out the love commandment, doing for those widows according to Jesus’ instructions.  Through her love and good works she taught the people around her what is expected of a Christian. Like many other women of the church, from the earliest days of the church right up to today, she mothered those around her, giving of herself that all might know about God’s grace and love and forgiveness.  Like so many who followed and still follow in her life’s example, she was a woman who answered God’s call, and devoted her life to God’s service.  Let us be like Dorcas.  If we are tired, may our commitment to God’s work be revived as Dorcas was, so that we may be God’s loving hands and feet in today’s world.