4th Sunday of Easter

May 11, 2025

What’s it all about Alfie?

The Rev. Rod Sprange

 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts and the actions in our lives be now and always acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer, Amen

 

About 25 years ago, our granddaughter Chloe, was visiting us from England with her parents and sister, she was about 5.  We took them all to church one of the Sunday’s they were with us even though they aren’t a church-going family.  I was sitting in the pew next to Chloe.  Half way through the service Chloe turned to me, and with a very earnest but puzzled expression on her face asked “Why do you come here?”  I can’t remember quite how I answered, but I do remember thinking what an incredibly insightful and important question.  Why do I come here? Today I can boil down all the theological layers to a simple answer, I come because Jesus keeps inviting me.  

 

That’s why most of us come, whether or not we recognize the invitation or the host.  Once we respond to the invitation and come, what is our responsibility as Christ’s guests?  The answer to that depends on what kind of gathering this is, what it is all about.  If you want to know what I think the answer to that is, you’ll have to wait till later in the sermon. So stay alert or you’ll miss it.  First I want to offer some short  reflections on a couple of today’s Scripture readings.

 

Psalm 23, is my favourite Psalm.  Probably for many of you too.  The words of trust and hope are so beautifully expressed.  If we pay attention to the form we notice the psalm changes after verse three.  In the first three verses of thanksgiving the psalmist is talking about God, and how God provides everything he needs, both physical and spiritual.  He tells us how God guides and directs him to keep him from going astray.  But in verse four the psalmist stops talking about God and begins to speak directly to God.  “I fear no evil” he says “because you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me”. In verses four, five and six the author has an intimate conversation with God.  This is a gift to us, to know that we, like the psalmist, can speak directly to God.  We are invited into an intimacy with our creator. 

 

This psalm can be very comforting and is often used at funerals because of the reference to the valley of the shadow of death, and even more because it ends with the certainty that because of God’s goodness and mercy, we, like the psalmist, shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

In Acts we hear about St. Peter being called to Joppa because a beloved member of the Christian community has died.  Her name was Dorcas in Greek, and Tabitha in Aramaic, both mean gazelle.   She was a widow and part of a Christian community of widows.  In Acts Luke makes clear how Christian widows were playing an important role in the growing church.  Dorcas was a model of ordinary, every day, discipleship. Luke describes her as being devoted to good works and acts of charity. She reminds me of many of you especially the quilters and knitters.  Dorcas made garments which were apparently very special to her community of widows.  They proudly displayed many of them for Peter to look at.  If you would like to see a representation of Dorcas, turn around in the pew. Look at the large window on the west wall of the church.  That’s Dorcas. [Next time you visit  St

. Andrew’s, make a point of looking at the stained glass window honouring Dorcas/Tabitha]

 

Dorcas is remarkable in that she is not remarkable and yet she is known to millions of Christians 2000 years after her death because of this short episode about Peter in Acts.  

There is an important lesson in this short story.  Dorcas had been given the gift of hand making garments.  She used these to benefit her community, remember she was devoted to good works and acts of charity.  She elevated her gifts from ordinary God given skills, into spiritual gifts.  Spiritual gifts are those gifts we acknowledge to come from God and which we choose to use in God’s service. 

 

All of us have God given gifts. As Paul noted several times in his letters, each of us has gifts and each, no matter how humble, is equally important to the body of Christ, the church.  Dorcas reminds us of the importance of discerning how God may be calling us to make use of our gifts in support of Christ’s mission.  When we look around our community, at all of you gathered here today, we see an enormous array of gifts, many of which are used  to the benefit of the community, much like Dorcas used hers.

 

 We are blessed with people who are generous with their time and gifts:  the coffee hour hosts and organizers, those who set up the tables and chairs for coffee hour, lunches and other events.  The quilters and knitters, The gardeners and others who maintain the grounds and the buildings.  Those who prepare the church for worship and those who greet us, read for us, lead us in worship or make sure we can hear what is going on, whether we are here in the church or at home watching via,YouTube. 

 

Think of the outreach teams who make the food-bank happen, the visitors and phoners, those who offer prayers for the people of the parish, those who take on the burden of leadership. And what about those who sit quietly and listen to someone who needs to share about their life; who needs to know they are being listened to.  And so much ministering that is exercised without fanfare or the expectation of recognition.  What a wonderful bunch of Dorcases we have.   What we often don’t even know about are the personal ministries and acts of generosity that our members do outside of church. 

 

I did say I would tell you what I think our Sunday gatherings we call worship are all about;  what it is that Jesus invites us to.

 

Our Sunday gatherings are a celebration, a party thrown in thanksgiving. Every Sunday is a celebration of Easter. Even during Lent.   We call the central act of worship Eucharist which is Greek for Thanksgiving.  The Eucharistic prayer is the Great Thanksgiving which leads us through the story of salvation.

 

In the BAS the priest who leads the service is called the celebrant.  But we are all celebrating. Together we celebrate the gift of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and his glorious resurrection and ascension. And at the heart of our Sunday celebration is communion, when Christ invites us to approach his table and he gives us the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, his body which was broken and his blood that was shed for us and for our salvation.  We should shout for joy at this extraordinary invitation and gift.

 

Our worship, our participation should be and be seen to be full of joyful gratitude.

 

I think of my granddaughter Chloe, did the people gathered that day look to her like they were at a party?  Did they look like they were celebrating something?  I often wonder what we look like to a new comer.  Anglicans have sometimes been referred to (often by ourselves) as the Frozen Chosen.  It’s time to use the defrost cycle. 

 

Worship calls for a sense of reverence, and there are times when we should remain silent to allow people to reflect and pray, however, we can be joyful while maintaining reverence.

 

Let us offer our praise to almighty God with exuberant, joyful gratitude, amen