Today I direct our attention back to our First Lesson, the miracle story—the woman brought back to life by the prayer of Peter. Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, unexpectedly died. She was, the story makes clear, a beloved disciple who served many, and her death made the community so upset, that they sent for Peter, the chief of the apostles. There is the touching detail of the grieving women, showing Peter the clothes Tabitha made for others. Clearly, she was a woman of mercy and compassion. Her hands had helped many. But there are other details: Peter, having prayed by her body, turned directly to her and said, "Tabitha, get up!", and then, and this is what really struck me, Peter took her by the hand and helped her to her feet.

Both Tabitha and Peter are symbols of Church. At its best the church is clear both on our need for God and on the presence of the mercy of God on earth, bringing new life and hope to situations where many see only death and despair. The church is the miracle of helping hands.

Speaking which, did you know that in the structure of our congregational life there is a quiet ministry actually called, "Helping Hands"? When a family or individual is facing really hard times and needs some extra help, "Helping Hands", will, for example, organize meals to be brought over to their home for as along as needed. If people need rides or other assistance, "Helping Hands" is there. In our congregation, if and when you have a need, God has already provided people who are eager to help. It’s the miracle of helping hands.

Helping hands stand for the church at its best, engaging in genuine assistance to people. To be sure, down through the centuries, the Church often sinned and still sins greatly, failing to be a real witness to the kindness and mercy of Christ. Sometimes, instead of helping, the Church has even gotten in the way of social progress, and cozied up with oppressors and evil systems. I know that, you know that, but let us not forget that in spite of sinfulness, the real work of the church always continued and that’s the work that endures. Right from the very beginning, the early Church gained the reputation as a community of welcome and real help for anyone in need.

The miracle of helping hands. For who ardently fostered healing ministries, and founded hospitals? The church. Who regularly collected alms for poor? The Church. Who developed prayers and spiritual practices to help people cope with the difficulties of life? The Church. Who has kept hope alive, stood with poor, spoke on behalf of the outcasts, worked for civil rights, resisted evil oppressors, and even gave up their lives for the sake of others? The Church. Who provides the food pantries, homeless shelters, loving day care centers, and after school tutoring for kids? The Church.

The church is the miracle of helping hands—and in spite our sins and failings, the world out there knows it. The Floods hit our the Sacramento area hard back in 1995 and 1996, to whom did the larger community help? Not just FEMA, but also the Church, to provide volunteer help long after the Federal officials left town. The world out there knows that the Church is the place on earth where one can find helping, caring people. That’s why we get the down-and-out knocking on our church doors, seeking help, or calling us, in a crisis, always with a sad story asking for help. Of course, we’d like our help to be real help, and so sometimes we refuse, thinking we’re dealing with a con artist, who only wants money for drugs. Yes, our willingness to help others needs to be tempered with wisdom, but God forbid that we should ever become so crass, so hard-hearted or self-focused that people stop turning to the church for help. That would truly be a failure of mission! The church is the risen Christ with skin on. And if we ever forsake our mission of being helping hands, then I fear for the world. The Church has got to be the miracle of helping hands.

And this is true for us, as the common-union of the saints. Helping hands are often praying hands. When we have a real need we are like Tabitha, and whenever the Church prays for us, it is like Peter, asking God to raise us up to a new life. The thank you cards in our parish newsletters and the expressions of gratitude some have voiced up here are signs of the miracle and blessing of helping hands.

We can help one another in many ways. In fact, looked at in the right way, everything we do together and for each other in the church is helping hands. Sunday School classes, youth group, committee meetings, women’s circles, Small Group ministry, are ways by which we help each other. We nurture one another in the faith and encourage one another when we waver.

Which brings us the final point: the more we admit our need for help, the more help will be available. It is a miracle, every time! Jim Cymbala, a famous and very successful pastor in the Pentecostal tradition writes with great wisdom,

When I was growing up, I thought the greatest Christian[s] must be [those] who walk around with shoulders thrown back because of tremendous inner strength and power, quoting Scripture and letting everyone know [they have] arrived. I have since learned that the most mature believer[s] [are] those who [are] bent over, leaning most heavily on the Lord, and admitting [their] total inability to do anything without Christ. The greatest Christian[s] [are] not the one[s] who [have] achieved the most but rather the one[s] who [have] received the most. God's grace, love and mercy flow through [them] abundantly because [they] walk in total dependence. [From Fresh Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), 45.]

The greatest Christians are not the ones who have achieved the most but rather the ones who have received the most. God's grace, love and mercy flow through them abundantly because they walk in total dependence. Does that ever fly in the face of American rugged individualism. But I know that it is true!

Think about the powerful symbolism of helping hands in the rituals of the Catechumenate. Those seeking baptism or affirmation of faith submit to a long term process by which they are welcomed and guided into the church. Just joining the Catechumenate is an admission, "I need help to find me way deeper into the faith." Right here in the center aisle, you will remember, they humble themselves in our presence, kneeling as their sponsors placed a gentle hand on their shoulders as we prayed for them in silence, often extending ours hands toward them. And then, because it’s not easy physically kneeling on this old floor, the sponsors may have also helped them up. And then comes the night of the Easter Vigil, when, after months of meeting and kneeling and prayers prayed for them, the seekers are baptized or affirmed their faith and began a new life. "Tabitha, get up!"

At the deepest spiritual level, then, the church is the miracle of helping hands, the amazing thing of our old humanity discovering the grace of God and then having risen again to new life, dedicating ourselves to inviting and guiding others the wonderful life of our Lord Jesus Christ. . The Church is the miracle of helping hands. And truly, these helping hands are holy. Amen.