Scripture for Confessional Reflection: Doctrine and Covenants 163:11a
Do we equip ourselves to reach people of other cultures? God, help us
fulfill our calling to be instruments of your peace.
Hymn: “Center of Peace” SP 1
OR “Breathe on Me, Breath of God” HS 179
Scripture Reading: Acts 9:36–43
Hymn: “Here I Am, Lord” SP 12
OR Ministry of Music
OR “For the Healing of the Nations” HS 452
Message
Based on Acts 9:36–43. Also use Revelation 7:9–17, if desired.
Hymn: “Companions on the Journey” NS 7
OR Ministry of Music
OR “In Christ There Is No East or West” HS 448/449
Disciples’ Generous Response
Each Sunday, as part of the Disciples’ Generous Response, we ask you to
integrate the message of “share equally” between Local and World Ministries
Mission Tithes. Generosity stories are provided to keep the church in touch
with how contributions to Mission Tithes spread the peace of Jesus Christ.
Please use the stories, testimonies, and up-to-date contribution information
as part of your offertory ministry. Visit
www.CofChrist.org/generositystories to print a copy, or contact your
pastor, congregational financial officer, or worship coordinator for a copy.
Scripture Reading: Doctrine and Covenants 163:9
Blessing and Receiving of Mission Tithes
*Closing Hymn: “Make Us, O God, a Church That Shares” HS 484
OR “O God of Every Nation” HS 175
*Benediction
God, you are the God of every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. You wipe
the crying eyes of all your children. You bring comfort to those in despair
and share joy with them. You delight in every good deed done and rejoice in
every faithful step taken. May we continue to do your will in the world and
be compassionate members of your body. Amen.
*Postlude
In many cultures of the world, people have used, and continue using,
metaphorical, allegorical, enigmatic, and symbolic languages to describe,
communicate, and teach complex ideas. In the twenty-first century, the language
used in the book of Revelation might confuse us, making it difficult for us to
fully grasp its meaning. For instance, numbering and measuring are signs of
possession, a sort of census of the full complement of God. The use of the
number seven (seals, trumpets, bowls, and letters) contrasts with using a number
like six, which is one short of perfection.
In the narrative, the author of this book earlier related a vision showing
144,000 people, representing every tribe of Israel. Now he looked and there was
another great multitude, representing every tribe, nation, people, and language.
The huge crowd is distinguished by its identification of salvation with God and
the Lamb. The expression of “having washed their robes and making them white in
the blood of the Lamb” indicated their purity and righteousness.
John offered here, in a language clear to those people, a vivid numerical
picture of those who have made it through the time of trial, particularly as a
result of resisting the pressure to conform to the beast (the emperor) and the
demand of Babylon (Rome). This multitude from every tribe, nation, people, and
language has been well prepared to face discrimination, even death, for the sake
of the Word of God and the witness of Jesus, and may have represented those who
were martyred. Its active perseverance enables the multitude to be righteous and
stand before God’s throne where they are worshiping God day and night. Their
protection comes from the Lamb at the center of it all, who will be their
shepherd and guide them to springs of the water of life.
Like the multitude, we have the same promise to be blessed and be with the
Lord if we faithfully continue to be hungry and thirsty for righteousness in
this present age. The good news here is that this vision is very inclusive of
every person who has washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb and thereby
has identified with the way of the Lamb.
Luke, in Acts 9, creates a bridge to help the reader understand how the
commissioned tasks of two apostles (Peter and Paul) started to explode with
authority and effectiveness beyond Jerusalem. The healing of Aeneas in Lydda and
then of Tabitha/Dorcas in Joppa reestablished and even enhanced Peter’s
spiritual authority, underwriting his further mission to convert Cornelius’s
household, bearing a strong witness to the Spirit’s “Gentile Pentecost” in Acts
10:44.
The three stories confirmed well God’s plan to allow uncircumcised but
repentant Gentiles (individuals from every tribe, nation, people, and language)
to experience the blessings of Israel’s salvation. Like in the story of Jonah,
where the Old Testament prophets reluctantly received a call to take the word of
God from Joppa to Nineveh, Peter is commissioned by the same God to carry the
gospel from this same Joppa to the home of gentile Cornelius in the next
passage.
Peter withdrew his initial protest, after God revealed more clearly the
divine intention of his missions. Though Peter’s ministry could have provoked a
hostile response from “traditional” Israel, the gentile mission from the
beginning is seen as the work of God. In the resurrection of Tabitha, Peter’s
prophetic role is not an exercise of magic, but a function of his close
communion with the Lord and the availability of the Lord’s healing power among
those who believe from every tribe, nation, people, and language.
The result of such signs and wonders are not only to convince people to
believe in the Lord. Most importantly they help readers understand that the
inference of every conversion is that people from every tribe, nation, people,
and language can turn to the Lord and believe in the Lord in response to the
proclamation of the gospel. Therefore, Peter’s stay with the tanner, after the
healing of Tabitha, has a symbolic importance of purity in Luke’s Cornelius
story that will follow—since a tanner carries the odors and blood of animals
that would make him unclean.
As a church committed to the witness of Christ and to be builders of
communities of joy, hope, love, and peace, we have a challenge to remember our
unique call from these significant passages. We are to be in and with the great
multitude as we share the peace of Jesus Christ.
