Acts 9:36-43
Loren Eiseley was an American anthropologist, naturalist and author. Academically trained as an anthropologist, he is probably best known for his written reflections on the natural world. He looked for meaning in the natural world and in the lives of all sorts of creatures. He died in 1977. I’m not sure I had even heard of him then, but I’ve read a fair bit of his work since, prompted by church people whom I admire.
This morning’s reading from Acts reminded me of Eiseley. Peter is summoned to bring new life to Tabitha and her community. I’ll come back to the connections.
One of Eiseley’s essays is titled “The Secret of Life” [The Immense Journey, 1957]. He explores the academic quest to understand the origins of life itself. But he also ponders what makes life life. What is the secret that is embodied within life itself?
I am middle-aged now, but in the autumn I always seek for it again hopefully. On some day when the leaves are red, or fallen, and just after the birds are gone, I put on my hat and an old jacket, and over the protests of my wife that I will catch cold, I start my search. I go carefully down the apartment steps and climb, instead of jump, over the wall. A bit further I reach an unkempt field full of brown stalks and emptied seed pods.You remember the Gospel reading from last Sunday. The risen Christ has come to be with the disciples as they fish in the Sea of Galilee. Jesus speaks to Peter. Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my lambs. Care for my people. In this morning’s story in Acts, Peter is doing just that.
By the time I get to the wood I am carrying all manner of seeds hooked in my coat or piercing my socks or sticking by ingenious devices to my shoestrings. I let them ride. After all, who am I to contend against such ingenuity? It is obvious that nature, or some part of it in the shape of these seeds, has intentions beyond this field and has made plans to travel with me.
We, the seeds and I, climb another wall together and sit down to rest, while I consider the best way to search for the secret of life. The seeds remain very quiet and some slip off into the crevices of the rock. A wooly-bear caterpillar hurries across a ledge, going late to some tremendous transformation, but about this he knows as little as I.
It is not an auspicious beginning. The things alive do not know the secret, and there may be those who would doubt the wisdom of coming out among discarded husks in the dead year to pursue such questions. They might say the proper time is spring, when one can consult the water rats or listen to little chirps under the stones. Of late years, however, I have come to suspect that the mystery may just as well be solved in a carved and intricate seed case out of which the life has flown, as in the seed itself.
This is one of two stories about Peter stuck into Acts right after the story of Paul’s grand debut which we heard last Sunday. In both stories about Peter, Peter brings the healing power of God, the new life of the risen Christ, to people in need. A man named Aeneas has been paralyzed for years. In the name of Jesus, Peter heals him, and he begins a new life freed from the limitation of his handicap. In this morning’s story, Tabitha has apparently died. And her ministry has died, too. William Willamon describes her as a one-women welfare agency [Interpretation Commentary: Acts]. She provided clothing and assistance for widows who had no one else to provide for them. Her loss was deeply felt. Peter prayed. And Tabitha and her community were given new life.
In both of these stories it is the Word that heals, the Word of God that brings new life. Peter speaks the Word, but it is the Word itself that bears the power of God. It is not Peter’s power that heals; it is God’s. It is not Peter who brings new life to the dead; it is very presence and power of the risen Christ. But Peter speaks that power into being where it is needed.
Although it is God’s power that is manifest in these stories, they are stories primarily about Peter. They are not here to “prove” God’s power to heal or overcome death, nor to illustrate God’s care for the sick and poor. After all, God can heal and overcome death all on his own. God doesn’t need Peter. So these stories are here to tell us about Peter, about the meaning and purpose of Peter’s life. These stories are about the secret of human life, the purpose of our lives lived in a world where the power and presence of the risen Christ are real and afoot.
Peter’s life is about carrying and disbursing the seeds of new life. Peter brings the name of Jesus, the power of God, the seeds of new life, to people who need to know Jesus and his love and healing power. Peter carries God’s seeds of new life stuck to his sweater, piercing his socks, hanging on his shoelaces. And he brings them to Aeneas and Tabitha.
Listen again to just a small portion of Eiseley:
By the time I get to the wood I am carrying all manner of seeds hooked in my coat or piercing my socks or sticking by ingenious devices to my shoestrings. I let them ride. After all, who am I to contend against such ingenuity? It is obvious that nature, or some part of it in the shape of these seeds, has intentions beyond this field and has made plans to travel with me.It’s a wonderful image. Carrying the seeds of God’s presence and new life and disbursing them throughout the world. We come here, to this place and this community to pick up the seeds, to get them stuck to our clothes. We come here to get the name of Jesus, the power of God, the seeds of new life, instilled in our hearts and filling our lives. Come here. Come wearing fleece. Back in the good old days people dressed up for church, put on their best for God. Some still do, and it’s a wonderful practice. But, metaphorically at least, we should all wear fleece sweaters, wool socks and shoes with laces to church. So that the seeds will stick.
We, the seeds and I, climb another wall together and sit down to rest, while I consider the best way to search for the secret of life. The seeds remain very quiet and some slip off into the crevices of the rock.
We need to be open and intentional about taking the name of Jesus, the words of Scripture, the presence of Christ into our lives. We don’t just listen to Bible readings in worship. In the words of the traditional “prayer for the whole state of Christ’s church and the world,” with “meek heart and due reverence” we receive God’s holy word. We get God’s word stuck to our sweater, piercing our socks. So bring a meek heart and due reverence so that you can really receive God’s word. Or when we gather at the Lord’s table, we don’t just take communion, we receive the most precious Body and Blood of Jesus. We become carriers of the living presence of Jesus.
The secret of our lives, the purpose of our lives, like Peter’s are to carry and disburse God’s seeds of new life throughout the world. To pick them up here and disburse them out there. Eiseley carries the seeds from an unkempt field to the forest beyond. My long haired dog carries them from the back yard onto the living room carpet. Peter carried them from the Sea of Galilee, from his experience of the risen Christ, to Aeneas and Tabitha. We carry them from here to out there, to all of the people and places of our daily lives.
One of the wonderful things is that some of the seeds we pick up here will fall off on their own. If our lives are permeated with the Word of God and the presence of Christ, some of God’s seeds of new life will just fall off as we go about our lives. Without even thinking about it, we will bring God’s healing and love and new life to others.
Other times, like Peter, we are called to be intentional in our presence and our prayers. Our touch or our voice will speak the power of God where it is needed. We will take a seed of new life that we have received from God here and purposefully plant it in someone else’s life.
The secret of life. To disburse God’s seeds of new life throughout the world.
