An excerpt from Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry written by William H. Willimon.
“Tabithat is the only person in the New Testament to merit the feminine form of the word for ‘disciple.’ Her discipleship, indeed her ministry, is caring for the widows. In other words, Tabitha ministers among the most vulnerable of the community. When she abruptly dies, all the hope that these desperate women may have dies with her. They pitifully show the clothes, which she has provided for them, as tangible evidence of their great need now that Tabitha is gone.
Surprise! Death will not have the last word in the ministry of Tabitha among the widows. Peter speaks bold words of resurrection: ‘Tabitha, get up!’ (Acts 9:40). And she does”
“To all who are trapped in old, dead, fixed arrangements, we keep crying, ‘Get up!”. “The world and its wiles, the principalities and powers, are too great for mere humanistic altruism. What we need, if we would engage the powers in all of their tenacity and complexity, is some vision beyond today. Eschatology is not an escape from prophetic ministry (‘Pie in the sky by and by), an evasion of concern about justice issues in the present through dreams of some ethereal heavenly future. Eschatology is the very basis of prophetic action. We are able to act with courage and conviction because we KNOW the last chapter of the story” (Willimon 263, 264).
“…’I am making everything new!’…He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” Revelation 21 vs. 5-6.
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