Love Like a Mother
Preacher: The Rev. Andrew Van Kirk
Scripture: John 10:22-30
In the seaside town of Joppa, a woman named Tabitha—known also as Dorcas, or Gazelle—dies. And the Church mourns. The widows gather. They hold up the clothes she made for them. They grieve not only her absence, but the loss of her generosity, her service, her love.
Peter is called, and in the power of Jesus, he raises her to life. But this story is not just about resurrection. It’s about the kind of Church where resurrection happens—a Church where people love each other like a mother loves her child.
Peter doesn’t just work miracles. He also chooses to stay with Simon the Tanner, a man whose profession and smell would have pushed him to the edges of society. In doing so, Peter signals that this gospel isn’t for the polished and proper—it’s for everyone. Even the tanners.
And from that house—smelling of leather and salt and grace—Peter will soon receive a vision that tears down the final barriers. He will come to understand that God’s love is for all people, not just the clean or respectable or religiously prepared.
The Church in Joppa—full of weeping widows, overlooked tradesmen, and self-giving saints—is the crucible where this revelation takes shape. Because when the Church loves like a mother, God’s love overflows its walls.
Reflection Questions
What does it mean for you to “love like a mother” within your own community of faith?
Where might God be calling you to extend welcome to someone who has been pushed to the margins?
How does Tabitha’s life—and the Church’s response to her death—challenge your view of what holiness looks like?
Are there people or groups you’ve considered “unclean” whom God is inviting you to see with new eyes?
What might happen if the Church loved the poor, the mourning, and the outcast the way this early church in Joppa did?
