Sermon based on the Acts: 9: 36-43 and the story of Dorcas/Tabitha
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… let’s say 100 years ago, and not so far way, in this nation. One hundred years ago and for centuries before that, most people --- average, regular folk --- did not buy mass market manufactured things at stores because one there weren’t many stores around. There was limited and expensive mail order and no delivery by Amazon and gosh-darn it was also because things themselves were expensive.
Instead, much was made at home. People made the family’s clothes first by hand and later buy and foot powered Singer sewing machine. Clothes were washed with a tub and a scrub board. If the clothes developed a tear, someone had to sew things back together.
They even darned socks. To “darn” does not mean to cuss them out, rather it means to stitch it back together again. If your socks got a hole in them, you didn’t throw them away; one would darn them! Or, if they were too holey, you would made a hook rug out of them.
This went to many things. One didn’t buy bread; one baked bread. One didn’t buy bedspreads and blankets; one made quilts. One didn’t buy much furniture; one made the kitchen table, sideboards and cupboards.
And if your family needed things that the family couldn’t provide, or you didn’t know what to do or how to make it, you didn’t go to the store; you went first to someone called “neighbors.” Maybe you needed eggs; you went to the neighbor with laying hens. Maybe you needed plates and cups; you went to your potter. Yes, sometimes you had to go to the store to buy things like fabric or needles. But as much as possible, people made things themselves.
But after World War I, a transition that had begun less than a 50 years before began to accelerate. Mass production had started certainly with automobiles and before that some machinery like those Singer sewing machines, but increasingly less expensive mass production really took off after the WW II. Average Americans started buying and have not stopped.
Not that people are not interested in handmade items anymore! Not at all! In many cities around the world, one can find stores devoted to the sale of handcrafted items. There is a market for handmade items, especially if they’re creative and of high quality.
That is important to remember because handmade was the norm 2,000 years ago and did you notice that they loved Dorcas’ handmade stuff?
Dorcas made handcrafted items. Yet, among the artisans of her day, she stood out. Scripture makes a point to tell us that her work was of great need, and she worked on behalf of the poor. So, when death took her, as we are told in this story from the early history of the Church, the entire community realized that it had lost a valuable resource.
Our first lesson is a wonderful story from the early church but other than countless church groups who have taken on the name Tabitha or Dorcas, I wonder, what can we learn from this story recorded for us in the book of Acts?
The first clue is as I indicated, the response of the people she served. When Dorcas died, the community threw a fit. “All the widows stood … weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them” (v. 39). They had a hard time accepting that she was gone. So strong was this sentiment that when some disciples heard that Peter was nearby, they sent a message to him saying, “Please come to us without delay” (v. 38).
When someone dies, we understand that --- as much as we may mourn the loss --- the deceased is not going to return. But this community dispatched messengers to the apostle Peter --- who arrived, and ---- well, you know the rest of the story.
But have you ever considered what all this means? The response of the community to Dorcas’ death gives us pause. For example, when we die, some of us will surely have a circle of friends and family and perhaps church members who will miss us and mourn our absence. This is only natural, and is primarily related to our bonds. But what helps us 21 centuries later understand the importance of this event is the question raised by the death of Dorcas, will there be a wider circle in the community adversely affected by our absence because of the impact our lives and our ministry had on the community? In other words, beside our family, friends and church members will people from the community notice? We also need to wonder, other than us, will anyone notice if suddenly the church on 5714 Callaghan Rd had to close?
This story highlights one very important reason for how Christians were known: for the benefit of the larger community and not for just themselves, family or to the larger church. The loss of Dorcas was devastating for those who had come to appreciative and love her in the broader community; a sign of at least one church member in this community of saints and what they had become to the broader community.
This is not the only thing we can assess from this story. The Bible says she was “devoted to good works and acts of charity” (v. 36). The actual expression is “full….” The Greek word pleres or full is often used to describe individuals as “full of” for example, “the Holy Spirit.” In Matthew’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 the disciples collected “twelve baskets full” (14:20) after the crowd dispersed. It is the same word: pleres. Someone who is pleres is “full, abounding in, complete or completely occupied with.”
So, our NRSV’s translation as “devoted” is not a bad, but it doesn’t supply the extraordinary sense in which in her case good works and acts of charity were absolutely Dorcas’ life; she was full. She did not dabble in good works. They were not a hobby. They were not a compartment in an otherwise busy life. It was so intertwined with her faith that her good works were one and the same. It was her totality. One then has to ask, how is our vocations noted? In whatever we are called to be by God is it fully part of our life in faith? In other words, if good works is such a natural part of her life in faith, Dorcas was the example par excellence.
A third learning we may have missed is did you notice, we never hear anything from Dorcas herself? The author of Acts tells her story for her. Her faith and good works are so fully intertwined in her life that when she dies --- perhaps suddenly, that after Peter restores her to life, she sits up, Peter “shows her to be alive” (v. 41), and instead of saying something the author notes that she resumes ---- her work!
On one hand we could chalk it up to the fact that more than likely Acts was written by a man, and in that highly patriarchal society, a woman was healed and what happens she is put to work. As reflective of the patriarchal culture as the Bible can be, I think that little note tells us that for Dorcas is a woman who knows exactly what she’s good at. She loves it so much that when she has a moment it is what she loves that she wants to do --- all in response to her faith.
Did you also notice that she’s the first woman in the New Testament to be called a disciple (v. 36)? We need to be clear that this means that she is like other disciples, she is co-equal. Peter for example, certainly had his gifts but the early church did not recognize that Dorcas was better than or inferior to the other disciples, rather her vocation was to make handcrafted items for the needy which was no better or worse than what others were called to do.
A fourth, reason this event is recorded and is important to for us especially on this day that we remember the importance of women is that the author of Acts is pointing out to future readers how the mandate of Acts 1:8 was being fulfilled. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Here we are by chapter 9, were the gospel had clearly extended from Jerusalem, into Samaria, and now to the coastal regions. The author of Acts wants us to know that the Pentecostal fire was spreading by men and women of faith.
Fifth, take a look at Peter for just a moment. The message he receives is: “Please come without delay.” Why is this important? This is Peter’s first pastoral call. Yes, he and John had an encounter with a crippled beggar, according to Acts 3 and right before this, Peter had healed Aeneas, a man who had been bedridden for years. This however, is his first emergency call! Before this Peter had been responding to people in need he met along the way, this incident however is the first church call to the greater church.
Now I think this wonderful because 21 centuries later we kind of expect that well, a pastor or someone is available at any time. But this incident in Acts is before clergy as we have come to understand it. In this story we get a clear example where there was a coming together of a local community with the larger church. So for example when a local church in Rockport reaches out after a hurricane, and the greater church responds, the roots of that is found in this story of Dorcas where the saints of a local church call out to the larger church.
Finally, consider Dorcas herself again with me, like us, she was a piece of work! Let us not forget, we like her are God’s handiwork. We are handcrafted by God so that we might fulfill our vocations as followers of Jesus Christ.
Meaning that from this early story in the history of the church we get the first practical pieces of how God will have us work. St. Paul’s describes it this way to the church in Corinth for example, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same LORD. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”
In the story of Dorcas we have one of the first examples of assessing gifts; how are they being recognized by the large community around us? Are the fullness of our faith and our calls be Dorcas like in response to God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ?
As I close I want us to reflect on the following as I think about this story of an important woman in the early church: 1. Let us remember daily that we are God’s handiwork in the family of God through baptism. 2. In that fullness, let us begin by asking God each morning, “What can I do you for you God in response to your love?” for each one of us is God’s handiwork. Amen.
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