4th Sunday of Easter – 2025c

Old Testament – Isaiah 53:1-6

New Testament – Acts 9:36-43

 

The Business of God

 

INTRODUCTION: So believe it or not, the practice of paying people to mourn at funerals has been around for a long, long time. 

 

Originating thousands of years ago in China, Egypt and several near eastern cultures, there is a storied history of people being paid to wail, lament, and pine at funeral services. And since it was considered unseemly back then for men to show such raw emotion, it was initially a profession for women, which actually allowed some of them to make a decent living.  

   

In Egypt, professional mourners tended to be a bit theatrical. They would make ostentatious displays of grief by pulling at disheveled hair, wailing loudly, beating their breasts, and even covering themselves in dirt.

 

During the Roman Empire, actually having a lot of paid mourners at a funeral service became a sign of status and wealth. The richer someone was, the more mourners they would hire for their funeral. In fact, the practice got so bad, and the mourners so numerous and obnoxious, they were eventually banned at funerals altogether.

 

But even today the tradition continues in China and many other Asian countries. Though today many professional mourners in China, while engaging in assorted acts of lamentation, are also expected to be able to sing in order to lead the songs during a funeral service.

 

And while now defunct, about 20 years ago there was actually a company in England called Rent A Mourner. Depending how much a family wanted to pay, they could engage the services of a professional mourner (or mourners) to attend their beloved’s funeral service to engage guests in conversation and polite chit-chat. 

 

So as strange as it might sound, the practice has been around for a long time. Wanting to ensure good attendance for a funeral, people have long turned to actually paying people to attend them.                               

 

ONE: Well, even though the practice was common in Jesus’ day, and Dorcas was apparently wealthy enough to afford some if she’d wanted, it seems a safe bet paid mourners were not needed for her funeral service.   

 

A woman who was apparently devoted to good works and acts of charity, her death was a traumatic event for the fledgling Christian community in Joppa. So much so that Peter, upon his arrival and being taken to the room where Dorcas’ body is in repose, finds a crowd of widows gathered around her mourning. What’s more, many of the widows are also sharing and showing assorted tunics and other bits of clothing that Dorcas had apparently made for them over the years.   

 

You see…living for most people in ancient Palestine was a day to day affair. As you might easily imagine, 401(k)s, social security, and other retirement plans were largely nonexistent. Sure, people saved up a little money here and there. But large inheritances to pass along to family members simply weren’t the norm. 

 

Needless to say, with the passing of a husband, widows often found themselves in a precarious financial position. Without help from extended family members and friends, widows could easily fall through the cracks of society never to be heard from again.

 

Well, apparently, making sure that didn’t happen to widows was one of Dorcas’ main goals in life. Among assorted good works and acts of charity, she made tunics and other pieces of clothing for widows in need of them. And so grateful were those widows for her help, they showed up in mass at her wake to pay their respects.   

          

So, it’s safe to say paid mourners weren’t needed for Dorcas’ funeral, since sparse attendance was the least of the worries. For she had simply touched too many people’s lives with her own. What’s more, signs of her generosity and love were actually being worn by the widows who had received tunics and other articles of clothing from Dorcas.   

    

TWO: Back in 1834 the Isle of Man off the coast of England was being ravaged by a cholera outbreak. 

 

And so in an effort to keep the disease from spreading, it was decided to burn the clothes and the bedding of the poorer families on the island who lived in squalor. 

 

And thankfully, the outbreak was eventually contained. But the drastic steps that were taken, obviously, left the poor even more destitute than ever. 

 

And so on December 1, of 1834, the residents of the Isle of Man, in thanksgiving for surviving the outbreak of cholera, formed the very first Dorcas Society. 

 

And just like its namesake, that very first Dorcas Society set out to sew much needed clothing and bedding for those who no longer had any because of the outbreak.     

 

And while the 1800s were the height of such groups, Dorcas Societies can still be found all over the world. Gathering to sew and knit, the members of such societies then send their handmade items out into the world to provide clothing, blankets, and other such needed items to the needy and the destitute. 

 

Of course, these days many of them do more than just sew clothing for the poor. In a hurting and broken world, many Dorcas Societies now provide other needed services as well – things like food, housing, and shelter just to name a few. 

 

And so just like their founder Dorcas, they too strive to leave their own mark on the world.   

 

THREE: So no wonder assorted Christian traditions honor Dorcas with her own feast day - most of them doing so on October 25. For she was a shining example of God’s new world begun with Jesus’ resurrection.

 

You see, it’s easy and natural for us to think Jesus’ resurrection was something that was done solely to him. But our faith, strangely, also dares to claim that Jesus’ resurrection was also something done to the world. In the same way Jesus was given new life, the world, as far as we are concerned, was also given that same new life.     

 

“The world after Easter is not like the world before Easter,” says one man. Or as a wide-eyed and astounded Paul likes to famously put it, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

 

And Dorcas? Well, she sure lived like she believed everything was new, right? For she daily gave expression to those kingdom values of grace, charity, and love. Believing God’s new world had been inaugurated with Jesus’ resurrection, Dorcas was a living, breathing representative of that new order. 

 

Even when the world around her had no use for such talk, Dorcas apparently continued to press forward. After all, even though God might have brought new life to the world with Jesus’ resurrection, that hardly means everyone considers such news to be, well, good. 

 

No, for even today there are forces and, yes, even people who refuse to embrace God’s new order. They’re just too invested and cosily entrenched in the old world to see the value of the new one. “Thank you, Mr. Jesus, for all the talk about God’s new order, but we’re perfectly happy with the way things are right now. So please move along. Please move along.”  

 

Barbara Brown Taylor has a great line about Easter. “God,” she says, "is not in the business of granting wishes. God is in the business of raising the dead, not all of whom are willing." 

 

And Dorcas, no doubt, would have given a knowing nod to such a statement. Truth be told, there are still people, regrettably, who aren’t all that interested in being raised, right? The old world is just too comfortable and, well, familiar for some people to see the value of giving it all up because of romantic, sappy talk  about something called the Kingdom of God. And yet, there was Dorcas giving herself away for God’s kingdom.     

  

FOUR: In his book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill argues the world is basically divided into two groups of people. 

 

The first group he calls the Romans, while the second group he calls the catholics. And by catholics he doesn’t mean the Catholic Church or a practitioner of the Catholic faith, although there's certainly nothing wrong with that. He means the word spelled with a lowercase “c,” which means “universal,” or “inclusive,” or “all encompassing.” As in, “Frank was a man of catholic tastes, enjoying music and fine arts of all kinds.”  

 

So the Romans, according to Cahill, “...are the rich and the powerful. They’re the people who run things their own way and are driven to always accumulate more and more effects. Romans believe there will never be enough goods to go around for everyone so they’re constantly in competition with others to increase what they have. Even when it means others must have less and less - Romans always want more.” 

 

Catholics, on the other hand, are the universalists. They’re the people who believe humanity, just like the Christ’s church in all its forms, somehow make one big family. As Cahill puts it, catholics are convinced that “every human being is an equal child of God, and that God will provide.” So instead of working to always acquire more and more goods, catholics look to share and help.             

 

And while Cahill’s argument might be overly simplified, perhaps it does expose two very different ways of being in the world. On the one hand, there are Romans. There are those people who seem to see scarcity around every corner. While on the other hand, there are catholics, who believe there is always enough for everyone and are, therefore, generous and giving with their lives.      

 

And Dorcas, it seems, must have been a good catholic. Or more specifically, she had come to realize the world after Easter was supposed to be far different than the world before Easter.  

 

CONCLUSION: For while God may not be in the business of granting wishes, God is in the business, thankfully, of raising the dead - even when there are some folks who don’t want to be.       

 

And now to the Ruler of all worlds, undying, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.