Kingdom Harbor

This past weekend I had the privilege of preaching in Red Wing, MN, at First Covenant Church. They are spending the summer in the Book of Acts, and I shared a message on the little known person named Tabitha, o also known by the less endearing name of Dorcas. Here’s a summary and you can watch a short visual sermon below if you prefer.

The Philosophy of the Folding Table

Springtime in the Upper Midwest is a resurrection of sorts, pulling forgotten lives from the icy clutches of winter onto sun-drenched driveways. We spread our histories across plastic folding tables, inadvertently inviting neighbors to browse the remnants of our years. This is not merely a matter of home organization; it is an audit of the soul conducted in the open air of suburbia. It forces a sobering question: What would a post-mortem estate sale reveal about the texture of your character?

The Estate Sale Mirror: We Are What We Accumulate

Walking through these sales, one often sees a recurring landscape of plastic toys, mindless media, and mountains of fast fashion. We invest in playthings that captivate our children for only six days, or lose ourselves in movies to escape the humdrum of our daily reality. We carefully clothe our bodies in the latest trends while often neglecting the fragile interior of our naked souls.

An uneasy conscience often tugs at us, as if Jesus’ words are trying to expose our tendency to store up treasures on earth while neglecting eternal riches. Estate sales are particularly somber affairs, where contracted workers pawn off a lifetime’s collection while family members stand awkwardly in the background. Seeing a parent’s world sold for pennies to strangers is a poignant moment for self-reflection. It asks us what we have truly pursued while we were among the living.

The Tabitha Precedent: A Legacy Beyond the Box

In the town of Joppa lived a woman named Tabitha, or Dorcas, who holds the unique status of being the only person in the New Testament specifically called a female disciple (mathetria). When she died, the room upstairs was not filled with boxes of clutter, but with people whose lives she had fundamentally changed. The widows stood weeping before the Apostle Peter, literally draped in the legacy she left behind.

They held out tunics and robes, likely wearing the very articles of clothing she had so lovingly stitched for them. Her “stuff” was not a collection of trinkets to be discarded, but tangible proof of a life poured out in service. Her treasures were found in the gratitude of the poor rather than the accumulation of the self.

“She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.”

Acts 9:36

Tangible Love: Tools, Books, and Quilts

Our physical environment serves as a living room of stories for those who remain after we depart. In my own study, visitors will one day find a library of ancient writings and classical literature, requiring a small army to move. I hope they see a man who loved probing the mysteries of God and helped others to read and cherish the riches of the Bible and theology.

In my father’s workshop, the story is written in the aroma of sawdust and steel. Every tool represents a blue-collared act of love, engineered by greasy fingers to build and fix things for those he held dear. These are the tools of service, standing in stark contrast to the cold plastic of mindless media.

In her late years, my grandmother’s small apartment served as a humble shrine to a different kind of devotion. With limited storage, she kept only the essentials: photo frames of family and old quilts sewn with love. These fabrics were draped over chairs, ready to be passed on as tokens of a heart that stayed simple and focused. These are the artifacts of a life that prioritized people over unnecessary freight.

The Second Chance Paradox

There is a profound irony in the story of Tabitha: the woman who already had her priorities right was the one granted a second chance at life. Many of us waste our days assuming time is infinite, yet we leave a trail of selfish ambition in our wake. We risk becoming the tragedy Benjamin Franklin noted when he observed our tendency toward late-blooming wisdom.

“Life’s Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”

Benjamin Franklin

We must recognize the urgency of the “editing process” in our own lives before the final chapter is written. Franklin famously quipped that some people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until seventy-five. By shifting our focus toward acts of charity now, we are raised to a New Life in the Spirit long before we actually face the grave.

Writing a Story That Stays in Print

Garage Sale Theology asks us to look at our storage rooms and see them as mirrors of our deepest passions. Someday, our 90s CDs, 2000s DVDs, and un-clergy like clothes will be sorted and snickered over by strangers. But the work of a life devoted to good deeds is a manuscript that the Author will never let go out of print.

“The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author.”

Benjamin Franklin

We should strive to leave behind a legacy defined by character rather than cookware and shoes. When your material treasures are eventually sold for pennies, what stories will the people standing in your living room be telling? Ensure the story you are writing today is one that your loved ones will be proud to tell tomorrow.

Tabitha’s Story Preaches the Gospel

Finally, Tabitha in this story dramatizes the gospel in miniature. She can be seen as a type of Christ. Jesus walked into our lives cluttered with sin and died for us. Like the widows standing around Tabitha’s death bed weeping and clothed with garments knit and given in love, we all stand outside the tomb of Christ weeping and clothed with Christ in garments of grace purchased on the cross.

Then like Tabitha who was raised up by the power of God to draw others to faith, so Jesus was raised up on the third day to give us the gift of New Birth. As we follow Tabitha’s example of discipleship and live our own lives of “love and charity,” may others be drawn to Christ and find their own second chance. Amen.