There are over 60 million Roman Catholics in the United States. That’s an impressive number, no doubt about it. But there are many more Christians who are either Roman … or catholic.

You may be one of them.

To say you are “Roman” is not to say you were born and raised in the capital of Italy. And to be identified as a “catholic” is not to be labeled as a follower of the pope. In fact, we’re talking “small c” catholic here, meaning “universal.”

So what does it mean to be either Roman or catholic?

On vacation last summer, I read the book How the Irish Saved Civilization, and I really enjoyed it. At the end, author Thomas Cahill points out that the entire world is divided into Romans and catholics. “The Romans are the rich and powerful,” he writes; people who run things their own way. They must always accumulate more and more, he observes, because they believe in their guts that there will never be enough to go around. The catholics, on the other hand, are universalists – people who instinctively believe that all humanity makes one family. Catholics are convinced that “every human being is an equal child of God, and that God will provide” (Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization [New York: Doubleday, 1995], 217-218).

Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it? Which camp do you find yourself falling into? Roman … or catholic?

Truth be told, there is some Roman in all of us, and also some catholic. Romans build roads and great information systems. They erect soaring skyscrapers, design beautiful clothing, engineer incredible computer networks, negotiate complex business deals, and keep jets in the air night and day. Catholics, in contrast, are committed to loving outcasts in an extraordinary way. They volunteer in soup kitchens, run foot clinics for the homeless, play bingo with nursing home residents, and devote a week of vacation every year to doing mission work. Although the Roman approach to life is very different from the catholic concept, the two are not mutually exclusive. We can be both Roman and catholic, regardless of our denominational affiliation or our day-to-day job description.

The question is: What kind of focus does God want us to have? The world tends to reward Romans, but the Lord has an incredible incentive package for the catholics of this earth.

Today’s Scripture story takes place in the coastal city of Joppa, a town famous for piracy and other port-city problems. It is a rough-and-ready center of commerce, full of Romans anxious to find an angle, do a deal, and turn a buck. It isn’t a place renowned for its spiritual purity, as is suggested by the fact that when the apostle Peter comes to town, he stays with Simon the tanner – a man engaged in the unclean job of working with animal skins. Nasty place, that Joppa.

There is, however, a small Christian community in town, founded by Philip the evangelist. One of the disciples is a woman named Tabitha, an Aramaic name that means “gazelle,” and is rendered Dorcas in Greek. The first thing we learn about Tabitha is that she is “devoted to good works and acts of charity” (Acts 9:36), which means that she ranks as one of the true catholics of the world. But wait – we also discover that she is well known for making tunics and other fine clothing. She’s a Joppa entrepreneur, a businesswoman who may have accumulated some significant wealth through her stitching, so along with her catholicism she’s got a Roman streak as well.

As the story begins, Tabitha becomes ill and dies. This loss of a leader devastates the Christian community, and the church members send an urgent message to Peter, “Please come to us without delay.” When Peter arrives, the widows are in an upper room, gathered around the body of Tabitha, weeping and holding her fine tunics and other clothing. Peter shoos them out the door, kneels to pray, and then says to the body, “Tabitha, get up.” Miraculously, she opens her eyes, sees Peter, and sits up.

You can just imagine the reception she receives.

Tabitha is restored to life as a sign of the death-defeating power of God, and the news of this miracle races through Joppa, causing many to believe in the Lord (v. 42). But Tabitha is raised for another reason as well, one that is bound to hit close to home for many of us: The Lord needs Romans who are willing to behave like catholics.

The significance of Tabitha’s life was that she blended together her Roman ambition and her catholic compassion. She didn’t keep the two apart, toiling over tunics 50 hours a week, and then performing an isolated act of charity with whatever time she had left over. No, Acts tells us that she was “devoted to good works and acts of charity” (v. 36), meaning that these activities played a central role in her day-to-day life. She may even have turned her sewing work into mission work, creating tunics and clothing for the widows and orphans of the community. She kept the Roman and catholic sides of herself together, united in a single, seamless existence.

What’s the chance that we can do the same today?

For over 30 years, Peter Gomes has served as a minister to the students of Harvard University, and he has seen them struggle with the expectations of their parents and their professors, as well as with questions of what they are going to do with their lives. While it is certainly true that most graduates of Harvard are not going to have any trouble finding lucrative employment, Gomes has discovered that many of them are consumed by a far bigger challenge. They are asking the question, “What will it take for me to make a good life, and not merely a good living?”

A good life, above and beyond a good living. Romans know all about what it takes to make a good living, and most of them achieve this goal through tough classes, long hours, hard work, and steely-eyed determination. But a good life? That takes a catholic sensibility.

Young people today are discovering that true happiness cannot be found in the culture of materialism. Nor can it be discovered in the patterns of the past, in lives based on the fantasy world of 1950s sitcoms. Young people want and deserve something better, says Peter Gomes: they want a good life, real happiness, and an opportunity to do something worth doing. They want to be able to live their lives and even offer them, if required, for something worthy of sacrifice. (Peter J. Gomes, The Good Life [New York: HarperCollins, 2002], 4-5, 23)

They want a good life, not just a good living. They want to be both catholic and Roman.

We can pursue this goal ourselves by following the example of Tabitha, who turned her sewing work into mission work and had a powerfully positive effect on the city around her. We can keep our catholic and our Roman sides together by seeing our day-to-day work as an opportunity to treat every human being as a precious child of God.

Perhaps your Joppa is a post office or grocery store. In these environments, clerks can try to face long lines of customers without haste or confusion. They can welcome customers with smiles and conversation, and in so doing erase the annoyance of waiting. If clerks see their daily work as mission work, they can turn everyday transactions into meaningful human experiences.

Perhaps your Joppa is the Federal Government or a high-tech company. In that type of workplace, professionals can look for opportunities to mentor a young person, compliment a subordinate, or assist a colleague in need. They can also do well by doing good, by making sure that business is done with honesty, integrity, and responsiveness to the community. Good Romans can also be good catholics.

Or perhaps your Joppa is a home here in Fairfax, a private preschool playground, or a public school classroom. In these settings, there are so many chances to be a role model, set an example, and pass on an insight or skill. Children and young people are desperate for guidance about how to make a good life, and they are always looking up to their parents and teachers for instructions and examples. They may not ask for help, but they want it … and need it.

Wherever your Joppa is -- even if it is a place full of pirates and other scoundrels -- use it as your base for being both Roman and catholic. Don’t focus entirely on doing deals, creating products, and making money, because these achievements are bound to be limited, and they’ll lead only to Roman rewards. If you want the new life that Tabitha enjoyed, you’ll need to be a Roman who can act like a catholic, and love the outcasts of this world in an extraordinary way.

This means:

- Loving the homeless woman who is always asking for money. This is a tough one for me, especially when she calls the church over … and over … and over again.

- Loving the employee who can’t concentrate because of a problem at home.

- Loving the student with the multiple piercings and Gothic garb.

- Loving the neighbor with the rusty truck up on blocks.

- Loving the teenager who bangs up the family car ... again … and again.

- Loving the nursing home resident who can never remember your name.

- Loving the child you assist through a lunchtime Big Brother program.

- Loving the families you serve through a church mission project … across town, or across the globe.

This is extraordinary love. It’s the love that the catholics of the world are challenged to show, love that treats everyone as an equal, as a precious child of God. This is the love that never runs out, because it is not a Roman commodity. Instead, it’s a gift of God.

So, go ahead: Be catholic. And enjoy the new life that only our Lord can give. Amen.

Link to Sermon Index page

FPC Home | Welcome | Worship | Christian Ed | Preschool |Music | Mission
Fellowship | Inside FPC | Spiritual Spa | Youth | Committees |Site Map

Fairfax Presbyterian Church - Fairfax, Virginia, 22030-6985
(703) 273-5300 - FAX (703) 591-4246
fpc@fairfaxpresby.com
Contact Web Team with comments and updates.