Acts 20:7-12
We met on Sunday to worship and celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Paul addressed the
congregation. Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning, but Paul preached on,
way past midnight. (We were meeting in a well-lighted upper room.) A young man
named Eutychus was sitting in an open window. As Paul went on and on, Eutychus fell
sound asleep and toppled out the third-story window. When they picked him up, he
was dead.
Paul went down, stretched himself on him, and hugged him hard. “No more crying,”
he said. “There’s life in him yet.” Then Paul got up and we shared communion. And
Paul kept went on telling stories of the faith until dawn! On that note, they left—Paul
going one way, the congregation another, leading the boy off alive, and full of life
themselves.
Acts 20:7-12
I was asked to come here this morning to share a story with you about my friend Eutychus.
But before I do that I should probably introduce myself. My name is Diocles. I work in the fields
for a living, and that’s actually where my story starts. You see, one day when I was working in
the fields, there were some other guys working out there, and they were talking about their
plans for the evening. They were very insistent, saying that I should come along with them. I
wasn’t sure. They said there would be some food there, and a speaker. I didn’t know about this
speaker, but hey, free food is free food.
So I went, and I got there right after the speaker arrived. It didn’t take long to hear who he was.
His name was Paul and he had an amazing story. He talked a lot about his conversion, and he
talked about a guy named Jesus and how he had died and was resurrected. He just had
amazing stories, powerful stories.
But that’s where my friend Eutychus comes in. Now Ute, I’ve known Ute my entire life. He’s a
great guy but he just can’t pay attention. I mean Paul—he was a good speaker, but he just went
on and on and on. And every time you thought he was about done, he’d just keep on talking.
And Ute was struggling. He was trying really hard, but he kept nodding off, and I kept poking
him in the ribs, trying to get him to stay awake.
Finally I guess Ute got sick of me elbowing him, and trying to stay awake, so he climbed up into
an opening, a window ledge, so he could get some fresh air. I kind of forgot about him, and
Paul was still talking this whole time. And then, all of a sudden, there was this loud THUD! I
looked up to look at Ute and he was gone. Right away I knew what had happened, so I jumped
up and ran outside. Four or five guys followed me out, and we just stopped and stared. There
lay Ute on the ground. He was a mess. He must have fallen asleep in the window, and fallen
three stories. We just stood there. We didn’t know what to do.
Until all of a sudden, somebody pushed us aside. And it was this speaker, Paul. He goes over
and picks him up, and then he looks at us and says, “Don’t be afraid, guys! There’s still life in
him.” And he carries Ute inside.
I’m like, “I’m sorry Paul. I don’t want to disagree with you, but he looks to be in pretty bad
shape to me. He just fell three stories.” So we stayed outside for a few minutes, to collect our
thoughts. And then we went back inside, and couldn’t believe our eyes. There sat Eutychus,
right next to Paul, and they were having dinner! Paul’s just talking away, and Eutychus is
listening to every word. It’s like two miracles—he’s healed and he’s paying attention! It’s
amazing!
So we stayed until about dawn. It was an amazing night. We were all changed—especially
Eutychus, as you can imagine. Well, I probably should get back to the fields, but there’s one
thing I want to leave with you. If you’re ever around a speaker that goes on and on, please—
both feet on the ground. High up? It’s hazardous to your health!
Trying to Stay Awake
A sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Virginia McDaniel
September 18, 2016 – Acts 20:7-12
I was a bit surprised to discover this week that there is actually a published book with
the title “101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon: A Survival Guide for Sermon
Victims.” Eutychus, take heart!
Some of the 101 suggestions include
1. Proofreading the bulletin
2. Hymn memorization
3. Word search (that’s where you pick a long biblical name and see how many
words you can make out of the letters)
Staying awake during boring sermons is not a new phenomenon. My favorite story
about what happens when the preacher goes on too long takes place in a Puritan
congregation in New England. The Puritans came to these shores for many reasons, but
the central reason was to escape the elaborate worship style of the Church of England in
favor of a simpler, purer form of worship. And the focus of a Puritan worship service
was the sermon, a l-o-n-g sermon that would start in the morning and continue after a
break for lunch. So long that a deacon was appointed to make sure everyone paid
attention. If a head began to nod, the deacon went into action with his “beadle rod” … a
long pole with a hardwood ball on the end.
In this particular story, an elderly gentleman had nodded off. The deacon tapped him
on the shoulder with the pole; the gentleman snapped awake, straightened up, only to
have sleep return a few minutes later. The process was repeated several times.
Eventually the man is deeply asleep and snoring, everyone knows it, even the preacher,
who continues preaching undaunted. The dear man is so deeply asleep that the gentle
prodding by the deacon has no effect. The situation is serious. More aggressive
measures are required. The deacon strikes the man on the head, sharply. The man
rouses from his sleep and says, loud enough for all to hear, “He’s still talking. Hit me
again.”
The problem of trying to stay awake during worship is even older than the Puritans and
their long sermons, a lot older than that! How many of you had ever heard this story
about Eutychus before?
This is the first recorded incident in the history of the Christian Church in which a
young person is literally bored to death by preaching. It is a wonderful story, told
without embellishment in the twentieth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostle
Paul, Christianity’s first preacher, evangelist, and working theologian, traveled from
one end of the Roman Empire to the other in the years following the crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, telling the story first in synagogues, and then on street
corners and in the small communities of believers who had begun to gather regularly,
to talk about their new beliefs, to pray together, to eat a meal together to remember
Jesus as he had instructed, and generally to hold on to one another for comfort and
encouragement in a world that did not know what to make of them and would soon
turn against them.
A pattern for early Christian worship began to emerge: scripture was read from what
we call the Old Testament, perhaps interpreted by one of them. If there was a letter
from Paul, or from one of the other churches, it was read and discussed. They sang
hymns from the psalms, prayed, ate a meal together—a real meal—and they repeated
the words Jesus said at his last meal with his disciples, “Eat this bread, drink this wine,
in remembrance of me.” And then they went back into the night to their homes, back
into the world, to love and serve as Jesus had instructed his followers to do.
Some scholars classify this as a resurrection story; an episode in which Paul the
missionary demonstrates the power of the risen Christ by bringing this hapless young
man back to life. But maybe there’s more here than a vaguely humorous narrative with
a miraculous conclusion. Maybe it’s a cautionary tale for preachers who are overcome
with self-importance about what they have to say. Maybe it’s a parable about young
people and the church. If you read it that way, it’s a parable that gets reenacted week
after week in more churches than any of us would like to think. However… even
though in the story Eutychus is bored to death, maybe it doesn't have to be that way.
The setting for the story is Troas, on the coast of Asia Minor. It is an evening service,
since Troas has many disciples who are slaves, and as slaves, they are a congregation of
people who can’t get off for church during the day. It also happens to be the last time
these disciples will hear Paul, the visiting preacher, since he plans to leave in the
morning.
Whether marathon sermons were the norm or whether the occasion demanded a
lengthy farewell speech isn't entirely clear. But even the author of this story couldn’t
remember what Paul was talking about—a hint, perhaps, that the sermon was a bit over
the top. The visiting preacher may have been good, but after four hours, who could
remember?! And Eutychus wasn’t the only one having trouble staying awake,
apparently, since one of the details in the story is it was a well-lighted room. With all
those oil lamps, lit to keep people perky, this vesper service was fast becoming a
smoked-out lock-in.
So picture this. Over by the open window, sitting on the ledge, there’s a youth named
Eutychus who just can’t keep his eyes open any longer. I imagine he chose that
particular spot to get a breath of fresh air. The room must have been pretty stuffy. As
the poor lad begins to sink into a deep sleep (while Paul, as the text archly puts it,
“talked still longer”), his unfortunate choice of seats leads to disaster. He doesn't just
roll into the bushes from the first floor, which would make this a funny story; he falls
from the third floor, strikes the pavement, and is presumed to be dead. Instead of a
comedy, it’s turned into a tragedy: a young person literally bored to death by
preaching.
Preaching can be risky business too. The first time Jesus tried it, it almost got him killed.
He began his public ministry after his baptism and a harrowing time alone in the desert
during which he came to the conclusion that he would live his life for God. He began by
returning to Nazareth, where he grew up, where he was known, to the synagogue
where he sat with his father and learned to read and recite and sing the psalms. They
knew Jesus there, and they were proud of his learning and erudition, and so he was
invited to be the reader. He turned to his favorite passage in the book of the prophet
Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
“Isn’t that nice,” they said. They loved that passage: the messiah will come some day
and do all those wonderful things. It was a good day in the Nazareth synagogue. But
when Jesus sat down and began to interpret that passage, when it became clear that he
regarded these ancient words as his personal mission statement, the mood changed.
“Who does he think he is?” The more he talked, the more angry they became—so angry
that they drove him out of town and almost throw him over the cliff. Preaching
sermons, as well as listening to sermons, can be risky business.
But in this case, I don’t think it was the content of Paul’s sermon, but the length. It’s the
set up for the conclusion of the story in which Paul saves the day, rushing down to
where poor Ute lies splayed out on the pavement, takes him in his arms, and proclaims,
“There’s life in this lad yet!” After which they all return to the upper floor where they
spend the rest of the night eating and talking as if nothing had happened. End of story.
Right?
But there’s something appalling about the story. Several somethings, actually.

What is it about this preacher who drones on until the worship service has
become an all-nighter, and isn’t really aware of the condition (or interest!) of his
listeners?

Is it funny that a young person, so tired of the talk, would topple out a window
and die?

Or this… a worship service in which youth are relegated to the periphery, with
zero regard for their interest?
To read this story as either humorous or as if nothing unusual is happening, here, is to
turn a bemused and sleepy eye on long-winded preachers and the sleepy-eyed kids
they sometimes bore to death. To read this text as if resurrecting youth on the church
grounds is an everyday occurrence is to ignore the possibility that Eutychus was killed
because he was literally marginalized, and that it was the church's spectacular lack of
awareness that actually put him at risk in the first place.
Our theme this month urges us to get outside ourselves, to stretch and extend our
awareness beyond “our own little world.” The song by Matthew West that you heard at
the opening of worship suggests that many of us are here just “trying to stay awake,”
seldom asking “What if there’s a bigger picture? What if I’m missing out? What if
there’s a greater purpose outside my own little world?”
Those of us who gather here on Sunday mornings do so because it’s familiar, it’s
comfortable, maybe jarring some days, maybe comforting on others. We gather because
we know the other people who are likely to show up, and maybe being with them
encourages us, inspires us, to find our greater purpose. Maybe there’s something in the
worship… a word, a prayer, a song, a hymn… connects to what’s going on in the world.
But did you notice the youth sitting on the ledge. I don’t know why she’s there. I
suspect she’s checking her smartphone for a message, or maybe just trying to catch a
few winks, but she’s THERE. Something drew her to this place. Maybe she’s had a hard
week at school. Maybe her best friend just told her she’s cutting herself and she’s
troubled, not sure who she could tell, but worried sick that her friend is in serious
trouble. Maybe she’s being bullied. Maybe her parents are in a rough patch. I don’t
know what it is!
But she’s there. It could be that it’s the preacher’s job… no, make that the congregation’s
job… to STAY AWAKE—paying attention to who’s here and who’s not here, and to
bring God’s love to every deadly life situation… the threat of disease, the reality of
aging, the deterioration of a relationship, the end of secure employment. And to hold
those who are hurting in our arms to say, along with that first century preacher, that
there is no reason, ultimately, to be alarmed. There’s life in this place yet.