Bible Text: Acts 20:7-13 | Preacher: Pastor Karen | Series: Acts | Kind of a strange story?  Could be seen as a silly little story, right?

Why did Luke include this? Sometimes when I am reading the Bible, I spend time really thinking about the actual people who did the writing?  What was their purpose?  I mean Luke must have had so many experiences and heard so many stories.  What made certain stories impactful enough to make it worthy of writing them down?

 

What stories would you include in your life story if you were to write it?  What conversations would be included?  What experiences?  What vacations?  What people would be included?  Probably those times or people who had a big impact, right?  Those stories that others might relate to?  Those stories that might teach or inspire someone else who was reading it? Those stories that would tell people about something that is or was important to you?  Let’s look for Luke’s reason for including this story.

 

Let’s look at the situation Luke describes a little closer.

 

It’s the first day of the week- Sunday, a clue that they were worshipping then, not on the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday.  Which meant that most if not all of the people there had worked all day long and were now, in the evening, coming to “church”.  (Wait there was church at night?!)  Many of the people there might have been servants who had worked in the sun all day doing physical work.  They were probably already tired.  Paul was leaving the next day on a tight schedule so people wanted to hear everything he had to say.  He taught and preached and taught and preached for many hours, even until midnight.

 

The meeting room was likely in the very top floor of a house- Luke tells us 3 stories up.  We know that heat rises so there were big windows to allow air to circulate.  Luke tells us that there were lamps burning.  These would have been oil lamps which put off strong fumes and pulled the oxygen from the room in order to stay lit.  Can you picture it?  A crowded, dimly lit and warm room with the strong fragrance of whatever oil was burning the lamps.  Maybe Eutychus was searching for some fresh air to both breathe easier and to cool off.  Maybe there weren’t any other seats up front by the time he got there. Either way, we see him perched on the window sill, late at night, full from eating, hot, tired and overcome by the fumes and the dancing flickering lights of the lamps.  And he falls asleep! And then falls out of the window to the ground!

 

Why would Luke tell a story about someone falling asleep?!

 

It got me to thinking about sleep. For sure, we all need sleep, we all need rest.  Our bodies were made to need rest.  Our muscles re-oxygenate, our heart rate and blood pressure drop which gives our heart, lungs and other organs a little break,  Rest prompts our bodies to release hormones that reduce inflammation and encourage healing.  We have all seen the research about how many mistakes people make when they are tired, which has led to the limitations on how long truck drivers can be on the road, surgeons in the OR or air traffic controllers in the towers.

 

So, I am not here today to tell you we should not rest or that sleep is bad.  God created the Sabbath for rest.  The 4th commandment tells us to keep the Sabbath holy.  We are commanded to rest.  And we know from the Gospels that even Jesus himself needed sleep and then actually slept.

 

But, have you ever fallen asleep when you are just, or too comfortable, or warm and cozy, or the room is dark?  I love those new movie theater seats that are recliners, but boy they encourage sleep!  Feet up, dark, comfortable and sometimes I can’t even concentrate on the movie I really want to watch!  It happens!

 

Eutychus was sitting in the window, comfortable, mesmerized by the flickering lights and fumes of the lamps.

 

Paul was teaching!  Paul, the man who was messenger of the Gospel was there, just for one day!  There were things to learn, messages to hear, a new lifestyle to embrace.  I imagine Eutychus really wanted to hear Paul.  Eutychus should have been able to stay awake, you would think!  But, for some reason he falls asleep.

 

Jesus has a lot to say about sleeping!  He warns in many parables about the downfalls of falling asleep.  If the master of the house falls asleep, the intruder can break in, if the bridesmaids fall asleep they miss the bridegroom, if the servant who was charged with watching the house is sleeping when the master returns …uh oh!  And what happens when Jesus leaves the disciples in the Garden on the night of his betrayal,  they fall asleep and he is so disappointed.

 

Jesus is not telling us to be unhealthy.  He is not telling us not to rest, to recover, to take care of ourselves.  He is telling us not to doze off, not to lose sight of what is important, not to stop looking for God, not to get complacent, not to fall asleep because we are just too comfortable, too mesmerized by what is around us, or because we have stopped noticing what is going on around us.

 

Jesus is telling us to PAY ATTENTION!  There is work to do, there are things to hear, there are changes all around us.  There is injustice, there is marginalization, there is prejudice and discrimination, there is idol worship and there are people who don’t know Jesus as their personal Savior.

 

How have you fallen asleep?  Have you reduced or stopped your Bible reading or prayer time?  Have you been making excuses for not coming to worship?  Have you been doing the same things in church for more time than you can remember?  Have you only talked to the same people in church each Sunday morning?

 

There is trouble when we do this kind of sleeping. Even if we justify it as dozing off.  Taking a break from God is not an option.  When we stop paying attention, it does not only impact us as individuals.  How have we as a church, a community or a society dozed off or fallen asleep?

 

Have we fallen asleep to the needs of our young people?  Have we left the job of their moral and ethical upbringing and their mental health to others?

 

Have we fallen asleep to the unseen needs of our community?  Have we forgotten that there is homelessness, joblessness, domestic abuse, sexual harassment?

 

Have we fallen asleep to the atrocity of mass shootings or any shooting for that matter?  Has it become OK if only one person is shot and killed?  Is it only awful if kids are shot at a school?  Do we cry when first hear about it, but move on the next day?

 

Have we fallen asleep to the injustice of poverty?  Have we forgotten that minimum wage does not mean a living wage and people in our own community are choosing between rent and groceries?

 

If we remember what happened to Eutychus, we know that this kind of sleeping leads to death!  Physical death in the case of Eutychus, and perhaps spiritual death in our case.

 

God doesn’t want us to get used to injustice, or poverty, or abuse of power.  God doesn’t want us to doze off and then fall asleep for so long that we suffer such separation from God that we die.  Romans 6 tells us the wages of sin is death.

 

But, there is good news!  Eutychus didn’t stay dead! Paul runs down the steps to get to Eutychus.  An interesting language lesson.  Luke uses the same verb for run in this story as he does when he describes the father running to meet his son in the Prodigal Son story.  Running was not socially acceptable, but both men in both stories had important work to do..they had to run!

 

Paul lays across Eutychus and yells “Do not be alarmed!  He is alive”.  Paul brings Eutychus back to life!  He does way more than wake him up.  He raises him from being dead.

 

Good thing Paul was there, right? To bring life back to young Eutychus.

 

OK, I am not thinking that many of us have been brought back from being dead and I am sure that even less of us have been able to bring someone back from being dead, as much as we begged, tried and prayed.

 

I wonder though if we can help each other from falling asleep in the first place.  Now, I know you are probably thinking maybe Paul’s really long preaching was partially responsible for Eutychus’ slumber.  It reminds me of a joke about a husband and wife who came to church every week, and every week, the man fell asleep during the sermon.  The pastor finally had had enough week and from the pulpit, spoke to the woman asking her to keep her husband awake.  She replied, “You wake him up, you put him to sleep!”

 

But anyway!  What if we felt responsible to each other to help each other from dozing off?  What if we supported each other?  What if we noticed the things that might cause us to doze off and do something about it?

 

Is our worship always the same?  Are our ministry opportunities always the same?  Do we sing the same hymns?  Hear the same message?  Contribute to the same causes?  Talk to the same people?

 

We have to help each other pay attention to God!  Have you noticed that someone hasn’t been to church for a while?  Can you give them a call?  Have you noticed that someone has lost their joy in serving on a certain committee or with a certain ministry?  Can you encourage them to try something new?  Have you noticed that the same people are doing the same jobs in the church?  Can you raise your hand and offer to help?

 

There is so much work to do, isn’t there?   It is easy to feel like we can’t make a difference on our own. It is easy to wonder how can I even begin to combat some of the injustices I see in the world.   It is easy to get tired just thinking about it!

 

I love the story we read from Exodus today.  Joshua was getting ready to fight a difficult, if not impossible, battle.  Moses knows he can influence the outcome by standing on the mountain with his staff in his hands and his arms outstretched.  As long as his arms were raised, Joshua was winning.  But, when Moses got tired, and dropped his arms, Joshua and his men would begin to lose.  Aaron and Hur were there with Moses on the mountain.  What was their role?  To hold Moses’ arms up, to support his arms when he got tired…

 

We all need Aarons and Hurs in our lives right?  To help hold us up?  We all need Moseses in our lives? To raise their hands to support us?  We all need Pauls in our lives?  To come running to take care of us when we are in trouble!  And we need to be those to others as well!

 

We need to help keep each other awake.  Sometimes summer can be a time that encourages us to relax too much, to doze off, maybe even to begin to fall asleep.  I hope you have used your time to rest, relax and renew.  But, it’s time to wake up!  God is speaking to us, individually and as a church! There is work to do!

 

Amen.