Acts 20:7-12 “Asleep in Church”

You may recall last week that I shared about how it was that the Holy Spirit had laid Paul flat, knocked him down to the greater plan, had him prostrate before God’s Will for his life. I also mentioned that this was the height or epitome of Paul’s healing ministry, and we get this incredible story of how Saint Paul by laying his life atop another person brings that person back to life! This whole scene begins with a fellow falling asleep in church!

This raises the big question for us this morning: Is it okay to fall asleep during the sermon if it leads to resurrection? This brings back memories of a dear man who was a parishioner in the church I served in Los Angeles. His name was Dick Brown. He was really a great man. He had actually been a colleague of my father’s at Parsons Architectural firm. He would always fall asleep during the sermon time. I got used to that. He was elderly and felt comfortable enough to close his eyes and let the Spirit come to him in dreams!

The problem with good old Dick Brown was that he would start sleeping with his chin resting on his own chest but then would shift somewhat sideways and back. At that point he would invariably begin to snore. Then his wife Clara would jab her elbow into him, and he would startle awake with a snort. So, I always knew when I had been preaching too long. And, I believe the rest of the congregation appreciated Dick’s snoring. He was a great distraction.

Strangely enough, it was Dick Brown’s wife Clara who did actually die in church one Sunday. She just stroked out. One minute she was there, the next minute her head flopped and she was gone. The organist played amazing grace as the First Responders loaded her into the ambulance to take her up to UCLA emergency room where her death was pronounced.

We had some debate after that in the church among members whether it was a good thing to die in church. We all decided pretty much that it would be acceptable for God to call us home while we are in prayer or in hearing the Promise of Life Eternal through Jesus.

Back to the bible before you all start snoring! Paul is now in Troas. You may remember that this is Luke’s hometown. So, we read the story with the first-person-plural pronoun of we. Luke is actually reporting directly what he saw and experienced. This is a first-hand account of an actual resurrection. The fellow who falls from the window is named Eutychus. This name literally means fortunate–consider the irony in that falling out of a window is assumed to be a most unfortunate thing.

Now, throwing people out of windows to get rid of them is not a new thing at all. In the bible we can read about Jezebel being thrown out of the window (2 Kings 9:30-37). That was really quite messy and probably deserved. Roman emperors were always throwing people out of palace windows. This very much continued throughout the Middle Ages and right into modern Russia. More than a dozen persons have been thrown from windows since 2014, all of whom had some connection to the Kremlin. This has been jokingly nicknamed “Sudden Russian Death Syndrome.” My favorite defenestration (Yes, there is an English word for it) is when the Russian army invaded Poland back in the 1840’s and threw the composer Frederic Chopin’s piano out the window. Have you not ever wondered why Frederic Chopin liked to compose in B Flat minor? True story!

What exactly is happening when Eutychus falls asleep and drops out of the window three floors? We need to read the bible very carefully here. It is the day of the Sabbath after the Jewish passover it says. You have to read verse 6 to get the part about the Passover. Then, the word “to gather” here is actually “synagoging.” They were worshipping the Sunday after Passover, which of course is Easter! They did not have a word for Easter back then. Just the same it is the Day of Resurrection, and everyone was in church (which was the synagogue back then). All the lamps were lit. The wine was flowing. Nobody was sleeping that night.

Saint Paul, it should be noted, is not preaching at the time that Eutychus falls asleep and drops out of the window. He is “dialoguing.” That is exactly what the Greek says. The way it reads here in our English it leads us to believe that he was giving a speech or a sermon. Only in verse 11, that is after raising Eutychus from death, that he is preaching as the Greek word “homoletizo” implies. By the way, we get the English word “homeletics” from this Greek term. Homiletics is the art of preaching a homily, a sermon.

After last week’s worship, and after eating that really great fellowship meal with the wiggly jello, four of us hung out and dialogued about biblical things, church tradition, and the like. It went on far longer than my sermon last week. Worship ended at 11am. At 1pm we were still conversing in this group. We were arguing and making points, sharing ideas and understandings. Others around us were sadly outside of the conversation. They were picking up chairs and putting the tables away. Finally, it became apparent that our continued dialogue was stopping others from going home.

Nobody really wants to listen to other people arguing! If you are not in the argument, then it becomes annoying. This is what, on top of Passover wine, that Eutychus is hearing. He is not falling asleep during the Easter Sermon. He is already outside of the topics being discussed. So, he falls asleep because nobody is talking to him anyway, and he is not following the dialogue.

Saint Paul and others rush down to the first floor where Eutychus is now laid flat. The men around him determine him to be dead. Paul, however, takes the body in his arms and proclaims that the “life is still in him.” But, as always, that is a really shaky translation. There are different words in Greek for “life,” to be sure. This word that is used here is none of them in regular use. The word here is “psyche,” or the “spirit” of a person. What Luke is recording here is that Paul knows that the body is dead, but that the inner spirit has not left yet for heaven.

How does that work? I have never honestly experienced this, or maybe I should say that I have experienced this but in reverse. I do recall being in ICU with a family once with a grandmother who was being kept alive by extraordinary means. She was on a breathing machine. She had a feeding tube. The family asked me while I was visiting with them and about to pray if I sensed if her spirit were still in the body. They were all convinced that the body was already without the spirit; the spirit had ascended already. I concurred. I had no sense that her spirit, that I had known personally to be quite strong and steeped in faith in God, was still attached to the biological life that was being supported mechanically.

Just a little bit of back story here, I have been in the room on many occasions when a person had died and I could absolutely feel the spirit leaving the body. In fact, I find such moments to be profoundly faith affirming. Maybe in your life you have sensed the spirit outside of the body? I actually think you can have an “out-of-body” experience without dying. I personally believe that spirits have lives of their own with no great need to be connected to the physical limits of a body.

So, Saint Paul tells the crowd, “let me just heal him. His spirit is still here.” Remember Paul has been engaging in many healing miracles in the name of Jesus while in Troas.

Now, I want you to consider how fortunate Eutychus really is! He has a strong spiritual life that survives even death! We do not have any biblical back story on Eutychus; however, we know that he is willing to spend all night in worship, praying to God, taking sacraments, and hearing God’s Word. He is so alive in the Spirit that he is willing to literally find a place on a window sill in a crowded room.

Like so many of us Christian believers, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Saint Paul sees this in him and knows that healing the body is the easy part of faith healing! Healing a person’s spirit can be the real hard part. The real miracle today is healing another’s spirit!

The funny thing about the tsunami warning this last week that I saw was that I came here to the church to see a line of cars parked here, but the people were nowhere to be seen. I have no idea who owned the cars. The people were just seeking higher ground for their cars. You know, that is okay. Yet, I want to offer a higher ground for their spirits! I want people to come to the church not just to save their vehicles! Save your spirits here!

The bible says that Saint Paul laid down over Eutychus to bring him back from the dead. Last week I talked about how the Holy Spirit laid Paul flat upon the Spirit’s plans for him. Here he is being laid flat again. So, it was not Paul that gave life back to Eutychus; it was faith in Jesus Christ with the power of the Holy Spirit. So on that Easter, we see a miracle happen. We see that we all can call on the power of Christ’s resurrection to heal others.

Eutychus is fortunate! You know he will never fear death again in his life. “Been there, done that!” And now he has a witness to others that can lead them to that higher ground, to that spiritual life. What an incredible witness to have!

I ask you all this day to consider the spirit that makes you alive! Amen