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“WHEN CHURCH GOES TOO LONG”

ACTS 20:7-12

There are some people who have taken falling asleep in church to the level of an art form. I’m resisting the temptation to name names. But you know who you are!
Some people who fall asleep in church are just blatant about it. The head falls back, the mouth flops open, and if you look closely, drool begins to flow from the corner of the mouth. That’s some people.

But then there are other people who have developed the amazing ability to fall asleep without moving much at all. The head stays straight, the mouth stays closed. You think they’re asleep but you can’t say anything because they could be praying! I’m resisting the temptation to name names. But I could!

Now for much of my life I didn’t know about this phenomenon. I grew up in a small church where my folks were both in the choir, so my brother and I sat on the front row or second row. My whole childhood I didn’t realize the display of snoozing that was going on behind me. But for the last twenty years or so, I’ve been on this side of the church – and it’s absolutely amazing. Now I’m not offended by people dozing off in church. In fact it can be kind of entertaining.

I realize that our minds are going several times faster than my mouth is going so we can actually have several streams of consciousness going at once. Of course there are some who seem to have no stream of consciousness going at all! But even I can think about other things while I’m preaching. I can be going along here and looking out and I think, “Boy, Dave sure looks beat up this morning. Wonder what happened to him?”
Or, “Oh, there’s Dick, I need to talk to him after the service.” And I understand that sometimes folks are just physically tired and this is the one hour of good rest they get in a week. And I understand that sometimes what’s going on up here is not the most engaging thing in the world. So I’m not particularly offended when folks fall asleep in church. Sometimes church just goes too long.

I don’t know if Paul was offended by folks falling asleep on him or not. He sure doesn’t seem to be because after this incredible incident is over, he just keeps on preaching.
Paul and his missionary group have come to a place called Troas. They aren’t going to be here long, but they are having a Sunday night service and Paul has a lot to say to this new group of Christians.

This is actually some of the earliest evidence we have that the first century Christians changed their day of worship from Sabbath (Saturday) to the Lord’s Day (Sunday).
Luke says that on the first day of the week, probably in the evening after everyone finished their first workday of the week, the church got together in someone’s house – in an upper room. They shared the Lord’s Supper together and Paul preached.

And he preached and he preached. Until midnight. Now Luke doesn’t tell us when this all started but even if it didn’t start until 9:00 that’s still one long service. So I don’t want to hear anyone complain when we sometimes go an hour and a half! Well seated up in the window, third story, is a young boy named Eutychus. The patron saint of all church snoozers.

Judging from the word used in the original language here he’s probably between 8 and 14 years old. It’s been a long day. And as Paul talked on and on (you get the feeling Luke thought it was pretty long too!) Poor Eutychus succumbs to drowsiness. It may have been aided by the fumes of the many lamps that were up in that room, I don’t know, but Eutychus is really out. Luke says he was sound asleep.

It’s a great story because it’s so common. We can all relate to church sometimes going too long. Yes, I can too! But suddenly this comedy turns tragic, when the precarious balance that Eutychus has worked out becomes upset and before he can catch himself he topples out of that window, and hits the ground some twenty feet below.

Everything stops, perhaps there’s a scream, someone yells, “He’s fallen.” And before you know it folks are running down to the fallen boy. Paul, the preacher, runs down. No kidding, he just killed somebody with his sermon!

When they got Eutychus they discovered that the fall had killed him. Some translators try to soften this story by saying “he seemed to be dead.” The language is clear. Doctor Luke intends to certify that Eutychus was dead.

So Paul, in a page taken from the story of the prophet Elijah, throws himself on the boy – just as Elijah threw himself on the corpse of the widow’s son. And a miracle happens. The life comes back. Resurrection sneaks in to steal death’s thunder. And Paul sits the boy up and says, “Don’t be alarmed, he’s alive.” Then they all went back and Paul kept preaching until morning. Can you believe that guy?

Great story, but you might be saying about now, “What happened to the angels, and stone rolling away from the tomb, and earthquakes and all of that? What does this have to do with Easter?

Just this. Here we are having Easter service, again. Year after year we do this. Some of you have seen decades full of Easters. Life marches on year after year, Easter after Easter. And sometimes church goes on too long. Oh, I don’t mean the service. I mean “church” -- the life of God’s people on this earth waiting for the ultimate resurrection day to happen.

See, when Jesus ascended into heaven just a few days after his resurrection he promised he’d be back to get the church. And we believe he will be, but it’s been nearly 2000 years. Church goes long.

And sometimes because it goes so long we can fall asleep. Our focus gets fuzzy, drowsiness sets in and before you know it we are sound asleep.

And sometimes death even sneaks in and wraps its clammy fingers around our lives and steals from us what the resurrection of Jesus was supposed to restore. And as this life goes along, tragedy can come on us as quickly as it did these people in Acts 20. We are at church. Things are going along as usual. Then someone slumps forward or a cry goes up, there is the shock, and tragedy engulfs the flow of the ordinary. A once vibrant young disciple is dead – the word is like a gavel coming down, a door banging shut, the end, dead.

We are suddenly rendered speechless, immobilized. Death does that to people. Life does that to people. I get the feeling sometimes that “church” has gone on so long many of us are asleep.

We’ve become numb to what the message of this day really is about because probably we’re going to wake up tomorrow and it’s just going to keep on going. More pressure, more demands, more pain, more disappointment, more struggle.

But there’s a message for us to hear today. There’s a truth that changes our sleepy lives. There’s a reality that transforms the way we look at everything and our very sense of place in this world. The message is the one spoken by Paul here: “Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive!” I know Paul was talking about the boy, but this miracle points to the greatest miracle of all.

That when it seemed all was lost and sin and evil had defeated the one hope we had of being reunited with God when Jesus died, that wasn’t the end of the story. Because God came down, threw himself on the Son and put his arms around him. And on the third day, he picked him up and said to the world, “Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive!”

Here’s what I’m wondering today: could it be that life has lulled you into a false sense of security? Could it be that you haven’t gotten very serious about serving God because it seems like things are going along just fine the way they are? It may not seem like it now, but one day (very soon) it will be over. And when it is, I want you to know the Father who raised Jesus from the dead.

So that on that day, when you need him most, on that day when you make the ultimate transition form this life to eternity, the Father will say, “Wait a minute, she’s mine. And because of your faith in Jesus Christ he will say to the angels of heaven, “Don’t worry, he’s alive!”

That’s the victory we are celebrating today. That’s the gift that is offered to you by God today. The gift of resurrection. It’s yours for the taking.

If you want it, just pray along with me now . . .