"Don't Snooze Away Your Faith"
The importance of worship and the power of faith
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Text: Acts 20:7-12
I want to let you in on a secret: There is one thing that preachers fear more than anything else in the whole world and that is for people to fall asleep during their sermons. It's like the minister who realized that many people were doing so because he preached for more than an hour at a time. Finally, in the middle of a service, he stopped and said, “Folks, I don't mind you looking at your watches during the sermon, but I really don't like it when you shake them to find out if they are still working!”
Today's text is one that most ministers would like to avoid. Paul is giving his sermon and a young man named Eutychus falls asleep in the middle of it. Luke tells us that Paul went on, and on, and on and that's why Eutychus fell asleep. There is no excuse - the lengthy sermon was the cause. However, in Paul's defence, Luke gives us some evidence suggesting that what Paul was saying contained important information. He tells us that all of this took place in Troas, a very famous city during the Roman Empire. In fact, it was so famous that Julius Caesar even thought of moving the governmental centre to Troas from Rome. Why? Because Troas had beautiful azure blue seas, granite temples, magnificent buildings and a warm, lovely Mediterranean climate. Troas, then, was a place of great importance.
The Apostle Paul went to Troas because he knew that if he met with this congregation even for a short while, it would have a huge impact on the Roman Empire. We read that Paul went to a house and started to preach. He had to leave the next day, so he had a very, very long sermon because he had an awful lot to say to the people of Troas.
Luke gives us another clue as to why young Eutychus fell asleep. We are told that he sat on the window ledge and there were oil lamps burning. Now, I want you to picture this: You are in a confined room with small windows, in a hot climate, late in the day and there are oil lamps being burnt for light. Don't you think it would get a bit stuffy and hot in there? I do. That is probably the reason Eutychus sat on the window ledge - to get some fresh air and try to stay awake during Paul's sermon. The room would have been full of smoke, hot, and without much air and Paul preached for a long time. All the circumstances were there for someone to fall asleep.
We could focus on the fact that Eutychus fell asleep or, as many commentators do, we can point out some positive things. These positive things are really what I want to talk about. They are three “don'ts,” but they are actually positive.
The first is: Don't underestimate the importance of being in church. We are told in this text that Eutychus was a slave and if you were a slave in Rome, you had to work very, very hard. Yet, he still found the time, even after a hard day's work, on the first day of the week to go and worship. In other words, even though he was tired and he'd had a long day, he made it. He wouldn't have fallen out of the window if he wasn't there, would he? He was there to worship and he knew that worship was really important. Being in a church and worshipping is important and sometimes we don't realize that there are people throughout the world who make huge sacrifices every Sunday to be able to be do what we do on Sunday mornings. Actually being here is important.
When I think of Eutychus, I am reminded of a man named Shargas who was our gardener at a church in South Africa. He lived about 1,000 kilometres from his family just so he could get work. One day when Shargas was a young man he stood on a landmine, which blew off the bottom part of his leg. He found it hard to work. He had a prosthesis that enabled him to walk, but he lived in Guguletu Township and his church, which he loved very much, was in a neighbouring township called Langa. The problem was that a highway divided these two places. Because the South African government was frightened of people moving from one township into the other, it put up very high fences so you couldn't cross the highway. Shargas had to walk five kilometres all the way around those fences every Sunday to go from where he lived to the place where he worshipped. Sometimes when he got to church, he was so sore and so tired and bleeding from the wound on his leg that he could hardly bear to sit through the rest of the service. But he was always there. On Monday mornings, when he came to work at our church, we often had to give him a stool to sit down on and time to rest. The one thing Shargas would never miss was his worship with his family of faith. It meant the world to him.
Sometimes, just being at worship matters. I want to congratulate the confirmands, because I know they have been getting up early on Sunday mornings to make it to the 9:15 a.m. services and providing leadership in this church. Don't underestimate the importance of just being here. And don't underestimate the importance of worship - not just this year but for the rest of your lives.
Another thing I don't want you to underestimate is the power of God. It is fascinating that, although Paul spoke a lot of words, it wasn't so much the words that really counted in this message. Eutychus fell out of the window, landed on the ground and was dead. Paul went down, picked him up, held him in his arms and he came back to life. Something miraculous happened. At a moment when it seemed everything was lost, this young man was restored.
There are parallels to this story in the Old Testament, in I Kings 17 and in II Kings 4, in which both Elisha and Elijah hold people up and they come back to life. In the Book of Acts, this is the eighth time someone comes back from death to life. All of this is a symbol of what the Christian Church is about. The Christian Church is about proclaiming death to life; it is about proclaiming sorrow to joy; it is about proclaiming defeat to victory; it is about proclaiming loss to love. All are based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I don't want you to underestimate the power of faith. I don't want you to underestimate the importance of what happens when we lay on hands and confirm you. I don't want you to underestimate the importance of Communion and the celebration of the death and the life of Jesus Christ. There is power in our faith - don't underestimate it!
The last thing I don't want you to do is to snooze your way through your faith. Faith is vibrant; it is exciting; it is powerful. It is not just for a day or a moment - it is for life. There are times in this world when there are many challenges. You can see them on the front page of the newspaper every day. From natural disasters, to crime, to wars, to inhumanity, to people turning on innocent people, to violence, there are all manner of problems in our world and you are going to face them, one way or another. You can either allow these things to so overwhelm you that you become cynical and don't have any real sense of hope, or you can have another attitude.
Neil Hetherington spoke at the Ontario Prayer Breakfast recently and told the story of something that happened to child rights advocate, Craig Kielburger. Kielburger met the great Desmond Tutu and talked with him privately. He said, “You know, I read the newspaper and all the stories and they overwhelm me. I feel that they have no hope. Do you have any advice for me? I hear all this stuff at school and it is overwhelming me!”
Tutu replied, “Look, I don't know what they are talking to you about at school, but these newspaper articles and all the things that are happening are simply God's daily to-do list.”
When we see challenges in the world, rather than letting them cause us to jettison our faith or snooze our way through it, see it as an impetus, as God's “to-do” list. How is God to do this list? God is to do this list through those that he has called, and empowered and confirmed - namely you!
I love something that the great Christian leader, C.S. Lewis, once wrote: “I believe in Christianity just as I believe in the rising of the sun. I not only believe it, but I see everything through it.”
In other words, see the world through the eyes of your faith. See the world at the point of its need through your faith. And in this place, just as Eutychus experienced, you might hear something that will encourage you to do God's “to-do” list. For Heaven's sake, if you find yourself snoozing through one of my sermons in the years ahead, remember this sermon and don't do it!
May the Lord be with you in this exciting venture of faith in a world that needs you, with a God who calls you and a faith that sustains you. Amen.