Wake up from Church

March 8, 2009

Today's Reading: Numbers 17-18 and Acts 20

You ever fall asleep in church? Yeah, I’ve done that a few times. I can proudly say that it is because I was up late the night before, not because the speaker was boring, but that has happened on occasion.

The Book of Acts describes a man named Eutychus who was sitting by the window, who “was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on”. He eventually succumbed to his sleep, and he fell three stories to his death.

Hopefully Paul did not wait until he was finished speaking before he raised him from the dead. I would hope that Pastors would not turn to the rest of the audience and say: “that’s what you get for falling asleep during my message”. In all honesty, that is always my fear when I fall asleep during a sermon, that the preacher is going to spotlight me. As far as I know, that has never happened.

It is so easy to ignore the miracle of this boy rising from the dead, and focus on the Christian faux-pas that he committed by falling asleep in church. I suppose that Eutychus is probably not feeling pretty good that he has gone down in history as the one who fell asleep during Paul’s sermon.

I wonder if that was on his mind when he passed away (the first time). “Oh terrific, I fell asleep in church and died. Oh, God is going to be so ticked at me. I hope he lets me in to heaven in spite of this.” Fortunately, God was merciful, and allowed the narcoleptic boy a second chance. Actually, even if God hadn’t chosen him to be raised from the dead, I’m pretty sure God would have allowed this man access.

However, Christians probably wouldn’t have. I wonder how long Eutychus had to hear: “hey, you going to go to sleep today” or some other creative form like “did you bring a pillow today, Eutychus”.

Ah, Christian people, they just love to joke around. Have you ever noticed how addicted they are to their own customs? I am willing to bet you that if this happened today in churches, its members would probably overreact. They would probably handcuff this guy to the window pane, “for his own protection, in case it happens again”. The result would be this man’s own humiliation, and not humility.

It is amazing how much Christianity is complicated by customs within it. Do you realize that all we need to do is just live for God. What does it matter what we look like, or what we do, provided it is not sin.

Do you want to be free? Start by not caring what other Christians think, but what God thinks.