I have complete sympathy with anyone who falls asleep in church, including those who might doze off during my sermon. I’m sympathetic because I’m prone in that direction as well. I can’t tell you how many times, not just in a worship service, but as a student in a class or a participant in a large business meeting and especially at home in front of the television I’ve felt my eyes droop then nodded off for a few minutes or even longer.
It is probably good that I am a pastor, or I would likely sleep in church more often than I do. Even being up front is not always a perfect preventive. The picture here is from our conference annual meeting last week, where I sat up front at the moderator’s table serving as parliamentarian. There’s not much to do in that role and I occasionally felt drowsiness steal over me. My wife Beth says she can see my heavy eyes in this picture.
So Eutychus in our text this week, Acts 20:7-12, is one of my heroes. Clearly, even listening to the Apostle Paul could get dull, as he went on and on trying to get in everything he wanted to say in one last sermon or teaching session in Troas. Eutychus dozed off in his seat in the window frame and fell to his death.
There are several warnings in Scripture about wakefulness, not the least our Lord’s own warnings about being awake and ready for His return, especially in the parable of the ten virgins. Bach’s famous cantata, Wachet auf, ruft uns die stimme, “Wake up, the voice is calling us!” is based on that text from Matthew 25:1-13. Eutychus is a living and dying illustration of those warnings!
Yet along with all those calls to be awake and alert, there are also calls to rest. After that four-and-a-half-hour meeting last Saturday, I had a five-hour drive home. That drowsiness, which might only embarrass me in a gathering with others, could kill me on the road. So I did the sensible thing. After an hour or so I pulled over into a rest area, parked, reclined my seat and went to sleep for a half hour. I woke refreshed, started the engine and continued down the road with eyes wide open.
Eutychus may be a warning about staying alert, but the miracle of his raising from the dead is also an assurance that our Lord will care for us even when we are deathly tired and have to rest. I’m not recommending that one doze off while driving, but I do see here a promise that God will watch over us at times when our own strength and wakefulness simply gives out. Even if we fail and our failures are deadly, there is resurrecting and restoring power in Christ our Lord.
So if you notice someone sleeping in church, let them be. If you doze off yourself, it’s O.K. The one who, as the psalm says, neither sleeps nor slumbers, is watching over us all, whether awake or asleep.