Rev. Tatiana Cantarella

Other texts: 1 Chronicles 29:10b-15, 18;  Philippians 3:7–14, 17–21

Acts 20:1–16

Journeying or sleeping

I do not know if you noticed, but one of the leitmotifs of the book of Acts is an ongoing journey: details the vicissitudes of the main characters – where they were, which islands they stopped at, where they sailed, what were they doing and so on. It is worth pondering why Luke takes such care of these details. The greatest epics of all times were based on the journey. Millions of people have read "The Lord of the Rings” by Tolkien or watched the movie on this book. Frodo and his friends go to Mount Doom to fulfill the mission that no one else can fulfill. But Tolkien is just a successor of the ancient and noble tradition of narratives about the world and human destiny in the form of a story about the journey. The greatest epic of the ancient world was a well-known "Odyssey" of Homer, in which, after a 10-year Trojan War, the famous hero Odysseus returns home to the island of Ithaca. His journey was long and difficult: many foreign lands, many trials and adventures, and only now exhausted and almost unrecognized he returned to his homeland. But many researchers have considered this whole journey of Odysseus, as an attempt to restore his true identity. There is a very important journey story also in the Old Testament: The exodus of Israel from Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land – the way home to what they were originally created to be. And although the geography of this trip is quite different: not a stormy Mediterranean Sea, as in Homer, but a dry and dusty desert, but like Acts, Pentateuch ends at the most intriguing place. And if we had no other books that followed, we would have died of curiosity: "What is next? Did they enter the Promised Land or not? Do they become who they were meant to be from the beginning?"

You see, most of us are lead a fairly sedentary life and rarely get out of the house for even a short vacation. One some of us spend their lives travelling and travelling. Yet almost everyone feels the power and appeal of such journey stories that compel us to reflect on our own journey, journey through time. Our entire life is a journey - journey fraught with many dangers and unexpected turns. We remember places we left in the past and think about where to go next. And all of us including those who live their whole life on the same street or in the same house still like books that help us to see our life in this light. That is why the theme of a journey, with all its vicissitudes and turns through which the people of God go to their destination and to the promised goal is so important to the author of Acts. Already at the beginning of the book Jesus sets out this theme in his Great Commission: "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (1:8). And although the story about the progress of the gospel can be an amazing illustration of the spiritual journey of every Christian, it also helps us to understand some of the deepest mysteries of life and death, slavery and freedom, and our calling that we encounter on this journey of life.

But suddenly, amidst all these journey stories, the spread of the gospel and of God's Mission, Luke, for some reason, puts a touching episode with Eutychus that entertains us but also says something very important about the life of the early church. You know, some people have brought their art to sleeping in the church to perfection. Some sleep at church rather openly: their head thrown back and mouth wide open. But there are others who have developed an amazing ability to fall asleep completely motionlessly. Their head is straight up and the mouth is closed. You are pretty sure that they are asleep, but cannot say anything, what if they are praying?J

When I first came to church I had no idea that such things happen. I loved to sit in the front row and was always completely immersed in what was happening in the service. I had no idea that someone was snoozing in the row behind me. But since I became a pastor and have been on this side of the room, I discovered an interesting sight. I'm not offended when people fall asleep in church because I know that our thoughts tend to move several times faster than our words. In my own head I can carry several streams of thought simultaneously. There are of course those who don’t carry any flow of thought. But I noticed that even while preaching I am able to think about something else at the same time. For example, looking around the room I see Nara and think: "she looks tired, I wonder what is going on in her life these days." Or notice Dasha and think "I need to talk to her after the service." I understand that sometimes people are just very tired and here they get a nice hour when they finally relax at the end of a busy week. Yet sometimes what is happening here at the pulpit is not that inspiring. And so I'm not particularly offended by those who fall asleep at church. It’s just sometimes church is going for too long.

I wonder if Paul was offended by those who fell asleep during his sermons? Apparently, Paul had many ideas and whenever he could he spoke as long as he could. So Paul and his coworkers arrived in Troas. They won’t be there long but they came together with local Christians in the evening service - since it was the first day of the week (Sunday, unlike Saturday was a normal working day then). The church gathered together in someone's house, and Paul preached and taught them. And he preached and preached and preached until midnight. Luke does not tell us what time the meeting began, but even if it started at 9 o'clock - service was already going on for three hours! Well seated in the window opening was a young man Eutychus - the patron saint of all who sleep at church. He had a long day of work, but Paul's keeps talking and poor Eutychus drifts into sleep. Perhaps many lamps and numerous candles burning there also were conducive to sleep and Eutychus crashed into deep sleep.

It's a great story because we can identify with him; we can identify so much more with his condition then with all those travel stories. We can all understand how he felt when the church was going too long. Yet suddenly this comedy turns into tragedy. Eutychus loses his balance and before we know it falls out of the window from an about seven-meter height. Everyone freezes and someone possibly cries: "He fell” while people are running down the stairs to this young man. Paul also runs. Of course he does, he had just killed someone with his sermon. When they all get down they discover that the boy is dead. Sometimes these words are understood as if he just passed out but Luke, the evangelist, was also a doctor by profession and he knew what he was saying - he stated the boy's death.

Undoubtedly, death would leave a tragic imprint on everything. But Paul (perhaps remembering the story about prophet Elijah) embraced Eutychus, as the prophet once embraced the only son of the widow, and a miracle happened. Life came back; resurrection trampled the power of death. Paul raises this young man and says: "Fear not, he's alive!” And everyone goes up and celebrates the Meal that proclaims the death and resurrection of Jesus himself (20:11). And then Paul continues to talk to them until the morning when it was time to leave.

It's a great story, but it does not seem to fit in this great epic "journey" and the advance of the Gospel and of the Church, does it? But let me suggest that it actually provides an important reminder to us about how much easier it is for us to "nap" in life rather than journey on the path of God to our ultimate destination. Here we are, AGAIN, gathered at the regular worship service. Life continues to march year after year, Christmas after Christmas, and Easter after Easter.

So sometimes for many people church has gone for too long and I do not mean the Sunday service. I mean "the Church" - the life of the church, the life of the people of God on this earth, waiting for the last day and the promise of resurrection. You see, when Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection He promised that he would return again to take His Church. And we know that this will happen but more than 2000 years passed since then. The church has gone for too long and so many are already fast asleep. Our church life has gone for a long time and our eyes are trying to close for a nap, and before we know it, we are deeply asleep. Sometimes it is death that gets to us and clasps our lives with its terrible claws robbing us of what the resurrection of Christ has given us. In the process of life tragedy can also befall us as suddenly as it happened in Acts 20. We are in the church, everything is going as usual but suddenly something happens, someone screams and shock of the tragedy absorbs the usual flow of life. And a young Christian person who was alive is stated dead – this statement is like a pounding of the judge’s gavel, as a slamming door, the end, death.

And suddenly we are speechless, standing in a daze. Death does this to people. Life does that to people. And I sometimes think that the "Church" has been going on for so long that many had fallen asleep. We have become insensitive to the fact that the message given to us today, because tomorrow we will probably wake up and everything will go on as before. Stress again, business again, pain again, disappointment again, difficulties again.

But there is a message for us today. The truth that could change our sleepy lives. There is a reality that can change the way we look at this world. This good news to us today is in the words of Paul: "Do not be afraid, he's alive!" I know that Paul spoke about a young man, but behind that miracle stands the greatest Miracle of all. When Christ was buried, and when it seemed that all was lost and sin and evil killed the only hope that we had – to be with God, it was not the end. God came down and embraced his son and on the third day He raised him and said to the world: "Do not be afraid, He is alive!"

Perhaps your life has dragged you into a false sense of contentment with the way things are. Maybe you still have not seriously thought about your part in ministry because you're not sure that life can be any different for you. But this great story of the hero's journey and his joyful arrival at his destination includes both moments of life and death, brotherhood and service, so does our life. And although it is hard to believe, but this earthly life with all it is will end. And when that day comes, I want to be sure that you know the Heavenly Father who raised Jesus from the dead and calls us to participate in the journey that leads to Life. I desire that in that day when you will especially need Him, on the day when you will breath your last breath and will step from this life into eternity, the Lord will say: "He is with Me," "She is with me", because He knows you for you travelled together on the journey called Life.

All of us are travelers on this path of life who are called with God’s help to wake up in order to see and understand the mysteries of life and death, slavery and freedom, suffering and joy, as well as our vocation on this journey called life. May the power of Christ's resurrection raise you today from a deep sleep, take you out of your "spiritual houses and streets" and open your eyes to the fact that you are called on the journey that leads to Life, participating in which we were all created for. That is what Paul wrote the Philippians: «But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body». (Phil. 3:20-21). We all are called to be a part of the great Epic of the People of God who do not only exist but travel on the journey of life towards their Eternal Home, calling others to join them in their return Home to their Heavenly Father. This is a life of a Christian, this is what a life of spreading the Gospel essentially is.